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Volume 2 “Manga and Platforms” - Call for Papers
The Manga Studies journal is excited to announce the Call for Papers for our second volume, “Manga and Platforms”.
Manga Studies is an open-access online journal published yearly, dedicated to making available scholarly works on Manga in all its variations and related (sub)cultures. As of today, we are accepting submissions for our second issue “Manga and Platforms”, to be made available in 2026.
We encourage authors to contribute with submissions addressing the ways in which platforms—as in the venues for the creation, distribution, and consumption of “content”—might influence Manga in its representational styles and techniques, as well as the impact they could have on this medium’s history. Submissions covering other topics or themes are also welcomed.
For more information about the submission and publication process, please check the Submission Guidelines and the Peer-review Process.
Deadline for submissions: Jan. 31th 2026
Click here to make your submission.
“Manga and Platforms”
Manga is a reproducible art form and, as such, its format is directly linked to the systems that make and distribute it. For example, printed manga available through bookstores are usually structured in multiples of four pages, calculated from the 16-page signature that forms the basic unit of binding. However, in today’s environment, where production, distribution, and reading have gone fully digital, this convention has begun to break down, and works with an odd page count—once rejected or requiring special treatment—have become increasingly common on digital distribution platforms.
This change is but one example of why the shift to digital can no longer be simply framed as a question of “print or digital”. Readers can now choose between checking their favorite series’ latest chapter using apps screened by Google or Apple, or buy entire volumes (print and digital) on sites like Amazon. The same holds true even for non-commercial works (dōjinshi), with many popular digital-only titles being released every day. Moreover, this environment also breeds new manga whose format and content are adapted to the characteristics of each platform.
Interestingly, as digital consumption becomes the norm, we seem to relive a phenomenon thought to be left in the (analog) past: the discourse and the fear surrounding the so-called “harmful books.” This time, however, unlike the 1950s movement against “bad books,” the calls for banning and regulation come not from the police, nor government authorities, but rather from private companies—namely, online stores, payment systems, and credit card corporations such as Visa and Mastercard.
With the ever-growing power and influence of digital platforms deciding what gets to be published or not, which styles or themes get to be visible or not, which stories get to be told or not, how will manga change, and how should artists, vendors and consumers alike respond to such changes? These are just some of the many questions we would like to address in the second volume of the Manga Studies Journal.
Special issue editor: Tetsuya Matsushita.