From: bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.com   
      
   On 08/25/2016 01:14 PM, Bobbie Sellers wrote:   
   > Hi typers and readers,   
   >   
   >     One of my other friends on a mailing list pointed   
   > this out to me.   
   >     This is a manga and it is about the creator of Astro Boy   
   > so I posted to raam as well as ram.   
   >   
   >     I have ordered a copy from Amazon and hope to   
   > post a few lines about once I have it in hand but I   
   > figured that if others know about it they might   
   > be interested in this really big 1000 page manga.   
   >   
   >     bliss   
      
      
   	Well the massive volume arrived earlier today and I have   
   read a 5th of the book already.  The translation is good of course   
   being by Frederik L.Schodt who started translating Tezuka's work   
   in the 1970s.  The art is excellent using lots of Tezuka's earlier   
   efforts and detailing his genius level artistic talent and his   
   extraordinary intellect.  The artist who did the work was in charge   
   of Tezuka Production's work, Toshio Ban.   
      
   	I have arrived at the section where Japan has surrendered to   
   the allies and when hope re-enters Tezuka's life and at several earlier   
   points it made me cry.  This for me is the sin qua non of an excellent   
   manga.  Throughout Tezuka's school years he drew and drew at least   
   3000 pages of manga right on through the war years despite official   
   condemnation of such work and discouragement from his Military Drill   
   Sargent.   
   	We also get to see the civilian privation of WW II as the   
   food rations are cut and air raids drive city dwellers into the   
   countryside.  Grave of the Fireflies it is not but everything but   
   the ashes of soldiers and cities were in short supply.   
      
   	I mentioned last year that in the 4 volumes of Show:A History   
   of Japan Mizuki uses "Nozumi Otoku" aka "Rat Man" a character from later   
   work in Kitaro to explicate his creator's times.  Here a character   
   "Shunsaku Ban" or "Mustachio", created in elementary school and used   
   in later stories is the narrator.  Rat Man does not appear until page   
   93 of Showa but Mustachio is in at the beginning of the story. Mustachio   
   looks a little like the character trademark for Monopoly.   
      
   	In one manga or another(Genshiken ?) I have read that there are   
   manga artists who must draw as Oguie in Genshiken and Osamu Tezuka was   
   of that class as he drew and drew then drew some more, while still a   
   child.   
      
   	More about this later after I absorb about another 800 pages   
   taking my breaks with a SFP Library volume the intensively collected   
   "Superman: a 75 year celebration".  Superman hit the news stands about   
   the time I was a year old so Clark Kent is my kohai.  Some of these   
   strips and stories I had read earlier on my way thru elementary and   
   HS.  Some I had missed and there are a few at the beginning which   
   only serve to illustrate how badly the creators drew.   
   	Tezuka's art was vastly superior.  Toshio Ban learned at   
   the elbow of Tezuka and his art is consistent with Tezuka's.   
      
   	bliss   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)