Black Jack Volume 1
Black Jack – Vol 1
Osamu Tezuka / Published by Vertical, Inc.
Story:
Everyone’s at least heard of Tezuka’s masterpiece Black Jack. It follows an underground doctor that charges outrageous prices to preform operations… operations which are in themselves pretty outrageous. Volume one covers various random stories dealing many incidents involving cars, sushi making, some history of BJ, the making of a person from a tumor, and so much more.
Presentation:
So I’ve always liked Vertical’s presentation of Tezuka’s works, and Black Jack is no different. The design of the volumes was actually one of the things that originally got me to buy them. Every volume has the same basic design– four colored blocks with a certain image in the center on the cover, various frames from the volume on the spine, and a whole page on the rear cover along with a blurb of info. It’s extremely simplistic, but really looks nice.
The book itself is also very well put together. It’s sturdy–something I really like since killing the spine on books really sucks. The paper is extremely thick and really allows for the sharp images that Tezuka has put together to shine. PLUS, it’s not flipped and is left in its original right-to-left format, a first for a Tezuka work in English, perhaps?
The translation is by Camellia Nieh, who does most, if not all, of Vertical’s Tezuka translations. It’s smooth as always and really gives easy characterization to some characters such as Pinoko with her child-like way of talking. Some jokes are simply lost in translation, but when they are, footnotes are there for help! Not all jokes are lost, like Tezuka’s chronic deadlinitis, and can actually give you a nice chuckle here and there.
Vertical also had a deal with Diamond publishing to release hardback copies of the first three volumes. The volumes each included a chapter that was not included in the paperback edition. Since the first few volumes almost two years ago, it’s almost impossible to find them in their hardback glory any longer as there was only a limited number printed. I was able to find a few places to order volume three at back a few months ago, but even those might be gone by now. Really sucks, would have been awesome to grab (same with Buddha HCs).
Other Rambles:
I’ve had volumes of Black Jack sitting on my shelf since last December. I grabbed a good collection of English Tezuka works then and have finally just gotten around to picking Black Jack up and reading it. People around the world regard it as one of Tezuka’s best (even my brother is quite a fan of it), but I have yet to hit that mark yet. Volume one was great, yeah, but I’m not one for random stories like Black Jack is set up (and most comedy series out there). I really drive on storyline and character development. I did get some character development for BJ in the first volume, which was actually surprised me. I was expecting to just go through vol1 seeing a mysterious, cold-hearted guy charging whatever he pleased and conning people out of their money, but nope. He actually has a heart, as well as a background.
Anyway, Tezuka’s Stars are all over in Black Jack. I haven’t read too many of Tezuka’s works so far, but I was spotting them left and right. In just the first few chapters you see Rock, Sapphire, Maria, Zephyrus, Higeoyaji, Ochanomizu, Sharaku, Saruta, and the classic gag Hytantsugi — just to name of couple. I wouldn’t be surprised if almost all the characters thrown into BJ were just from Tezuka’s salt shaker of characters. It’s actually fun trying to spot the few that I know throughout the pages.
It’s really hard to ramble on about Black Jack even though it’s a classic. It’s without a doubt something everyone should check out at some point. I’m sure within the next few volumes I’ll be hooked on it as everyone else is. Looks promising.
Also, I used a personal shelf picture as the image… since I really like the way it looks on a shelf. They’re the ones in the center that all look alike, if you couldn’t tell. If you want a front cover image of volume one, here, go at it.
