God of Comics: Osamu Tezuka and the Creation of Post-WWII Manga
Posted: September 27, 2009 Filed under: God of Comics 2 Comments »Natsu Onoda Power – University Press of Mississippi – 2009 – 1 volume
I reviewed this study of Tezuka and his work at the Manga Recon, so you can check out my full review over there.
This is technically outside the scope of my website here, but I enjoyed it so much that I thought it could use all the exposure it could get. It’s a really in-depth and thorough look at Tezuka and his work. It served the purpose of making me want to read about a thousand more series by him, but I also learned a lot about the history of manga and animation, which is always a plus for me. It also made me decide to pick up “The Astro Boy Essays,” something I’ve been wavering on for years.
I also failed to mention a review I did for a recent Vertical novel called “The Cat in the Coffin” that I recently wrote for Manga Recon, but if I review Haikasoru and Faust here, I might as well cover that, too, since it’s really no different. I’ll post that review and one I did on Librarything for another Vertical novel, “Now You’re One of Us,” which I enjoyed immensely, later this week. I’ll probably just make a separate category for books, since there are several I’ve already covered on here (Boogiepop, Hot Gimmick, et cetera). It also makes it so I can write about “Manga! Manga!” and “Dreamland Japan,” which I read a few years ago and still read pretty regularly to this day. Both of those are pretty amazing.
But for now, if you have any interest in Tezuka, “God of Comics” is a pretty great read.
I like to read your blog. Maybe because we have somewhat similar tastes (Parasyte, Boogiepop, Yoshinaga, Tezuka…), but there is always something new and informative for me. Like this book. I like to read about history of manga and I’ve devoured all Schodt’s books about the subject except “The Astro Boy Essays”, which I will someday.
There is an anecdote about Tezuka I particularly like: at the time he worked as a doctor, he used to stay late with the nurse behind a locked door so the rumors was spreading about his love affair, but the truth was that the nurse was only helping him to draw manga. :)
Thanks! I’m glad you enjoy reading my reviews, and I’m always happy to hear that my recommendations help sometimes. I’m glad I wound up posting this book review here too, then, if it helped you find it. It really was a very interesting read, and if you liked the Schodt books and Tezuka, you’ll definitely like this.
That’s a cute anecdote. It’s so easy to imagine happening too. Actually, I was going to tell you about a similar incident that was in that book, but I just realized it was probably the same one. I think the book shows a couple panels from one of his autobiographical manga, where a nurse was modeling to help him draw for a story and people got the wrong idea, especially since he worked while at the hospital.