I.L (Big Comic)
Big Comic
December 10, 1969
Following hot on the heels of Swallowing the Earth (1968-69), Tezuka’s next project, I.L (pronounced “Aye-El”), was originally intended to a more straight-forward “comic for men” (as the name of the publication itself implied), however eventually became more of a “fairy tale for adults” instead.
I.L (1969-70) began it’s bi-weekly schedule on August 10, 1969 and, with a new chapter appearing on the 10th and 25th of each month, the series ran for a total of 14 chapters before coming to a close on March 25 1970.
Unlike Swallowing the Earth (1968-69) – where he wavered back and forth between making it a long-form story or a stand-alone chapter format and ultimately ended up making it neither – with I.L (1969-70) Tezuka had learned his lesson. Instead, he decided to publish it st as a collection of independent-but-connected episodes held together by a very loose story framework.
And so, all but one of the chapters appeared as a complete all-in-one story. The lone exception was the last one, ‘The Hyenas’, which was serialized over the course of final three issues.
Publication Information and Chapter Summaries
001
Big Comic (ビッグコミック)
1969/08/10
Imari Daisuke, a movie director disillusioned with his profession, visits the mansion of Count Alucard on the advice of a street fortune-teller. There he meets with the enigmatic earl, who asks Imari to become a “director who stages events in the real world.” With this bizarre request, Alucard entrusts a beautiful lady lying in a special casket to Imari so that she will play the key role in his future work involving real-life dramas. The woman, named I.L, has the magical power to transform herself into any kind of person, regardless of age or sex.
- Imari Daisuke as “Imari Daisuke”
002
Big Comic (ビッグコミック)
1969/08/25
As a result of a coups d’etat that has erupted in his nation, President Fralerno is imprisoned and sentenced to death. Mayako, his beloved 10th wife, escapes danger by fleeing quickly to her home country of Japan. It does not even occur to her imprisoned husband that she has deserted him. Mayako is actually enjoying her freedom, having fun with young men. In the meantime, the date of the president’s execution is approaching. Imari Daisuke, the reality director, has I.L turn into Mayako and sends her to the imprisoned president.
- Imari Daisuke as “Imari Daisuke”
003
Big Comic (ビッグコミック)
1969/09/10
A woman asks I.L for help, confiding that her husband is so crazy about moths that he cannot become sexually aroused without seeing the insect. I.L goes to the couple’s house, and turns into the wife to sleep with the husband. Her unusually passionate behavior bewilders the husband, and when he looks at her lower body, he finds it has been transformed into a huge moth…
- Imari Daisuke as “Imari Daisuke”
004
Big Comic (ビッグコミック)
1969/09/25
In this episode, I.L’s client is a sick woman who has only a couple of days to live. She says that her lover has never come to see her since she fell ill. She asks I.L to turn into herself to show him that she has fully recovered. When I.L manages to locate the man, however, she finds that he is a womanizer who has not really loved I.L’s client. Now what action I.L will take?
- Imari Daisuke as “Imari Daisuke”
005
Big Comic (ビッグコミック)
1969/10/10
Oppression of the people continues in the People’s Republic of Slabria, the country where I.L’s client of this episode is from. The client requests that I.L turn into Lunca, the female leader of an underground organization of the country, in order to facilitate her defection. On the scheduled date, I.L disguises herself as Lunca while the real woman leader heads for the mountains at the border. But Lunca’s ex-boyfriend anonymously informs the police of her attempt at defection because he does not want to be separated from her.
- Imari Daisuke as “Imari Daisuke”
006
Big Comic (ビッグコミック)
1969/10/25
A professor’s son has been kidnapped, and the kidnapper is demanding a ransom of five million yen for his release. I.L changes into the son’s elder sister to see the kidnapper. But the man finds out that she is not the real sister of the boy, and runs away with the ransom without releasing his hostage. I.L chases the villain, riding a horse offered by Count Alucard, and succeeds in catching the bullet train the villain has taken.
- Imari Daisuke as “Imari Daisuke”
- Hamegg as “a passenger on the bullet train”
- Osamu Tezuka as “a passenger on the bullet train”
007
Big Comic (ビッグコミック)
1969/08/25
Imari and I.L get acquainted with Yoshiko, a girl who lives on the streets of Shinjuku. Her body is covered in flower tattoos, which she says is the handiwork of Kikuchi, who is a female taxidermist. Yoshiko and Kikuchi have become friends on the street, and the two women are in a lesbian relationship. One day, Yoshiko, a vagabond by nature, starts talking about going to New Guinea, and suddenly disappears shortly after that. Suspecting that Kikuchi knows something about Yoshiko’s strange disappearance, I.L visits her workplace. What does I.L find there?
