Buddha (Vertical Inc.)

Buddha (Vertical Inc.)

English Title: Buddha
Japanese Title: ブッダ
Publication Date: 2003-2007
Publisher: Vertical, Inc.
No. of Volumes: 8
In Print: ✔
Digital: ✘

From the Publisher

Osamu Tezuka’s vaunted storytelling genius, consummate skill at visual expression, and warm humanity blossom fully in his epic of Siddhartha’s life and times. Tezuka evidences his profound grasp of the subject by contextualizing the Buddha’s ideas; the emphasis is on movement, action, emotion, and conflict as the prince Siddhartha runs away from home, travels across India, and questions Hindu practices such as ascetic self-mutilation and caste oppression. Rather than recommend resignation and impassivity, Tezuka’s Buddha predicates enlightenment upon recognizing the interconnectedness of life, having compassion for the suffering, and ordering one’s life sensibly. Philosophical segments are threaded into interpersonal situations with ground-breaking visual dynamism by an artist who makes sure never to lose his readers’ attention.

All life is sacred”

Buddha (softcover – Vertical)

What you should know

This eight-volume series was originally published in hardcover from 2003 to 2007.  Designed by the renowned Chip Kidd, this edition (roughly 6″ x 8″) featured white covers with a solid cover dust jacket wrap and a spine-image that, when lined up, showed the Buddha at various stages of life.  Each volume is approximately 400 pages long.

In keeping with their marketing strategy of targeting a more mature “graphic novel” audience rather than a strictly manga fan one, Buddha was released with “flipped” artwork in order to make the reading order (left to right) more palatable for the average English-speaking fan.

Buddha (softcover, UK edition)

As with most of Vertical, Inc.‘s releases, once the hardcover edition was nearly out of print, it was followed up with a subsequent re-release in trade paperback format.  The softcover edition features a completely different set of covers and (unfortunately) does not feature the spine images.

However, it should be noted that Harper-Collins did release a softcover edition (also available as a complete box-set) for sale in the U.K. that is based on the Vertical, Inc. releases but also uses the spine images.

An award-winning series, Buddha received the Eisner Award in 2004 (for vols. 1-2) and 2005 (for vols. 3-4) in the category of Best U.S. Edition of International Material, and was also nominated again in 2006.