Black Jack, Vol. 1 (Paperback)

by Osamu Tezuka (Author), Camellia Nieh (Translator)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Manga legend Tezuka fuses medical drama (think a manga House) with philosophy in this famed series about the adventures of the world's greatest surgeon, the eponymous Black Jack. Created in the '70s, Black Jack combines the episodic tension of Tezuka's early serials with the humanist concerns of his later work, like MW and Phoenix. Black Jack is a dramatic, nearly Byronic figure, with a scarred face and sinister black coat who is unlicensed despite his unparalleled healing skills. Operating outside normal society, Black Jack is called in for the most outré and serious cases: a rich man's son who needs a body transplant; a young woman who keeps seeing the face of a murderer through her newly transplanted cornea; an American superdoctor computer that decides it's sick. In one of his most bizarre cases, Black Jack removes from a woman a teratoid tumor containing an unborn twin and uses the removed bits and synthetic parts to create a lisping little girl named Pinoko who functions as his sidekick. With genre-spanning stories—horror, sci-fi, romance—and Tezuka's signature blend of drama, bathos and extreme broad comedy jammed together on every page, Black Jack is a wild but extravagantly entertaining ride that's far more accessible than the author's novel-length epics. (Sept.)
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Review
PRAISE FOR OSAMU TEZUKA’S BLACK JACK:

“Surely there’s nothing in this series more continually striking than the artist’s relentless, guaranteed depictions of surgery itself, happy rubber skin always peeled away to show realist meat and bone, minutely detailed organs mended or transplanted, then covered up again in the stuff of effortless napkin doodles… I found even the least of [these stories] fascinating examples of an artist casting his net especially far, secure in his talented hands and firm in his fame—ready to confront any malady, striving to cut away any harm, instrument tips sharp
for making flesh whole.”
—Jog –The Blog

“‘Iconic’ doesn't begin to sum up Black Jack's importance in the world of manga… I see a lot of Tezuka fans reaching for their wallets—not just for this volume alone, but for the whole of Black Jack as it's finally being re-released in the English-language edition it has always deserved. It was, and will be, more than worth the wait. Platinum Award.”
—Advanced Media Network

“Totally fun, totally engrossing. Black Jack is a page-turner of the highest order, and I blew through 280+ pages and I'm hungry for more.”
—Comics212.net

“Great material—classic crazy Tezuka with a bloody medical heartbeat tuning out the sound of man's inhumanity to man.”
—Newsrama

“While Astro Boy is more iconic and Phoenix is more epic in scope, Black Jack is arguably Tezuka’s best and most enjoyable work… [It] hits Tezuka's sweet spot where his heart, his head and his sense of humor
meet in perfect company.”
—About.com

“To match the beautiful outside, Camellia Nieh did a fantastic job with the translation. The entire book was a fantastic read cover-to-cover that I refused to put down. Whether you're just getting into manga, or have been a fan for decades, it would be a shame not to
own this seminal title.”
—Japanator

“Black Jack is a dramatic, nearly Byronic figure… With genre-spanning stories—horror, sci-fi, romance—and Tezuka's signature blend of drama, bathos and extreme broad comedy jammed together on every page, Black Jack is a wild but extravagantly entertaining ride that’s far more accessible than the author’s novel-length epics.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“The stories are a unique mix of an Isaac Bashevis Singer morality tale, and outstanding creative medicine. Though Black Jack is aimed at a young audience, it has maturity not found in adult works. It's a piece of comic art that excels in form, and message.”
—Ain’t It Cool News

“Vertical, Inc. has promised 17 volumes of Black Jack to be released every other month over the next three years. That seems like a bold commitment, until you start reading the stories… From sores that look like faces (and talk, too) to eyes that see ghosts, the busy doctors on ‘E.R.’ never had to deal with any of these unique patients. Osamu Tezuka’s attention to detail on close-ups for surgeries and strange growths makes for some rubber-necking horror hard to turn away from. Black Jack is a 10.”
—Comics Village

