japanese comics = manga

I've been reading "Deadman Wonderland" and "High School of the Dead" at OneManga.
IMO - They've been fairly good.
I watch anime when it gets shown here (Australia). ABC2 has shown a few shows during the past couple of years - Noein, Ergo Proxy, Afro Samurai, Death Note & Code Geass. The cable network has also shown a few shows on different channels - Black Lagoon, Fullmetal Alchemist, Naruto, GITS SAC & Blood+.
IMO - They have all been pretty good (Fullmetal Alchemist is my favourite show).
Anime shows are usually different to the Manga, so I can't necessarily recommend the books, but I would suggest that people watch the shows I've listed above.:)

Years ago I used to read GTO (グレート・ティーチャー・オニズカ); but they stopped exporting the dual language versions to Australia so I stopped. I preferred the comics with both Japanese and English so I could practice Japanese.
Except for watching Afro-Samurai and Battleship Yamamoto (from my childhood lol), I really haven't read or seen much in the last couple of years.

gamepoint said:

but anime tends to be draggy isn't it?

Noein, Ergo Proxy, Death Note, Blood+ & GITS SAC tend to be more plot based (as opposed to action).
Black Lagoon tends more towards "over the top" gun battles (and other action).
Fullmetal Alchemist (I mean the original not the new remake) & Code Geass are in-between .:)
There are quite a few slow Naruto episodes (Naruto has lots of episodes and Manga books).

Monster is amazing, both manga and anime. Also currently reading Reborn and GTO The Early Years.