DMP Kickstarter For Osamu Tezuka's 'Alabaster'

All right, look. I've been pretty late on getting around to reading the considerable library of titles that Osamu Tezuka produced over the course of his forty-year career in manga. Much as I've enjoyed going back through Astro Boy, and as much as I'm looking forward to continuing it when Dark Horse's line of omnibus editions drop this fall, I still haven't read Black Jack or Buddha or any of his other major works, despite knowing that I really should. But folks, I am doing my best, which is why I really hope you head over to Kickstarter and throw a few bucks towards DMP's project to bring Tezuka's Alabaster to America.

Originally released in Japan in 1970, during what DMP characterizes as a "dark period" in Tezuka's life, Alabaster spans two volumes as a revenge-driven thriller about a man with invisible skin, and if this thing doesn't meet its goal and I don't get to read this comic, I will be extremely upset.

Here's how DMP describes Alabaster:

Once a famous athlete, now an infamous villain, James Block seeks revenge against all things "beautiful." After he's arrested and convicted for assaulting his girlfriend who insulted his appearance, he meets a mad scientist in prison who tells him of the 'F Laser' he invented that can turn any carbon based organism invisible. When James finishes his prison term, he finds the 'F Laser' and points it on himself, however the imperfect laser beam leaves him disfigured with only his skin invisible. On a vicious revenge spree, he takes the nom de guerre of Alabaster and is joined by Ami, the granddaughter of the scientist who experimented on his pregnant daughter and left Ami fully invisible. Together they pull off several heists, but Ami's innocence may cause Alabaster's downfall…

It sounds awfully dark, to the point where I'm not actually sure if anyone in this Tezuka comic will have a machine gun that pops out of their butt. Still, it sounds like a pretty engaging read.

With just over three days to go in the Kickstarter campaign, Alabaster still has $6,000 to go, which is a fair bit, but pretty achievable if we all put our minds to it and believe in the power of revenge and invisible skin.