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/Beastformers special)
- Transformer Headmasters
- Transformer Super God Masterforce
- Transformer Victory
- Transformer Zone
- Transformer Battlestars
- Transformer Operation Combination (Story pages-only)
- Transformer PD Type
Generation 2
Beast Wars
Unicron Trilogy
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 Beastformers 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," "2010" and "Zone" through "Generation 2" take place in the animated universe, expanding and continuity its story. Conversely, "Masterforce" and "Victory" are alternate tellings of the storyline and do not take place in the same animated universe.
"Headmasters" is somewhat unusual, with a relationship to the cartoon that would best be described as the being similar to the relationship between the US Marvel Comics and their UK counterpart - it is a universe in which the majority of events from the animated series take place, but with some extra stories, and some differences... most notably, an alternate depiction of the beginning of Daniel and Sixshot's friendship and the presence of Stepper and Artfire.
The Beast Wars mangas are all alternate timelines from the television series.
