Swallowing the Earth

Series Pages

One of Tezuka's most adult series, Swallowing the Earth treats the use of female sexuality as a weapon, and the abuses of women in human history. The central figure, Zephyrus, is a mysterious, icy seductress who uses her power over men to snare them into aiding her scheme to avenge the wrongs done to womankind over the course of history. The only one immune to her charms is young Seki Gohonmatsu, a Neanderthal-like perpetually-drunken sailor whose only goal is to drink all the liquor in the world, a crass parallel to Zephyrus' schemes to swallow the Earth with her revenge.

This brief, two-volume series was written in 1968, just after the first segment of Vampires which marked the beginning of Tezuka's deep interest in the darker side of human psychology, and contemporary with the samurai story Dororo and 'Yamato', the third volume of Phoenix. It is an excellent example of Tezuka exploiting his highly stylized, cartoonish art style to representat extreme figures, in this case the neo-primitive man and the contrasting woman twisted by civilization. It also treats transformation and disguise, questioning how people would behave if they ware capable of disguising themselves freely, one of Tezuka's favorite themes. This is an excellent representative of Tezuka's very adult projects, and unlike MW and Ode to Kirihito (recently released by Vertical inc.) it features figures from Tezuka's star system. This makes it the first example printed in English of how, by having recurring stars as guests in short adult series, Tezuka could lend mature and sexual undertones to those same characters' appearances in later series where adult content was not permitted.

Long-time Tezuka readers may recognize Zephyrus from the Black Jack stories 'Black Queen' (1975) and 'The Last Train' (1978), where she plays an icy female surgeon attracted to the dark doctor. Appropriately, the Zephyrus in these Black Jack stories is engaged to Rock Holmes, a.k.a. Makube Rokuro, the same dark master of disguise from Vampires whose techniques Zephyrus borrows for some of her own schemes. These techniques are then in turn borrowed back by Rock in a more mature form in the 1969 Vampires part two. A softer version of Zephyrus appeared as Hayame in 'Karma' in 1970, widely considered the strongest volume of Phoenix. Another, friendlier later version of Zephyrus appears in Unico in 1976 as an airy spirit who protects the young unicorn and helps him flee the fates who want to destroy him; kind, but still icy due to her airy nature. Some may also recognize the ancient ruined kingdom of Mu, seen in many Tezuka series, from Astro Boy to The Three-Eyed One.

The upcoming US release of Swallowing the Earth will be the first Tezuka released by Digital Manga Publishing. It will be released in June 2009. The DMP Platinum edition of Swallowing the Earth will also contain a new foreword by Fred Schodt.