by htom » Mon May 14, 2007 2:58 am
First, a nod of thanks to the thread-starter/administrator for the greeting on my first post here on another topic some weeks back.
I have this book in my collection. It features some 100 color illustrations and perhaps twenty pages of b/w work. It does indeed spotlight the women in Tezuka's body of work. As about 95% is reproduced from the original artwork, it looks as good as it ever will. By that, I mean that it's really easy to appreciate the quality of linework in the b/w work, especially since it is also reproduced in a larger size. The color work doesn't concentrate too much on Tezuka's "adult" works though these benefit from more varied experimentation in color and imagery. Many of the pieces are from "Ribon no Kishi" if any one series can be said to dominate. Only one image from "Phoenix" is included in color, though several of the female characters can be found in the b/w section.
By the way, the cover illustration is probably the standout piece in the collection, and features Queen Sigma, from "Apollo's Song," due next month or so in English from Vertical. Too much to hope for this to be reproduced there as well, I would think. The offical Tezuka site indicates this was the cover for the second part of a two-volume edition from Homesha in 1993, but there it is cropped quite a bit, losing the centered composition...