Now that Astro Boy has hit the theaters, a new generation has been introduced to Osamu Tezuka's atomic-powered robot boy. But lest you think that the Godfather of Manga only created comics for kids, guess again.
In a career that spanned over 40 years, Tezuka-sensei drew almost 150,000 pages of manga. At one point, he was drawing almost 25 pages a day, for up to three concurrent series. He drew shonen manga for teen boys, shojo manga for teen girls and complex seinen manga stories for grown-ups. He drew comedies, action stories, dramas and stories about history, politics, medicine, sex, and religon. It's almost mind-blowing when you realize how much creativity he crammed in before dying at age 60 in 1989.
Tezuka-sensei created over 700 series and stand-alone stories in his career, but to date, only 15 have been released in English. Discover the must-reads, the rarities and the titles that are just for diehard fans in this list of manga by Osamu Tezuka.
From Buddha to Adolf, from Metropolis to MW, there's titles for kids, for teens and grown-ups too. If you've read some of these Tezuka titles, which ones did you like? Which ones left you cold, and why? Add your comments below or in the manga forums!
Image credit: © Tezuka Productions
Comments
Did you know there’s a new book, The Art of Osamu Tezuka: God of Manga, JUST published by The Ilex Press – it’s by Helen McCarthy who’s a great expert – and has lots of biographical information as well as lots of images of the characters and an exlclusive DVD documentary, never before seen in the West. See the Ilex website: http://www.ilex-press.com – hope you enjoy it!
Kate
Great article. I’m proud to say I have every single book you mentioned except Adolf Vol 1, Princess Knight (entire series) and Crime & Punishment.
Please email me at benjaminboylan AT hotmail.com if you know where I can find these