Seq. Art: Tezuka and Gardenfors

Ode to Kirihito Vols. 1 and 2 / Osamu Tezuka
Apollo’s Song / Osamu Tezuka

Vertical, Inc. publishes translated books from Japan, including fiction, non-fiction, cookbooks, manga and more. I’ve been reading their Osamu Tezuka manga translations, which represent just a small fraction of his life’s output. Reading them, I’m continually stunned by the quantity of manga Japan has produced, and continues to produce, every week, for a low cost. Both these books are collections of stories that originally appeared in weekly format between 1970 and 1972.

Ode to Kirihito was a long, fantastic medical/horror manga. Tezuka holds a medical degree from Osaka University, but never practiced as a doctor, instead dedicating his life to manga and anime. This medical knowledge really adds to the story of Kirihito Osanai, a young doctor studying the strange “Monmow Disease”, which turns victims into dog-like creatures before killing them. The novel covers Kirihito’s year-long quest to find the cause of the disease, and also avenge the men who conspired to infect him. It’s an awesome story that not only explores medical ethics, but also questions the concept of “human”. I really enjoyed this, and now plan to try Tezuka’s Black Jack series, a long series about a superhuman doctor.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t finish Apollo’s Song. While I was intriguted by the concept that man must experience love and death over and over for eternity - I found some of animal torture by the protagonist too upsetting, although it was essential to the character of Shogo Chikaishi. The art was beautiful, and the page layouts interesting, but it just wasn’t the right manga for me.

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120 Days of Summer: A Graphic Odyssey Through Sweden / Simon Gardenfors

In late 2006, Swedish cartoonist Simon Gardenfors decided to sublet his apartment in Stockholm for four months, and travel around the country, spending no more than two nights sleeping in any location. He put up a website (which still exists, if you can read Swedish) asking for lodging around Sweden. After he lined up lodgings, he mapped out a route and took off.

It turned out to be quite a sleazy journey, filled with many sexual exploits with girls of all ages (in Sweden, the age of consent is rather low, but still some of the encounters are icky considering he was 28 at the time), drugs, drinking, fighting, and other unsavory adventures. Most of the time, Simon comes off as either an asshole or a douchebag. Simon’s content is in sharp contrast with his cartooning style, which is deceptively simple, and almost kid-like. It looks like a very twisted Peanuts.

120 Days of Simon wasn’t a particularly easy or pleasurable read, and was a disappointment in comparison with another Swedish book I picked up at MoCCA Fest, Hey Princess.