Hiroko Tabuchi, writing for the Associated Press in Tokyo, reports that Sony Pictures Entertainment plans to triple the number of comic books it formats for viewing on cell-phones, making it the No. 1 provider of “manga” for Japanese turning to their handsets for entertainment.

The marriage between cell-phone technology and manga is a natural progression in an island nation where people already download music, games and even novels onto their cellphones, Tabuchi notes.

Cellphone comics use a technology called Comic Surfing, developed by Tokyo-based venture firm Celsys, which takes viewers through manga stories at a carefully calculated speed and sequence.