Osamu Tezuka's "Phoenix"

probably an emotionally haunted ex-doctor who became a comic book writer.

Dororo, Apollo's Song, MW are all great; don't neglect astroboy! The dark horse reprints are tiny, but fun reads. Buddha and Phoenix are pretty clearly the apex as far as American reprints go.

Astro/Blackjack do suffer from repetitious episodic themes, so tread lighter than you would with Buddha/Phoenix. You can burn out if you do two or three books at a time.

MW sounds excellent, but the library doesn't have it. They do have Dororo and Apollo's Song, though, so maybe I'll do some shorter ones after this most recent glut. Certainly before I try the 23 volumes of Astro Boy they've got....

it is ridiculous that all the viz english volumes of phoenix are OOP.

i bought them all on amazon a year or two back and i never did a full read through! need to set aside a month.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xC4Q07JJmB8

http://tezukainenglish.com/wp/?page_id=172

Just read Ayako, holy cow, that was dark.

Guys, I just watched the first episode of the OG Astro Boy, and I really did not expect it to be such a rich + multilayered text as it is or for it to be so deeply, sublimely fucked up. Soooooo I'm gonna be watching more Astro Boy, is what I'm sayin' here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAzTJdgwUSM