Weekly Manga Times (週刊漫画TIMES, Shūkan Manga Taimusu) is a Japanese weekly manga magazine for men published by Houbunsha since November 1956.[3] The publisher claims it was Japan’s first weekly manga magazine,[4] and the magazine is published every Friday. While its name resembles that of its sister magazine Manga Time, it does not publish yonkoma manga. The magazine is also known by the nickname Shūman (週漫), and uses the slogan "Live Happily Once a Week!" (一週間をユカイに生きる!, Isshūkan o Yukai ni Ikiru!). Manga Times has a weekly circulation of about 380,000.[5]
A one-panel manga by Sunao Hari titled Weekend Egao was published on the table of contents page until the spring of 2008 when it was moved to the last page. Additionally, the interior paper was changed to use a higher quality white paper rather than the standard lower grade newsprint.
The cover of Weekly Manga Times has featured a realistic painting of a young woman on every issue. The cover artist since the April 1970 issue has been Keizō Tsukamoto, for which he won a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records for "the world's longest continuous career illustrating one magazine".[6]
Weekly Manga Times also featured a series titled The Smiling Million People University (百万人のお笑い大学, Hyakumannin no Owarai Daigaku). The series was a one-panel comic which was used to fill blank space within each issue and consisted of submissions from readers which were judged by veteran manga artistTaira Hara. As the entries consisted of reader submissions, the authors and artists were constantly changing.
