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If you like manga then you will like manhwa, Korea's version of the very popular art form, with Korea's own cultural twist. Like manga, manwha's art is in black and white. Like in Japan, manhwa is published in weekly magazines, and then compiled into multi-volume anthologies. Other than these few similarities, manhwa differs in story structure and content.
According to Jung-woo Sohn, webmaster of a manhwa fan site, "Japanese Manga is usually composed of short episodes. Each episode has complete story structure. But that's not the case with Manhwa. Manhwa is composed of chapters. Manhwa is like (a) novel, while Manga is similar to the structures of a(n) omnibus story".
But unlike manga, manhwa is virtually unknown the non-Korean literate person. An online search may result in no hit at all for manhwa, and less than a handful of English sites. So how is the average English speaking person going to get their hands on a translated copy of manhwa?
Go to Comicseries.com. Comicseries.com is an comic book portal, designed to allow you to read online up too two hundred and ten pages of a manhwa series for the cost of dialing up your modem-in other words its FREE!
Each page is set up like a manga compilation. Readers can use the arrows at the bottom of the page to turn or surf from page to page. If for some reason you have to stop reading and sign off, Comicseries' has a "bookmark" a little space that allows you to type in the page number and automatically continue the story where you left off. And if your browser can view pages offline you can the series' offline.
Currently there are nine manhwa series available; ranging from fantasy to romance, here are brief synopsis' for each story (synopsis adopted from Comicseries'web site):
This is the story of Ellie Jee, a Korean girl raised in England, is forced to share her father's home, with an infamous British movie star. Ellie becomes wrapped up in the world of celebrity glam and scandal, and on the way begins to fall in love.
An indulgent girl named Helen, has two guys who want her, and they all live on the same block!
A real Romeo and Juliet love story. Two opposing Mafia bosses children, Elio and Yvette are in love, but the twist to the story is Yvette's brother is also in love with her!
Is the story about the Prince of Heaven, Myung, who is quite the playboy. The many angels he has offended in Heaven want him out! So his father the Head God, splits Myung in half, into a boy and girl. And in order for Myung to get into Heaven is to make his two halves fall in love.
Based in ancient Persia, this story tells the tale of an ancient Kingdom ruled by a queen, called the Les Manu. The story begins with the coronation of a new Les Manu, and the tragedy that occurs between the queen and her sister.
Just Like a Movie-is the story of young man looking for love, but never seems to find the perfect woman, none are the way he wants them too be.
This is the story of a legendary martial artists named Dong-Tae, and his tomboy girlfriend Hesoo, who are both super strong, and always involved in super adventures.
An erotic comedy about four best friends in love with one woman, and there attempts to win her love.
Is a story about two members of a national junior soccer team who each want success.
Ji-man is a young man who is trying to find the perfect girl, but somehow none of them meet his criteria.
Now, once you finish reading your first manhwa series you will definitely want to read another series. To do so just click on the Pay-Per-View link to access ComicSeries' secure credit card site to read the next issue. The cost to read another compilation of a series for seven days for five dollars and fifty cents (US). Now if you become obsessed, and need to read more than one series at time, Comicseries' has a special that allows you to read up to three series for seven days, for only thirteen dollars and fifty cents (US).
While I really like this site, it does have several drawbacks, nothing major. First, this is a graphics dependent site. How large the pages appear on the screen will dependent on your monitor and browser size. So there maybe some scrolling, down and across for some of you. But pages will load quickly since the art is in black and white. Also, please be advised that at time when reading there will be points when you may find the story a little confusing because the English translations are little rough, meaning they may not make sense. But this is very rare, and such situations are rare, and will not inhibit your fun!
Like my article? Drop me a line and let me know what you think about the series on Comicseries.com's site! And if you know any Manhwa series you would like us to cover please e-mail me at Bandwidth@ybfree.com