Manga

Manga are comic books published in Japan.

Manga are typically black and white comic books which read from right to left. They are published in Japan by various Shonen (boys) magazines, such as TV Magazine and Comics Bon Bon. The Transformers have almost always had a consistent manga series in every line.

Transformers manga series and specials

Generation 1

• Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformer
• Scramble City
• The Transformer (featuring Transformers 2010 characters
• Transformer Big War
• "Great Decisive Battle of the Beast Lifeforms" (Transformers/Battlebeasts special)
• Transformer Headmasters
• Transformer Super God Masterforce
• Transformer Victory
• Transformer Zone
• Transformer Battlestars
• Transformer Operation Combination (Story pages-only)

Generation 2

• Generation 2

Beast Wars

• Beast Wars Metals
• Beast Wars II
• Beast Wars Neo

Unicron Trilogy

• Transformer Micron Legend
• Transformer Superlink
• Transformer Galaxy Force

Mail-Away specials

Many of the lengthier manga stories were mail-away specials. The first Transformer mail-away special was the Scramble City manga. Others include the Battlebeasts special and the Battlestars special.

Continuity

The Generation 1 manga acts as both a suppliment to the television series as well as an alternate telling, depending on the line. "Fight! Super Robot Life" and "2010" takes place in the same universe as the cartoons, often filling in continuity gaps or continuing occassional storylines. "Headmasters", "Masterforce" and "Victory" are alternate tellings of the storyline and do not take place in the same animated universe. However, "Zone" through "Generation 2" take place in the animated universe, picking up after the end of the Victory anime.

The Beast Wars mangas are all alternate timelines from the television series.