If you read manga in book format, you probably want more. And why not? Manga rocks! But a lot-and I mean a lot-of the good stuff isn't always available in print in English. But thanks to a ton of bilingual fans, there is plenty of manga available on the Internet for those of us who want to read manga online!

There are online manga sites listed here to get your started, and a steady listing of sites posted on www.read-manga-online.com.

For those who are into anime and just starting to check out manga, dip your foot in the pool! Most popular anime is based on manga--print versions--of your favorite series. And while anime is great, check out the lastest manga sometime. In this format, the stories and graphics tend to have more detail and more nuance than animators can fit into the short running time of anime.

Getting It On (line)

A lot of manga gets to the Internet via "scanlation" (this is a combination of the words scanned and translated). Scanlations are often done to translate manga to a language it never would be in otherwise like English or French.

Scanlations are generally made available for free via the Internet, either by direct download from various Websites or peer-to-peer networks like BitTorrent. On those sites where you have to pay, some let your subscribe for a fee and others let you pay one price to download one book.

Scanlation originally started as fan projects, and most still are. Fans would translate the manga for others because there were so few commercial releases on manga in the West and importing manga was difficult. A lot of fans would organize into manga groups and offer all their collective scanlations on their own webpage and channel for downloading files. When larger companies like Del Rey, Tokyopop and Viz saw the popularity of scanlations, they too started offering their own manga titles online. Now, there are quite a few Web sites around that offer manga online.

Recent years have been marked by an explosive increase in the number of groups and consequently, scanlated manga available to read online. Several sites list daily releases and maintain databases on projects and scanlation groups. These sites can be used for tracking releases, searching by genre, looking for synopses, and so on. Let's start you off with a few:

• Mangavolume.com is a major index for online manga that is easy to read. The home page lists all the newest stuff. Click on the Manga Directory to see the list of series or there is a little blue search bar that's kind of hard to see right about the list of series. Use that to find exactly what you want. When you click on a series, then click on an issue in that series, the manga opens up right in your browser-no downloading.
• SimpleManga.com - is as the name implies, simple to use. Click on the manga you want to see, then click on the issue to read. The site gives you clear instructions on how to use it to read the manga. It displays it right in the browser. The search engine doesn't work yet. But you can easily scroll through alphabetical lists.

• OneManga.com - lots of channels are offered here, very easy to view the manga. If you go to the directory, you see listing for much manga, even some of the very popular stuff.
• Stoptazmo.com - this is a forum with links to download manga. You have to register on the forum to become a member (free). Once registered, click on the manga you want, click on the link for which issue to download. It downloads a zip file on your computer. So the upside to this-you don't have to be online to read it manga. However, the downside is you do have to download files to your computer. Also, once you unzip the manga file, the manga is in a PNG file format. Windows usually can automatically open them (using Windows Picture Viewer) if you double click on them. If you have difficultly, you can always download a free PNG viewer from download.com.
• TokyoPop.com - Since they actually license a lot of manga in the US, their offerings are for profit-get out your wallet to view online manga. However they do make many of their manga available online.

More online manga sites updated on www.read-manga-online.com.