Black Jack 9

Black Jack is a mysterious and charismatic genius surgeon who travels the world performing amazing and impossible medical feats. Though highly trained, he freelances without a license because he disdains the medical establishment. This leads to run-ins with the authorities and unscrupulous, sometimes criminal, individuals. Because Black Jack keeps his true motives secret, his ethics are perceived as questionable and he is considered a selfish, uncaring devil my the medical industry.

The Black Jack series is told in short stories. Volume 9 will contain 14 stories, each running approximately 20 pages in length. This ninth volume includes the following stories:

Pinoko is Alive--Black Jack`s walking teratoma turned medical technician Pinoko loses consciousness while doing chores around the doctor`s compound. Once tests are performed Black Jack is confronted with the horrible fact that his little assistant is suffering from lukemia.

Eyewitness--Disaster strikes in the heart of Tokyo when a bomb was detinated in the metropolis` eternally busy Tokyo Station. Scores of innocent travelers waiting to board a bullet train to Osaka are injured or killed in the blast and a suspect is nowhere to be found.

"With his shock of white hair and rock-star demeanour, Black Jack transfers well to the manga version of the operating room. The book is peppered with enough knowledge to hint at Tezuka's fascination with the frailty of the human body. It means he can avoid the cliches of most manga storylines." --The Guardian (U.K.)

"Tezuka effortlessly integrates scores of different surgical procedures into short, sharp tales that eviscerate the codified vicissitudes (especially reticence and duty) of Japanese society with, yes, surgical precision." -- The Village Voice

Osamu Tezuka was born on November 3, 1928, in Osaka. He grew up in an open-minded family exposed to comics and Walt Disney. As a boy he also had a love for insects, which he would later as a grown-up incorporate into pen name. Having developed an intense understanding of the preciousness of life from his wartime experience, Osamu Tezuka aimed to become a physician and later earned his degree in medicine, but ultimately chose the profession he loved best: manga artist and animated film writer.

Tezuka's manga and animated films had a tremendous impact on the shaping of the psychology of Japan's postwar youth. His work changed the concept of Japanese comics, transforming it into an art form and incorporating a variety of new styles in creating the "story cartoon." Osamu Tezuka lived out his entire life tirelessly pursuing his efforts, passing away at the age of 60 on February 8, 1989.

In all, Tezuka produced more than 150,000 pages of graphic storytelling before his death.