Medical Manga Comes to America

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Essay Medical manga comes to America

lack Jack, the brooding surgeon who operates outside of med- B ical convention — and usually beyond the realm of scientific possibil- ity — has finally come of age in Amer- ica 25 years after his debut in Japan. We’re talking about a comic hero, but one that makes Batman look like Goldilocks. Black Jack, a super-powered surgeon and rebel with punky hair and gothic garb, swoops into the surgical suite to exploit the rich, save the disen- franchised and discombobulate the status quo. The 17 volumes of the renegade doctor’s adventures, being released by Vertical, Inc. every other month (Vol- ume 4 arrives this month) for the next 3 years, are part of the oeuvre of the god- father of Japanese manga, Osamu Tezuka — a medical doctor. Tezuka (1928–1989) was a frail child with a limp who spent his spare time drawing insects. By high school he had seen several doctors, most notably one who treated drawing-related arm injuries. Ironically, he chose to study medicine because of the physi- cally and financially straining prospect of being a cartoonist, but he continued to draw throughout his years at Osaka University Medical School. His first book of manga (Japanese for comics), which he published in 1947 at the age of 19, sold 400 000 copies. Commer- cial manga art is distinguished by the character’s exaggerated features and emotions: large eyes that cry buckets and small mouths that can open to fill a Osamu Tezuka face. When angry, characters may have This page is from the manga “A Woman’s Case” featured in Volume 3 of the 17- flushed cheeks and steam rolling volume Black Jack series being published in North America by Vertical, Inc. Black Jack is around their bodies. renowned in Japan for the heroic ambiguity of its lead character and its graphic depic- tion of surgery. After graduation, Tezuka became a full-time cartoonist and hit the big time with Astro Boy, about a robot boy who Japan’s most enduring post–World War Tezuka’s cutesy animated television is rescued by a sympathetic doctor. In II cultural exports. shows, so novel in the 1950s, became 1963, Astro Boy became the first home- But in the late 1960s people started laughable during the 1960s. Tezuka re- grown animated cartoon to air in Japan, to complain that cartoons were rotting sponded by creating some of the most giving birth to the billion-dollar anime kids’ brains and teachers began enforc- outrageously racy, controversial, mor-

DOI:10.1503/cmaj.090168 industry. Tezuka had created one of ing a “no comics” rule in the classroom. bid adult-oriented comics, ever.

Enter, medical manga. bic Japanese man and a sex-change op- by Akita Shoten, Vertical, Inc.’s new Tezuka imbued works such as Bud- eration before transsexual was part of releases include several of these sealed dha (about a healer), Ode to Kirihito the contemporary lexicon. issues. The episodic nature of Black (about a disfigured doctor) and Black The average reader may be enter- Jack’s medical experiments backed up Jack (about an unlicensed doctor at odds tained by Tezuka’s composite hero, by accurate medical detail, bear more with the medical establishment) with equal parts Robin Hood and Dr. resemblance to television shows such as anatomically realistic renderings and so- Frankenstein, but curiosity — How did ER or House MD than to any North phisticated medical language. But while he do that? — will invariably turn into American comic book; medical narra- some of these works fell into obscurity, incredulity — How could he! — for tives such as these simply do not exist Black Jack thrived. Its success stemmed many medical professionals. in the US or Canadian comic media. in part from the fact that it was an un- Several anime adaptations of the se- apologetically adult comic, replete with ries have also been made, notably Four complex plots and graphic details. Miracles of Life (2003), a Black Jack Black Jack is also an entertaining TV Series (2004) and Black Jack 21 TV blend of the serious and comedic; the Series (2006), all directed by Tezuka’s dark and brooding main character — an son, Makoto Tezuka. outcast from society — is offset by the Other medical manga have surfaced antics of Pinoko, his assistant. Fun in the wake of Black Jack’s success in aside, however, the works express Japan. Even Astro Boy has been retro- Tezuka’s fascination with medical fitted (in Naoki Urasawa’s Pluto) with ethics and his abiding regard for the forensic engineering. The medical frailty of life. The resulting works are manga moniker has also been stretched both provocative and sympathetic. to apply to manga works such as Death Black Jack is a victim of modern soci- Note by Tsugumi Oba and MPD Psy- ety — orphaned and self-taught — and cho by Eiji Otsuka, both of which fea- an expert at blackmailing the rich. He ture police investigators — rather than then works pro bono for the disenfran- doctors — who are fascinated and per- chised and impoverished. plexed by the evidence hidden within

The story arcs say it all. At the begin- Peter Mendelsund for Vertical, Inc. the human body. But none of them fea- ning of most episodes, Black Jack is mo- According to the cover blurb of Vol- ture a protagonist with Black Jack’s tivated solely by money, performing ume 1, above, “Black Jack chronicles complexity and depth. The characteris- seemingly crazy medical procedures for the travails of an enigmatic surgeon- tic most frequently associated with millions and millions of dollars, usually for-hire who is more good than he pre- Tezuka (online at any rate) is human- for very wealthy and callous business- tends to be.” Each volume is approxi- ism. It fits him well. men, celebrities or politicians. However, mately 300 pages long and features 12 episodes. They sell for $18.95 each. by the end of every episode, a compelling Anne Ishii MA motive to do the right thing arises, usually Writer in a do-or-die situation that requires him Originally conceived as part of an Brooklyn, NY to choose to save one life over another: “All Star Showcase” of Tezuka charac- He saves the life of a cranially mal- ters, Black Jack was a short-term hero, Ms. Ishii’s writing has appeared in formed, but breathing and stable sextuplet what Tezuka called “an example of the publications such as Publishers Weekly, at the expense of the 5 beautiful, but se- kind of doctor I would want to be.” But the Village Voice and Giant Robot. She has verely premature others. He lets a child who was supposed to be an ancillary translated pharmaceutical websites, PBS kill his conjoined twin. This heroic ambi- case study in manga characterization documentaries and several comic books guity no doubt contributed to Black turned into a nationwide bestseller. from Japanese to English. Most recently Jack’s immense popularity in Japan. Black Jack was first serialized in Japan she has worked with Chip Kidd on The graphic nature of the series was from 1973 to 1978, and was followed Batmanga! The Secret History of Batman another factor. In a country where au- by 13 sporadic episodes that concluded in Japan. Before this re-release of Black Jack, she was the director of marketing topsies are rarely performed (some es- in 1983. Sadly, the series faltered in and publicity for Vertical, Inc. timates say only 10% of unnatural America when first published in the late deaths are examined by autopsy) due 1990s, likely because it was targeted to to an aversion to mutilation, Black children in a serial comic book format. Online extras: Read “Dingoes”, an episode Jack eviscerates the status quo by fea- Furthermore, none of the controversial from Vol. 3 in which Black Jack identifies turing fantastically detailed depictions “sealed episodes” (which were never and cures himself of a potentially lethal of an astounding array of surgeries, printed in Japan owing to their morbid contagion (www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content some of which make Frankenstein look and offensive content), were translated /full/180/5/542/DC1). Free previews of 3 like a Disney character. He performs into English, until now. Based on a other Black Jack episodes are available at interracial skin sutures on a xenopho- hardcover compendium first compiled www.vertical-inc.com/blackjack/