The Art of Osamu Tezuka: God of Manga (Hardcover)

[BJ4ever]

Hi everyone,

I'm surprised no one have mentionned the release of this book 2 months ago :
The Art of Osamu Tezuka: God of Manga (Hardcover)



I think it's by far the most complete book ever released in western countries regarding Tezuka and his work. It's nicely documented and comes with a 45mn DVD as a bonus.

Below is a review written by a customer on Amazon :

It comes with cardboard onlay of Astro Boy pasted on top the hardcover, a 45 minute documentary DVD and a soft transparent vinyl dust jacket. There are two publishers for the book, Ilex and Abrams ComicArt, with Ilex distributing for the UK market.

The author Helen McCarthy has compiled a rather in depth biography of Osamu Tezuka. The content is presented chronologically detailing the different characters, book titles and animation he has created. Over his career, he has created a staggering amount of over 170,000 pages of comic in over 700 titles. He's a prolific artist at the start who became even more so after using comic assistants, a system currently used today to create comics and animation.

In addition to the manga and anime art, there are also a lot of great photos of Osamu Tezuka, even from when he was a kid born in 1928, thanks to his father who's a photographer. The biography looks at his life of creating comics from when he was a kid, to studying medicine and to the post war period when he rose to fame with the numerous creation to his name.

Since he created so many titles, the book only list his key works and characters. But even so, there are quite a lot ranging from his 4-panel strips to Black Jack and later on animation titles. It's interesting to find out that many characters he created actually cross over to other titles making cameo appearances, sometimes even including Osamu Tezuka himself. Many themes in his comics are from his philosophy and influences from life.

On the DVD, the documentary shows us how he works when camera men are allowed, for the first time, into his personal studio. There's a section showing him rushing for a publication deadline while chasing a flight overseas at the same time. He was drawing on the car, with his editor holding a watch, constantly informing him of the time left. There's a shot of his assistant smiling which I interpret it to be, "That's how he is all the time, drawing." He finished the rest of the pages on the plane and met the deadline by faxing them over.

This book is really well put together and comes with a great video documentary as well. It's recommended to all fans of Osamu Tezuka.

[Huscheli]

First I wasn't interested in the book (because I know a lot about Tezuka already, so basic books are boring). But reading your post and seeing the amazon review there is, I'm quite interested now (many nice pictures). It looks pretty cool.

[BJ4ever]

It is nice indeed. I received mine a few days ago and it's really worth the money

The book contains a lot of pictures and the layout is nicely done. It's a big size full color book printed on high quality paper. There are a few similar books available in Japan, but as i said, it's the first time i can read in english such Art Book focused on Tezuka.

[KimbaWLion]

The tone of my post was all wrong, so I've deleted it.

[Huscheli]

Oh well, I don't really care much about the Kimba Anime. So if that's the only problem, I guess I can live with it. It will be the case that there wont be much new information in it for me though...but it's nice, with the hardcover and the DVD and all....so, why not. It doesn't seem too expensive either.

@Kimba: I'm interested to hear what you think of the DVD then

[BJ4ever]

As for the DVD documentary, it was aired in Japan in 1986 and comes for the first time with english subtitles.

Here is a short sequence from it :



@Kimba: I found interesting informations (and pictures/drawings) about works i've never heard of before in that book.

[strobe_z]

I got this book about a month and a half ago, but I just started getting into it (I was busy reading ).

Anyway, I have to say that, quite the opposite of KimbaWLion, I was surprised to find the book exceeded my expectations. Of course, that could be because my expectations were quite low to being with... I hadn't banked on anything beyond a bunch of glossy pictures of Tezuka artwork. So to find out there was actually some biographical text in there as well was a pleasant surprise. I didn't expect an in-depth analysis of any of Tezuka's works, but rather an overview of the whole.

I will say that from a production value standpoint this book receives high marks from me. The clear vinyl dustjacket and the cardboard embossed Astro are clever... but I like that sort of thing. The content is not spectacular in its layout, but it's functional and not overly utilitarian... it's just not pushing and boundries a la Chip Kidd.

I haven't got to the DVD yet... I'm kinda saving that one till the end, but I doubt I'll be disappointed. All in all, a very nice book that's worth the $32 I paid for it.

[Jeffbert]

This is 1 of either of 2 things I requested from my sister who drew my name from the hat. I will buy it eventually if it is not the chosen present.

[Princess Sapphire]

I've read my copy and watched the DVD.

Well worth it indeed. If I could change just one thing about it though, I would add reference to Duke Deralomon and Lord Nylon to the chapter about Tezuka's star system cast of actors. It seems a pity they were missed since all the other characters seem to have been covered faithfully.

[KimbaWLion]

It is indeed great to have a single comprehensive overview of Tezuka's work such as this. It really stimulates my desire that more of his works would be available in English so that we could explore them further. There's just so much that he did, and with such depth behind it, and most if it is out of our reach. Maybe this book will help turn that around.

[chronocross_xp]

[mokonafan]

[ben]

[Jeffbert]

[Tetsuwan Atomu]