Astro Boy - URAN!

Tezuka Productions: Astro Boy and Friends - Uran - Heathside Trading 2022

In the past 10 years or so I've become a big fan of Osamu Tezuka. He is known by many nicknames, but I was always fond of "The Godfather of Manga." At over 150,000 pages and 700 volumes of manga in his brief 60 years, he earns that title easily. Interestingly, I think what finally turned me from a casual appreciative fan into a mega-fan was the launching of KickStarter and the almost immediate campaigns to translate various works of his into English. Unbeknownst to me at the time, I picked up the very first KickStarter-funded manga of his at my local comic shop and was instantly smitten. But way before I began obsessing over his manga, I was a big of the 1963 black & white Astro Boy anime (an adaptation of Tezuka's Mighty Atom manga from 1952). I had an  VHS with a handful of episodes and I was blown away by the quality. It's was lightyears ahead of American animation. I even played the exact same tape on a loop in my college years for background ambiance at parties, and it always got attention. 

Funko POP! Asia - PRINCESS SAPPHIRE!

POP! Asia #55 - Osamu Tezuka Official: Princess Sapphire - Funko 2015

Several years ago I was in one of my local comic shops and picked up the first volume of the 12-volume manga epic, Phoenix by Osamu Tezuka. Many years prior I had notice an abundance of Phoenix figurines which prompted me to investigate and discover the manga. But at the time, the first volume was selling for well over $100. I was interested, but not obsessed enough to spend that much. So years later when I found it for cover price on the shelf I was really happy. Then overnight I became a huge Osamu Tezuka fan. I had heard his name all my life (I was a big fan of Astroboy in high school and I knew of the Tezuka manga award). His 44 year career in comics earned him the title "The Godfather of Manga" and in the course of his life he drew over 700 volumes (very few of which have been translated into English, relatively). I've read quite of bit of his work since then (and loved it all) but my favorite by far has been Princess Knight. For a comic published between 1953-56, it was shockingly relevant.