#80 Manga

It's still premature, but this Japanese variation of the comic book could be the medium's salvation. Comic books sales have been on a steady decline since the boom of the late '80s. But things are starting to change. The hottest selling comic book right now isn't Spiderman or the X-Men, but an American edition Shonen Jump. The ultra-thick collection, which includes serialized tales of kid faves Yu-Gi-Yo and Dragonball Z, is selling more than any comic has in 20 years. Part of manga's success could be in that much of it is sold in collections (which take a little while to read) as opposed to the traditional leaflet-style comic pamphlet (which you can finish in a heartbeat). Viz, the company who publishes Shonen Jump and many other best sellers, may abandon printing monthly issues in favor of bound collections. Personally, I don't care how comics are published. The fact that kids are reading comics again is a great relief to me. Thanks to manga, the love of comics will survive at least one more generation. By the way, my current manga faves are Astroboy, Lone Wolf and Cub, Uzumaki, Phoenix: A Tale of the Future and Lupin III.