Born in Osaka Prefecture, Osamu Tezuka is best known as the creator of Astro Boy, Kimba the White Lion and Black Jack. He is often credited as the "Godfather of Anime". His prolific output, pioneering techniques, and innovative redefinitions of genres earned him such titles as "the father of manga", "the god of comics and "kamisama of manga".
Osamu Tezuka has often been called the Walt Disney of Japan, but he was far more than that. Tezuka was Disney, Stan Lee, Alan Moore, Tim Burton and Carl Sagan, all rolled into one incredibly prolific package and he changed the face of Japanese culture forever.
The Art of Osamu Tezuka: God of Manga is a lavishly packaged book that reveals what made a shy doctor one of the key figures of 20th Century pop culture. Packed with stunning, never-before-seen images, it tells the story of Tezukas amazingly prolific life, and connects it to his manga and anime work. Tezuka created hundreds of characters, many known worldwide, drew over 150,000 pages of art and scripted dozens of movies; he created graphic biographies of Jesus, and the Buddha yet a huge amount remains untranslated into English. The book is accompanied by a DVD with a fly-on-the-wall documentary, The Secrets of Creation, made in 1986 and never before translated or shown in the West.
About the author
Helen McCarthy, who's written a number of books on anime and manga and serves as curator for the Osamu Tezuka Film Festival at London's Barbican Centre, is far from the first person to write about his illustrious career and fascinating life. But she may be the first to really understand the scope and range of his influence. Tezuka was more than a comic book artist and writer. His work touched on and brought to the surface issues of ethics, man's relationships with nature and modern science, religion and politics. As the first authorized English language biographer, McCarthy does a great job of paying respect to and educating her readers on Tezuka's exploration of these themes. The text is complimented by countless full-page images from Tezuka's life and work. Even if you don't plan on reading a word of the author's delightful account of Tezuka's life, the full-page art, bound in beautiful, large format, vinyl sleeved hardcover.
