Osamu Tezuka's Phoenix Deluxe Hardcover Collection 1

Born in 1928 near Osaka, Japan, and raised in the city of Takarazuka on a steady diet of music, theatre, and Disney films, Osamu Tezuka came of age at the close of World War II, becoming as a young man the most influential manga artist of all time—a title he enjoys even now, almost four decades after his death.

Known in Japan as the “God of Manga,” Tezuka’s revolutionary, cinematic comics shaped most manga genres, including sci-fi (Astro Boy), adventure (New Treasure Island), even action comics for girls (Princess Knight). Behind the scenes, he established the master-apprentice system that persists in manga to this day and created the anime studio production process with the first television anime, Astro Boy, which after its premiere in Japan in 1963 found widespread success in American syndication by NBC.

A licensed medical doctor, Tezuka held both a committed humanism and fierce insistence on the dignity of all life—the inspiration for his acclaimed series Buddha—alongside a deeply pessimistic, even cynical attitude toward the human exercise of power, apparent in his darker, more adult later works such as Message to Adolf, Ode to Kirihito, and Black Jack. He considered his magnum opus to be Phoenix, a super-series that he worked on from the 1950s until his death in 1989.

A lifelong fan of global animation, Tezuka traveled to the United States, China, and all around the world to engage in enthusiastic cultural exchanges. He is survived by his son Macoto Tezka, a writer, filmmaker, and steward of his father’s legacy.

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