DMP Just Put A Whole Bunch Of Tezuka Manga On Comixology
On the off chance that your birthday party for manga legend Osamu Tezuka has lasted two weeks with no sign of stopping and you're looking for a way to finally cap it off, then I have some good news. This week saw the digital debut of a whole bunch of Tezuka's manga on Comixlology. Released by Platinum Manga, DMP's imprint for high-end Tezuka projects, there are over a dozen volumes in all, covering everything from the relatively well-known Unico to Tezuka's spin on Treasure Island and a world-traveling adventure complete with samurai and pirates to space westerns to a story about a cat that has all of Astro Boy's powers, which one assumes includes a machine gun in his butt.
And if that wasn't enough, there's also Triton of the Sea, which sounds an awful lot like Tezuka doing his own version of Aquaman. Clearly, we're going to have to read all of this.
Here's the full list of what's available now:
- Age of Adventure, about an emissary from Japan who gets shipwrecked on his way to America and has to contend with pirates, cowboys and all manner of problems.
- Atomcat, the adventures of Astro Boy as a cat.
- Brave Dan, about an orphan teaming up with a man-eating tiger.
- Captain Ken, a space western about a gunman on Mars who protects the native population from oppression by humans, and who may in fact be a young lady from Earth.
- The Castle of Dawn, about the construction of a European-style castle in Japan in 1594.
- Crime and Punishment, Tezuka's adaptaion of Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel of the same name.
- Mr. Cactus, a western about a cowboy who gets hopped up on ice-cold glasses of milk.
- New Treasure Island, which is like Treasure Island but newer.
- Swallowing the Earth, about a captivating woman who uses her power over men to "exact revenge for their crimes against women since the beginning of time."
- Triton of the Sea volumes 1 and 2, about the last survivor of an underwater civilization and a war with the surface.
- Unico, the famous story of an adorable unicorn adventuring through time and space.
DMP has been leading the charge to get more of Tezuka's work published in English (they had multiple Kickstarter campaigns this year alone to fund new printings of Alabaster, Clockwork Apple, Wonder 3 and Storm Fairy), but the massive digital release represents a whole lot of new stuff.
Which is the problem, at least when it comes to recommendations. Since all of these titles are new to me, I'm not sure which ones to point you to. Odds are pretty good that you'd have a good time with all of them, but if you know one that's especially stellar, please feel free to let me know below!