- Imari Daisuke as “Imari Daisuke”
008
Big Comic (ビッグコミック)
1969/11/25
I.L is feeling sad because she has never been in love for her own sake, as she has always been acting as somebody else. One day, she is asked to become a mannequin in a show window of a boutique. As it turns out, the U.S. Secretary of State, who is a woman, is scheduled to visit the boutique soon, and the shop owner is conspiring to assassinate the V.I.P. I.L’s client wants her to act as a substitute for the mannequin while he sets a time bomb on the real one. And to make matters worse, I.L falls in love with the conspirator.
- Imari Daisuke as “Imari Daisuke”
- Duke Red as “the American Ambassador”
009
Big Comic (ビッグコミック)
1969/12/10
A female company president asks I.L to act as herself. The client says that her family has an annual custom to shut the leader of the family up in their ancestors’ grave and pray. Suspecting that something is wrong with such a bizarre custom, I.L goes into the grave to see what is going on. There she finds the president poisoned to death. When I.L informs one of the company executives of what she has just seen, he confides that it was the president’s premeditated suicide. Because the president was infertile, she was afraid that her family line would die out, and thus she wanted I.L to become a substitute for her and bear children.
- Imari Daisuke as “Imari Daisuke”
010
Big Comic (ビッグコミック)
1969/12/25
I.L turns into a nurse and begins to live in a country hospital. The hospital director has a wife who is dying of terminal cancer. The husband is wondering if he should have her euthanized with a secret drug. The drug in question is actually an ancient poison that has been found sealed in a spiral shell dug out of a shell mound. It is so deadly that only a small portion can kill a person without causing any pain. While the husband is hesitating, his wife takes the drug and dies before he can stop her. Realizing that I.L has witnessed the incident, the hospital director attempts to kill her in order to keep the secret of the poison.
- Imari Daisuke as “Imari Daisuke”
011
Big Comic (ビッグコミック)
1970/01/10
I.L’s client in this episode is an American soldier who has run away from the Vietnam War. He raped and killed five women in Vietnam, and is now being accused of the crimes. He wants I.L to turn into the five murdered women one by one to deceive people into believing that they are actually alive. I.L declines his request, but the evil man has tied her casket with rope to a tree so that she cannot go home. She is obliged to go in, but when she reappears, she has turned into a murdered woman covered with blood.
- Imari Daisuke as “Imari Daisuke”
012
Big Comic (ビッグコミック)
1970/01/25
Deshibara, who is a movie director and an old friend of Imari‘s, is nicknamed Rasputin because of his love of obscene expressions and his boldness. The nickname is associated with a monk named Rasputin who dominated as a mastermind behind the scenes of the court of Czarist Russia in its last years. One day, an actress named Gomoku Sobame, whom Deshibara always liked to use in his movies, strangely commits suicide. In an effort to discover the truth of the incident, Imari has I.L turn into a voluptuous actress whom Deshibara should not be able to resist. What I.L sees in Deshibara’s house is…
- Imari Daisuke as “Imari Daisuke”
013
Big Comic (ビッグコミック)
1970/02/10
Thanks to recent advances in medicine, Seyama Akira, who was born blind 20 years ago, recovers his sight. When he becomes able to see the world with his own eyes for the first time since his birth, however, Kuwata Miyuki, who has been devotedly taking care of him, disappears. Miyuki has left him because she was not confident of her own looks, and she was afraid that he would lose his interest in her. Miyuki asks I.L to turn into an attractive woman retaining her voice and physique and go to see him. Although I.L tries to meet the request, Akira recognizes instantly that she is not Miyuki.
- Imari Daisuke as “Imari Daisuke”
014
Big Comic (ビッグコミック)
1970/02/25 | 1970/03/10 | 1970/03/25
Imari Daisuke runs into his divorced wife, Kayoko, on a bullet train. Kayoko, who is a wanton woman, had deserted him to run away with another man. She tells Imari that she is now running a Japanese restaurant all by herself, having broken up with the other man. She says that she wants to get back together with Imari. Shortly after his or her encounter, however, somebody kills Kayoko. In order to investigate the murder, Imari has I.L turn into Kayoko and makes her go to her restaurant. I.L has mixed feelings, however, because she has unwittingly fallen in love with Imari by now. Meanwhile, Kayoko’s reappearance frightens some men because she has been keeping their secret.
- Imari Daisuke as “Imari Daisuke”
