Fifty years after his creation, Astro Boy continues to lead the manga and anime charge, his adventures still as fresh and exciting as when first crafted by master storyteller/cartoonist/animator Osamu Tezuka. Perhaps the most endearing, and enduring, creation to emerge from Tezuka's volcanic imagination, Astro Boy is packed with action, laughs, and genuine emotion, interlacing fantastic situations and creatures with timeless themes and wry observances of technology, war, and the human condition. In this volume: "The White Hot Human"; "Uran"; "Hachi, the Devil"; "The Tenma Family's Fortress"; "Gernica."
Osamu Tezuka (1928-89) is the godfather of Japanese manga comics. He originally intended to become a doctor and earned his degree before turning to what was then a medium for children. His many early masterpieces include the series known in the U.S. as Astro Boy. With his sweeping vision, deftly interwined plots, feel for the workings of power, and indefatigable commitment to human dignity, Tezuka elevated manga to an art form. The later Tezuka, who authored Buddha, often had in mind the mature readership that manga gained in the sixties and that had only grown ever since. The Kurosawa of Japanese pop culture, Osamu Tezuka is a twentieth century classic.
