No one figure in manga and animation is bigger than Osamu Tezuka; one of the 20th century’s most influential artists is getting his own documentary. Peabody Award-winning director Jason Andrew Cohn and Bread & Butter Films (Camille Servan-Schreiber, Jinko Gotoh, Glen S. Fukushima, and Roland Kelts) are making an in-depth look and celebration of Tezuka’s dozens of television cartoons and animated films and an estimated 150,000 pages of published manga, with interviews with legendary manga and anime creators. He created Astro Boy, Dororo, Black Jack, Kimba the White Lion, Phoenix, Buddha, Princess Knight, and Animerama.
To mark the occasion, art prints from an international selection of illustrators, cartoonists, and fine artists have been made, including Eisner Award winner Jim Rugg, who designed a limited-edition Astro Boy Blacklight Poster Art Print and Astro Boy T-Shirt available only through the TEZUKA! God of Manga Kickstarter campaign.
“Astro Boy is such an all-time great character!” said Rugg. “It’s an honor to pay tribute both to Astro Boy and his esteemed creator. Tezuka is a Mount Rushmore creator.”
TEZUKA! God of Manga is looking to showcase the man who single-handedly changed the concept of Japanese manga and animation, with interviews by Katsuhiro Otomo (Akira), Riyoko Ikeda (Rose of Versaille), Naoki Urasawa (Monster), Go Nagai (Devilman), Yoshiyuki Tomino (Gundam), MADHOUSE co-founder and anime producer Masao Maruyama (Tokyo Godfathers), anime director Rintaro (Metropolis), best-selling fantasy author Ada Palmer (Too Like the Lightning), Samuel Sattin (Unico Awakening), and Jorge R. Gutierrez (The Book of Life).
“Our goal is to introduce Osamu Tezuka to the English-speaking world like never before,” said TEZUKA! God of Manga director Jason Andrew Cohn. “And what better way to make that introduction than by way of art?”
Check out the TEZUKA! God of Manga trailer:
A moving, immersive, and visually stunning romp through comics history, the TEZUKA! God of Manga documentary unfolds in three acts, beginning with his childhood in the suburbs of Osaka in the shadow of the Pacific War. Launching from young Tezuka’s dream of creating manga and founding his own independent animation studio, the film chronicles his ascendence to becoming a national sensation and the subsequent counter-cultural backlash in the 1960s, when young manga readers gravitated away from Tezuka and toward edgier artists in the gekiga movement. The third act explores Tezuka’s remarkable comeback with enduring storylines like Phoenix and Black Jack.
Inspired by Jack Kirby’s iconic Marvel Comics posters of the 1970s, Rugg pays homage to Tezuka’s most beloved character, Astro Boy, with a breathtaking 18 x 24-inch blacklight print and T-shirt as a Kickstarter exclusive. Cohn and the Bread and Butter team have also brought together today’s hottest manga and comic artists to each give their own take on beloved Tezuka stories and characters in special-edition 8″x10″ offset lithography prints.
Fans can collect prints by Shinichi Ishizuka (Blue Giant), striking takes on Astro Boy by Dave Baker (Mary Tyler MooreHawk), Jim Rugg (Street Angel), and Jorge R. Gutiérrez (Book of Life), bold looks at Black Jack by Jeff Lemire (Sweet Tooth) and Yuko Shimizu (Barbed Wire Baseball), a beautiful Buddha print from Jesse Lonergan (Dome), a fantastic look at Phoenix by Matt Kindt (Mind MGMT), a stunning Princess Knight print by Elsa Charretier (November), unbelievable Unico artwork by Gurihuru (Unico Awakening), and a vivid take on Vampires by Nicole Goux.
Check them out below:
TEZUKA! God of Manga is scheduled for completion by 2028, in time for the centenary of Osamu Tezuka’s birth. Fans can support the film on Kickstarter now.
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