Once again it's Old School Month, and I can't believe it's taken me this far into the pandemic to talk about this particular series.
BLACK JACK (Burakku Jakku), by Osamu Tezuka. First published in 1973 and first published in North America in 2008.
PLOT:
Black Jack is a man of mystery. No one knows his real name, but everyone knows of his talent. There are many stories about him, but there are a few things that everyone can agree upon. He is said to be a doctor of peerless skill. He can and will operate on those who have no other options available to them, but will do so at an astronomical cost. He is said to be able save anyone or anything, no matter how dire their condition may be, and sometimes he is even able to use his hands to right some of the wrongs of the world.
STORY:
A lot of Tezuka's manga are hyped up as classics, regardless of their actual quality, but Black Jack is one that absolutely lives up to that reputation. The story may be very episodic, but each episode lasts just long enough to satisfy without dragging on too long and each new story tells us a little more about the title character.
Tezuka's big inspiration for this series was his own medical training. There's a pretty even balance between relatively mundane conditions such as polio, radiation sickness, and cancer and more fantastical situations like teratomas with psychic powers or a computer that has convinced itself that it is sick. The aforementioned teratoma is eventually transformed into Black Jack's assistant Pinoko who is...difficult, to say the least. While she has the appearance and lisping voice of a little girl, she claims she is 18 and also Black Jack's wife. Whenever she is around, she is butting into everyone else's business and she can get annoying fast. Unfortunately, she's the only other reoccurring character and she's the only one who can talk to Black Jack without having any stakes in his latest operation.
The stories onto themselves are well-done. They are superbly paced, appropriately dramatic, and each one tells us something new about Black Jack, whether it's part of his past or a demonstration of one of his many clever medical techniques. Sadly, this does come from a rather edgy period in Tezuka's career, and there are some plot points that have poorly (like the idea that Black Jack's former sweetheart has to change her gender entirely after undergoing an emergency hysterectomy).
Still, there's a thread of social justice in Black Jack's acts of medicine. He will save people because they have some great work they need to complete or to protect them from both real and supernatural malicious forces. He doesn't do this to satisfy his ego, but entirely based on his own sense of right and wrong and a desire to make the world a little more equal. This, combined with Tezuka's medical expertise, is what keeps Black Jack relevant, nearly 50 years later.
ART:
True to Tezuka's typical style, the characters here are simple and cartoony. Good young people tend to drawn attractively, but the rest can vary widely: short, tall, squat, thin, big noses, big mouths, etc. The real winner when it comes to design is Black Jack himself. It's easy to see why he became so iconic, with his Gothic-looking cape and suit combined with his Frankenstein-style scars and shockingly black and white hair.
They stand in contrast to the more realistically drawn medical procedures, to the point that it can get a little gruesome at times. He also gives a lot of care to the settings, as there are a lot of moody landscapes and night skies. The panels tend to be small, but Tezuka makes the most of his page space and every page is visually dynamic while remaining easy to follow.
RATING:
This series was published by Vertical and previously by Viz. This series is complete in Japan with 17 volumes available. Viz published 2 volumes, and Vertical published all 17; all are currently out of print.
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