Astro Boy (Dark Horse)

English Title: Astro Boy
Japanese Title: 鉄腕アトム
Publication Date: 2002-2004
Publisher: Dark Horse
No. of Volumes: 23 (7)
In Print: ✘
Digital: ✘

From the Publisher

The Robot-Boy with 100,000 horsepower! Astro Boy is the quintessential creation of Osama Tezuka, and an all-ages delight.  It’s as fresh, exciting, and innovative today as when it was created over forty years ago.  Everything is Go, Astro Boy!

What you should know

Published by Dark Horse Comics between 2002 and 2004, this complete twenty-three-volume set is an adaption of the Japanese language Akita Shoten collection.  The original Japanese artwork was “flipped” to read left to right in order for the stories to read more smoothly in English.  Although the stories are reprinted out of their original publication order, they are published in the order Osamu Tezuka himself chose.  Because of this, each volume also contains a short framing sequence written and drawn by Tezuka in order to provide explanations and/or background information.

The Robot-Boy with 100,000 horsepower! Astro Boy is the quintessential creation of Osama Tezuka, and an all-ages delight.

Translation of the series was provided by noted Astro Boy expert, Frederik L. Schodt, author of The Astro Boy Essays.  As the original stories were set in Japan, Schodt believed, for the most part, it was necessary to retain the original Japanese names and locations whenever possible.  Notable exceptions to this were, the translation of Shunsaku Ban‘s nickname “Higeoyaji” to “Mr. Mustachio“, as well as the use of Astro Boy‘s English name as opposed to his original Japanese name, Tetsuwan Atom. Schodt decided that “Astro” was close enough to “Atom” (another English word), and that it would simply be “going against too much history” to change it.  Occasionally some of the Japanese characters’ names had a double meaning which was impossible to convey properly in English.  Instead of changing the names to match the meaning, especially in the case of some of the more well-known characters, Schodt tried to work the double meaning in elsewhere in the translation.  However, when dealing with minor characters with humorous-sounding names, Schodt tried to find equivalent English puns wherever possible.

As with most North American editions of Osamu Tezuka manga, despite some content that could be perceived to be racially insensitive by modern standards, no revisions were made to the original artwork and/or story.  Instead a message from Tezuka Productions is included as a foreword explaining the depictions of people from Africa and Southeast Asia are simply a product of their times and that Osamu Tezuka had no intention to discriminate.  However, since Tezuka has since passed away, any retro-active edits to his works would violate his right as a creator and “do little” to end racial and ethnic discrimination throughout the world.

Although this edition is out of print, in 2015 Dark Horse began re-issuing Astro Boy as a series of Omnibus editions.

Story List by Volume