Swallowing the Earth by Osamu Tezuka

Swallowing the Earth turned out to be the most difficult Tezuka book to lay my hands upon. First, I was waiting for it in Amazon, not falling for pre-order option. Then the book, produced not by Vertical, the usual Tezuka publisher in the US, but rather by DMP, a comic book company I never heard about, went out of stock in a matter of a few days, as quite few copies were published. All you could buy was a lousy used copy at least 5x the cover price. Hm, not for me.

A couple of years later Amazon advertised a kickstarter project by DMP, who were raising money to put out a new edition out – and, not unexpectedly, I subscribed to this funding initiative to get my new copy. Never tried kickstarter before – and, frankly, the idea is nice but I am sure at least half the projects are dead in water after funding. Oddly enough, the guys didn’t lie, and in half a year or so, the book finally came, along with half a dozen of lower quality manga I got hold of as well thanks to my (was it?) $60 funding.

Now, the book is Tezuka’s first serialized graphic novel, written and drawn in 1968, before Ode to Kirihito, MW, Adolf and the rest of his perennial classics. A strange story of women’s revenge against civilization – focused on destruction of money, law and love – and not too much of a happy ending. To my mind, the book lacks clear storyline – it goes away from the main character and back far too easy. Lotsa dead bodies, as usual – sex and violence reign. All in all, too bold and not too well baked for my taste – you can see the master’s touch, but it ain’t a mona-friggin-lisa story-wise. Oh well.

P.S. I realized I missed DMP’s second project for Tezuka’s Barbara. Dang.

The Book of Human Insects by Osamu Tezuka

The Insects book, newly translated into English, despite its promising name, is okay but not more. Yes, like most Tezuka’s adult novels, it has abundant violence, sex, murders – this one, even a hostile takeover shareholder meeting (vow, this is 16 years before Gekko!) – and most people are not nice at all – yet it lacks strong and gripping storyline Tezuka’s most prominent books like Adolf, Kirihito or Ayako can surely boast. I guess, sometimes, when you serialize a novel, like Jap manga usually goes out, it can hurt your story.

Written in the 70s, it is a tale of a sick and wicked girl – but other than that, little to add. I wonder whether Swallowing the Earth I backed on kickstarter.com will be of similar disappointment, ’cause for my $75-worth, I will get 10 non-Tezuka books on top of it.