Celluloids by Osamu Tezuka, Jungle Taitei

OSAMU TEZUKA (Toyonaka, 1928-Tokyo, 1989).
Two celluloids of "Jungle Taitei".
Acetate and drawing.

Osamu Tezuka, considered "the god of Manga", was a Japanese mangaka (Japanese word for the creator of a comic book) and animator. Thanks to his work as an illustrator, Tezuka expanded and massively spread the reading and consumption of manga as a means of popular entertainment, achieving that mangas came to have a profound influence on post-war Japanese society. He influenced the way of making comics of the great majority of later authors and his works have been translated into many languages, including Spanish. His way of making comics was based on the cinematographic techniques of Walt Disney, introducing the story manga, or manga of long duration, with a much more elaborate and complex plot than the comics created so far by other artists. Among his most famous works are Jungle Taitei ("Kimba, the White Lion"), Tetsuwan Atom ("Astroboy") and Ribbon No Kishi ("The Knight Princess"), considered the first shojo manga in history. The success continued in the following decades, with series such as Hi no Tori ("Phoenix", 1954), Black Jack (1973-84), Buddha (1972-83) and Adolf (1983), taking a deep turn with the culmination of the MW series (1976-1978), in which he addressed very unusual themes in the manga of the time, such as homosexuality, political corruption or chemical weapons.