Manga vs Manhwa vs Manhua vs Webtoon: The Differences Explained

Manga (漫画) is the Japanese word for comics. Most manga are serialised chapter by chapter in weekly or monthly magazines, then collected into paperback volumes called tankōbon. Because they are printed cheaply in large numbers, they are drawn in black and white, with grey tones made from dot patterns called screentone.

Japanese is traditionally written and read from right to left, so manga is too: you start at the top right of the page and read each row of panels from right to left. Speech bubbles are tall and narrow because the original lettering runs vertically. Visual shorthand such as speed lines, sweat drops and big expressive eyes comes from manga.

Manhwa (만화) is the Korean word for comics. Printed manhwa used to look a lot like manga but read left to right. Since the early 2000s most manhwa have been published online as webtoons: full-colour, one long vertical strip per episode, read on a phone.

Modern action manhwa have a recognisable look: cinematic wide shots, glowing effects, painted colour and on-screen "system windows" in stories where the hero levels up like a game character. Romance and drama series often use softer palettes and slower pacing with lots of white space.

Manhua (漫画 / 漫畫) is the Chinese word for comics, used for work from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The three words manga, manhwa and manhua are written with the same two characters, just pronounced differently. Hong Kong manhua has a long tradition of colour martial-arts comics, and today many manhua are digital and full colour, often in vertical scroll.

Popular manhua genres include cultivation stories (a hero training to become an immortal), wuxia (martial-arts heroes) and xianxia (fantasy with immortals and magic).

A webtoon is a comic made to be read by scrolling down on a phone. Instead of pages of panels, there is one long strip, and the space between panels sets the pace: a big gap is a pause, a tall panel is a fall. The word comes from Korea, where the format took off, but webtoons are now made all over the world, in English, Spanish, Indonesian, Thai and more.

So "webtoon" and "manhwa" overlap but aren't the same thing. Most new Korean manhwa are webtoons, but an American artist's vertical comic is a webtoon without being a manhwa. Read the webtoon size guide if you're making one.

• If you love black-and-white art and long-running stories, start with manga. There is a manga for every age and taste.
• If you read on your phone, webtoons and manhwa are built for it: colour, quick episodes, easy to binge.
• If you want to make your own, pick the format first, because it changes how you lay out the story. A manga page is planned spread by spread; a webtoon or manhwa episode is planned as a scroll.