Mangaman

From the dust-jacket...

Sci-fi adventure meets love story — and East meets West — in Mangaman, an original graphic novel for teenagers.

Ryoko, a manga character from a manga world, falls through the Rip into the “real” world — the Western world — and tries to survive as the ultimate outsider at a typical American high school.

When Ryoko falls in love with Marissa Montaigne, the most beautiful girl in the school, his eyes turn to hearts and the comic tension tightens as his way of expressing himself clashes with this different Western world where he is stuck. “Panel-holed” for being different, Ryoko has to figure out how to get back to his manga world, back through the Rip . . . all while he has hearts for eyes for a girl from the wrong kind of comic book.

A metafictive masterpiece in which manga meets traditional Western comic book style, with artist Colleen Doran combining manga techniques and conventions with Western comic book storytelling to create a unique, seamless — though not Ripless — graphic novel hybrid that is by turns hilarious and heartbreaking.

Download the sample chapters (PDF)!
Large file (8.3MB) | Small file (4.6MB)

Available now: Amazon | Indiebound | Barnes & Noble | Comic Book Stores (Code: JUL111128) 

"A daring piece of graphic-novel meta-fiction explores the tropes of manga versus Western comics."
--Kirkus (starred review!)

"...a fun, inventive story with steady dialogue and pacing. It also has great potential for discussion in terms of format, genre, and style for teen graphic-novel book clubs."
--Booklist

"Fantastic--in every sense of the word! Lyga and Doran have created an eye-popping fun-ride through the comics traditions of East and West. Fans of both comics and manga will love Mangaman. Colleen Doran’s encyclopedic, rapid-fire grasp of manga conventions blows my mind!"
--Jeff Smith, creator of Bone

"It doesn't matter if, like me, you're utterly unfamiliar with most manga.  This is a wonderful, funny, touching story about the ultimate outsider seeking adventure and love within the borders that surround us all.  There's some seriously innovative storytelling going on here, and the artwork is sensational.  If you're looking for a fun read, a romp, a rollicking good time...then seriously: buy this book."
--J. Michael Straczynski, New York Times Bestselling author of Superman: Earth One