* this is a good question. I don't have as negative a view of how manga is covered within North American comics as several people I know seem to. Some of those people have much more practical hands-on experience when it comes to making that call, and I concede that it's not covered in proportion to the readership it has within North American comics culture -- as that particular audience base should be understood. I'm trying to ramp up my coverage of manga as I try to ramp up my coverage more widely, and neither task is easy. I have the same problem with webcomics. I hope to improve. As to the discrepancy of coverage between the two time periods, I think there's a threshold element to that along with a bunch of standard structural failures.
* I don't think I've linked to this first one, and I'm not sure why: Matthias Wivel on 
