Osamu Tezuka is one of the great pioneers of Japanese Manga. He was one of manga's founding fathers, and laid down the foundation for much of the manga in existence today. Tezuka gained popularity as an artist and illustrator during the 1950s. Inspired by Disney, Tezuka set up his own production studio called Mushi, which became a starting point for a number of other artists, including Katsuhiro Otomo.
Tezuka created a revolution in Japanese comics. Born in 1928 in Toyonoka Prefecture in Osaka, Japan, from a very early age he enjoyed drawing and was an avid collector of insects. At the age of eighteen he enrolled in college with the goal of becoming a medical student. He made his debut as a cartoonist with a newspaper comic strip called Ma-chan's Diary.
Soon longer stories of his such as New Treasure Island and Next World became very popular selling what at the time was a record 400,000 copies. Each of these brought him fame. Although getting his license as a physician, Tezuka dedicated himself to his comics instead pursuing a career in medicine.
Tezuka pioneered long narratives in his works, bringing a cinematic element to the medium. By the 1950s he had established himself as a leading comic book artist, producing the now classic Kimba The White Lion. In 1952 in produced mighty atom, which would later become known as Astro Boy. He went on to produce other works, which were mainly targeted at children, before he began producing his "Life work the Phoenix," which was targeted at older audiences.
Throughout his life, Tezuka would continue to produce monumental works. Some of his later works were Ode to Kirihito, 1970; A History of Birdmen, 1971. A tree in the Sun, 1981. Tezuka continue to produce comics until his death on February 9, 1989. The day after Tezuka's death, the Asahi newspaper paid their respects to him. Often foreigners who visit the country have a hard time understanding why the Japanese love comics so much. In Japan, comics have no age limit. Old men and women also read comics as well. The reason for this is because of men like Osamu Tezuka.
The manga that exists today is much different than it was during the days of Edo. Manga today is much more cinematic, and this style of comic work began in 1947 with the production of Tezuka's New Treasure Island. People often describe manga as being cinematic, even though there is no actual movement in the work. How does this come about?
Tezuka's arrangment of his work was successful in creating this illusion. Tezuka chose to illustrate a sequence that used to be represented by one or two pages into over 170 pages of sequence. This was revolutionary. No work prior to New Treasure Island had ever accomplished this. It was almost as if Tezuka took images from actual film and placed it into his work.
