Where Can I Read Lezhin Comics For Free Legally?

A very well-worn question in fandom spaces! It's pretty obvious that 'free' and 'official' aren't meant to go hand in hand where Lezhin comics are concerned, and while 'Jinx' is currently their cash cow, I'd recommend paying for it in order to ensure that we get more seasons of this great series. While you can easily find sites to scan English Translation aggregator sites for 'Jinx' via a simple Google search (some sites much better than others), they're usually several weeks behind official release, and yes, that means it's piracy - none of the creators or artists get paid per click on those copies.

A: No. But this is complex. As mentioned before the platform's main economy model is that of microtransactions. Free content can serve as a great marketing tool and also as a good user acquisition method. However, most of the popular content requires a lot of time in order to get to read it for free (and even then, you won't get to read the whole thing). Also, the amount of free currency that you get in order to buy something for free, is not sufficient. It takes a lot of time to amass that kind of amount of currency in order to read a big and complete work. Therefore, even though you don't have to pay to download the app, you are going to end up spending money in order to read the content that defines the app's value proposition. The app is free and it's meant to sell digital comics.

I think most people overcomplicate this. If someone wants to post their own work online for everyone to view for free on their public social media accounts then that’s perfectly legal and fine by me. Sometimes searching for circle names or certain tags on Pixiv or Twitter will even pull up the complete work. The legality depends on the artist and their consent for public display, not on the platform through which it’s displayed (e.g. corporate sites). Following artists is not like finding books in a store, though. It’s not organized that way.

Another option to look into are digital storefronts for comics. While DriveThru Comics doesn’t carry as much manga as some of the other options, they are all 100% licensed which is a big deal. You might even come across some amazing doujinshi or work by independent artists from Japan who sell their work digitally on these types of sites. Typically, these will be offered as DRM-free PDFs or CBZs, which makes for a great archive. A boutique way to buy comics online! You generally buy direct from the creator or very small publisher, so it’s part of the fun discovering who they are. See if your favorite artist or that niche creator you really enjoy writing for is selling their work on these stores – they may be selling legitimate licensed copies of their work as collections in PDF or CBZ format, etc. Buying from these online stores supports the creator(s) directly.

Also worth mentioning is Hoopla Digital. It's a nice resource for libraries that subscribe to it, and it can be accessed with just a library card from a participating library. I've found a lot of obscure horror and independent comics on Hoopla. I'm not sure if 'Crossed' is even available on Hoopla (it varies wildly from library to library), but it's a good place to start looking for comics that you can read legally without purchasing them directly. I searched through Kindle (Amazon’s bookstore) to purchase Crossed: Badlands, and it turns out the title I’m looking for is actually listed under Crossed: Badlands or Crossed: Wish You Were Here, both written by Simons and Drawn by Torres. I wouldn’t recommend buying these volumes individually because in all probability they will be rather expensive. However, Kindle does on occasion have sales on them. For now, I’ll also keep an eye on the web site of the publisher, because at times they have promotions on digital editions of all their books in bulk. Buying individual volumes this way is in no way recommended.

The real answer nobody wants to admit to is that if you’re desperate enough, there are pirate sites that provide access to content for free. And calling these sites ‘free’ is misleading. You get to pay with your time, your data and your sanity. And by using these sites to download content for free you’re starving the thing you love. It’s a bad deal all around and there are far better alternatives out there to explore.

This is an easy way to look for adult manga online: Amazon Kindle and Rakuten Kobo offer titles online, and the search function allows you to filter the results to suit your interests. For example, searching for ‘adult manga’ and looking for known 18+ publishers can yield some interesting results. Note that while some titles may be available to download in all regions, others may be locked to certain areas. I was able to pick up HatsuHaru through the two services mentioned above – convenient for someone who already uses them to read books online. No pop-up ads of a dodgy variety either.

I read Webtoon on their app, which is really designed for vertical scroll comics that are usually all full color. Lezhin on the other hand hosts more traditional page formatted comics like ‘Jinx’ and their app is optimized for that kind of artwork and panel flow. Trying to read a page based manhwa on an app designed for vertical scroll comics is really a clunky experience and a bad legal reading experience. The Lezhin app is the right tool for ‘Jinx’ as it makes your reading experience much more comfortable. Reading a page-based manhwa on an app geared for vertical scroll comics can be very frustrating. Accessing legal content is one thing, but having a quality reading experience is another. Lezhin’s app is specifically geared towards content such as ‘Jinx’ (a page-based manhwa in full color) and thus offers the best reading experience for its artwork and panel layout.

Of course, there’s a lot of fun in comparing book to show. But unlike the very faithful first season of television, there are large and soon increasing deviations from the original text as the season goes on. To do this sort of comparison, you’d really need to read the whole, unedited text – something that a free sample would not be able to give you past the introductory setup. The free sample is like the pilot episode of a show. If you like the pilot, you can then subscribe to the channel to watch the rest of the episodes. There is no way to stream an entire TV show for free on its official network (unless you have a subscription). Bookstores work in much the same way as TV networks – the free sample is your free trial, and then you go to the library or buy the book as a subscriber.

Thanks to everyone for sharing such great resources!