How many volumes will there be?
This edition of Black Jack has a total of 17 paperback volumes, containing about 12 stories each. It is based on the Japanese 17 volume Akita bunkouban edition.
Wait, paperback? so what are those expensive hardback versions?
Vertical also published special limited hardback editions of books 1 to 3 in the series. They are limited to 1500 (vol.1) and 1200 (vol.2 & 3) copies and distributed through Diamond to brick and mortar comic-book stores.
The difference is not only in the cover, they include three additional stories (one in each) NOT included in the Japanese edition on which the Vertical paperbacks are based. These three stories will not appear in the softcover books. More on this later.
Is this The Complete Osamu Tezuka's Black Jack, then?
Well, no. Even if you buy all the three hardcovers, the answer is still no. No book edition, including all the Japanese editions so far, includes all Black Jack stories as originally serialized in magazines. Also, not all the book editions omit exactly the same stories. It is a bit messy, actually. More on this later.
Why were some stories excluded from the books?
In many cases, criticism or controversy about the medical conditions depicted. Some of the stories missing from the books deal with lobotomies, for instance. Or are inaccurate. Or relatives of patients with the disease depicted in a story would complain. Tezuka was very sensitive to all this criticism. In other cases he simply thought the stories weren't good enough to be reprinted in book form.
So, how *complete* is this?
Very, actually, one of the more complete there is. There are a total of 243 issues of Black Jack. 5 "sealed" issues where never collected in book editions because they contained controversial or sensitive material. 20 more issues are excluded from some, but not all, of the Japanese book editions. 12 of these are included in the bunkouban edition on which the Vertical edition is based. And three more of these 20 appear in the special hardcover volumes 1-3. So. If you have all the Vertical paperbacks you will have 230 out of 243 stories. If you also buy the hardcovers you will have 233*.
*i researched all this at tezukaineglish.com. of course i might have misread or miscalculated something.
Is Black Jack a series or a serial?
A series. Each chapter is a self-contained story. You can read them in almost any order. In fact, that's what you're already doing. This edition does not present the stories in chronological order of publication, but in the order Osamu Tezuka himself indicated for a deluxe edition planned shortly before his death, in 1989.
For instance. The stories in this first volume are not issues #1 to #12 of the serialized manga but rather issues #1, #167, #12, #52, #29, #50, #86, #185, #57, special issue between #113 and #114, #54, and #49. There is a rationale to all this. Several of the stories give backstory information about Black Jack, where his scars come from, why he decided to become a doctor, etc. So Tezuka decided to put them at the beginning of the series in this new form.
Where can i learn more about Black Jack and and all this mess about the excluded issues?
Go to 'Tezuka in English' website (tezukainenglish.com). That's where i dug all this stuff up, all kudos to them.
Is Black Jack really that good?
As a surgeon? Definitely. As a comic-book classic? The answer is also yes. Black Jack is as classic as Tintin or Terry and the Pirates, but with surgical gore.
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Karina Lozano
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Reviewed in Mexico on August 16, 2020
Karina Lozano
Reviewed in Mexico on August 16, 2020
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