“Black Jack was Tezuka at his best; moving beyond his comfort zone, away from licensable children’s robot characters (for him) uncharted gekiga manga territory… You don’t need a doctor’s prescription and there’s no complicated follow-up medication or painful physical therapy—just some serious entertainment from the pen of one of the world’s masters of comics.”
—Let’s Anime

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Vertical (September 23, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 193428727X
• ISBN-13: 978-1934287279
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #17,518 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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• This is item 1 in The Black Jack (English) Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A surgical anti-hero, March 4, 2003

By	Zack Davisson "All Good Things" (Seattle, WA, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Black Jack, Vol. 1 (Paperback)

A super-hero surgeon seems a pretty unlikely protagonist. but Tezuka pulls it off with his hero Black Jack. Like any proper rouge, Black Jack lives outside the rules of society, sweeping in when his skills are needed and making the corrupt pay for their mis-deeds. Hey, he even wears a cape.

Each story manages to set up a situation where a super surgeon is necessary. However, due to Tezuka's fine writing skills, there is a humanist element to each tale, that is often melancholy. Black Jack makes other's happy, but he is rarely happy himself. He cannot taste the forbidden fruit that is peace of mind. Life, death, failure, lost love, childhood and age, these are all the themes presented here. Each story is some sort of morality tale, so the logistics behind the melodrama are not as important.

Tezuka's cartoony style can be off-putting to those who are used to more refined Japanese manga artists, but it soon flows into the story and is admired rather than questioned. Those already familiar with Tezuka will find the art here as fine as anything done by the "God of Manga."

All in all, a really excellent comic. Give it a chance, and you won't be disappointed.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Authorities hate him but the patients & readers love BJ., December 28, 1998

By	Young "jkwyeung" (NY,United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Black Jack, Vol. 1 (Paperback)

BJ is considered to be one of Tezuka's best comics. The whole series consist of twenty-two paperback volumes of short stories. The main character, BJ, is a genius surgeon who practices without a license. Although BJ is an outcast, many people rich and famous are willing to pay top money for his service. Through out the people and events that BJ encountered, Tezuka questions the value of Doctors in the medical systems, the meaning of a qualitative life, and the price of health.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not what I expected from the "Manga Master"..., December 29, 2000

By	Zagnorch (Terra, Sol System) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Black Jack, Vol. 1 (Paperback)

Having seen a few episodes of "Astro Boy" and "Kimba The White Lion", I never considered the possibility that anime/manga legend Osamu Tezuka was capable of heavier fare. So needless to say I was thrown for a loop when I picked up and leafed through a copy of "Black Jack" volume 1. It's significantly more mature in theme and story than Tezuka's more notable works, and contains some fairly graphic depictions of surgery. But considering the fact that the books' title character, Black Jack, is the world's most skilled and naturally gifted surgeon, I should've at least semi-expected it.

The book contains eight one-shot stories, and have no linkage to each other. Probably the most significant chapter is the one that tells the origin of Black Jack's "daughter" Pinoco, since she makes appearances in a few subsequent stories. Another significant chapter is the "origin" of B.J. himself, which tells the story of what inspired him to become a healer, and introduced (and sadly, also bade farewell to) his mentor. But quite possibly the most unusual moment is our hero's reunion with a lost love-an interesting take on the popular manga & anime formula of gender-switching. There's quite a few other offbeat moments inside this tome, which you'll have to read for yourself...

Quite a few of the secondary characters depicted in Tezuka's renderings are reminiscent of early Warner Brothers and Hanna-Barbera cartoon shorts, with a little bit of the "Speed Racer" look thrown in for good measure. For someone who's considered the originator of the modern anime and manga genre, I guess it was only natural that Tezuka had to draw his inspiration from somewhere. It's a rather unusual hybrid of mature storytelling and cartoonish artwork that I found to be a bit off-putting at first, but got used to as I kept reading.

The only tiny problem I have with this book is the dialogue. It's a bit clipped and relatively simple,likely due to the complexities involved in the translation of the original Japanese text. When the characters "speak", they usually get right down to the point and waste few words. As a result, I found this volume to be a pretty quick read. Oh what to do...

`Late