‘Astro Boy’ Creator Osamu Tezuka Notebooks to be Published in Japan

Imagine a volume reprinting the notebook pages on which Captain America and Fantastic Four creator Jack Kirby first scribbled and sketched the concepts that would become his most famous works, including dialogue, back-story, character designs and more, all in the King's own hand. Something just as momentous is happening in the realm of manga in December, when Shogakukan Creative will publish ten handwritten notebooks by the legendary manga and anime pioneer Osamu Tezuka, creator of Astro Boy, Metropolis, Kimba the White Lion and more.Anime News Network reports that 75 notebooks were discovered in the years following Tezuka's death in 1989, and that contained within them were the artist's prototypical concepts for some of his medium's most influential creations. The material was put on paper by Tezuka between 1948 and 1959.

According to Doshisha University manga history professor Osamu Takeuchi, these post-war notebooks are "valuable documents for understanding how Tezuka adopted techniques from both cinema and literature."

More specific details, like foreign distribution and the exact nature of the volume, are unknown at this time, but Shogakukan Creative will publish ten of Tezuka's notebooks on December 24 of this year.