Hot on the heels of the release of legendary manga-ka Osamu Tezuka’s Apollo Song over the summer, Vertical continues to expand Tezuka’s profile in America. Known as the “godfather of manga,” Tezuka (1928—1989) is famous for his animated children’s sci-fi series Astroboy, as well as the mammoth, award-winning biographical work Buddha, which is also published in the U.S. by Vertical. In October, Vertical continues its program of publishing classic manga with the release of Tezuka’s MW (pronounced Moo) in an omnibus edition collecting the entire multivolume work. MW is the story of a serial killer and a priest and their symbiotic relationship. The roughly 600-page book paints portraits of the two—one man reveling in evil, the other gripped by guilt. PWCW spoke with Vertical editorial director Ioannis Mentzas about MW, Tezuka’s development as a creator of mature works and the perils of publishing classic manga.
PW Comics Week : It seems like Vertical’s mission has been to tear down the gentle kids comics facade that envelops Tezuka’s reputation in the U.S.
Ioannis Mentzas : All of those single-volume books we published—MW, Apollo Song, Ode to Kirihito—we’ve designated for ages 16 and older. Already that changes the terms of Tezuka. Those [works] were produced in the 1970s. I put the transition date as 1970; before then most of his work was primarily for kids. After that, his work targeted older people.
Next year we’re going to publish Dororo. It’s from the 1960s and intended for a younger audience. That one we’re going to do in three volumes and unflipped. It’s about yokai [monsters] and swordsmen so it has enough appeal to readers who prefer the [original Japanese] right-to-left format.
PWCW : MW is the third single-volume Tezuka book from Vertical, but the fourth Tezuka project you’ve published—all of which have been flipped to read left-to-right. This is unusual these days. Most licensed manga is published in the original right-to-left orientation. Why are you flipping his work?
IM : The idea is to reach a more mainstream [English-speaking] audience. I think it’s still hard to have them pick up your book if it isn’t left-to-right. If you do a right-to-left book, you’re appealing to a certain demographic. Teen readers are used to reading in the original Japanese way, but with an author like Tezuka, I’m not sure it’s good to target that demographic. I’m not sure there’s much you can do to interest [teen readers] in classic manga anyway.
PWCW : Tezuka is known for bringing cinematic techniques to Japanese comics. So is this what it means to be the “godfather of manga”? Does it mean he has a broad range of stories, some sadistic and dark?
IM : Tezuka himself loathed the fact that he was always associated with AstroBoy [in Japan]; he did not want to be seen as the “Astroboy guy.” He wanted to demonstrate that he had a wider range. I don’t think he would ever have acquired the place in pop culture he has without directly appealing to adults—the people who write the history. If he just appealed to kids, he would have been noticed and noted as a phenomenon by the writers of history. But it’s because he wrote for the older audience and entertained them that he came to be called the godfather of manga.
Tezuka’s style has been cinematic right from the beginning, but until the ’70s the panels were smaller; then the panels became much larger, there was less text per page and more spreads. Tezuka was considered a master by 1970, but he wasn’t selling as much as he used to because gekiga [bleak, reality-based manga pioneered by Yoshihiro Tatsumi] appeared. Tezuka was able to adapt and incorporate gekiga—that’s how those cityscapes start appearing in his work.
PWCW : When Ode to Kirihito was published in 2006, you mentioned that it was a book he created to go head-to-head with Tatsumi [author of The Push Manand Other Stories and Abandon the Old in Tokyo from D&Q] and the rising popularity of the gekiga genre of storytelling.
IM : Well, not Tatsumi specifically. There were many people making gekiga [at the time]. But Tezuka incorporated elements of gekiga—not just stylistically, but more lurid incidents start occurring in his work.
PWCW : Both MW and Apollo Song seem depressed and hopeless. In MW, you have a priest who feels consumed by his own inner evil. In Apollo Song, the protagonist is gripped by an all-consuming urge to destroy love and those who display affection. Does this reflect Tezuka’s own bleak outlook on society? Do these stories parallel his own disillusionment with mankind?
IM : Certainly the themes he used were darker in the 1970s due to his financial woes. His animation studio went bankrupt, he had to sell his house. Also he had personal difficulties. Any time a company is dissolved, there are hard feelings.
PWCW : What was going on in Japan during the time he was creating MW?
IM : MW was serialized from 1976 to 1978 during the Lockheed scandal, the one that brought down prime minister Tanaka Kakuwei—the politician in MW is a scrambled version of Kakuwei—so there was a lot of political corruption. There were also big student demonstrations during those years; the 1960s and 1970s security pact [Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the U.S. and Japan] is directly referred to in MW. The idea was that Japan had accepted a pacifist constitution after WWII, but entering into an alliance with one of the superpowers in a hyper-tense conflict was a step away from peace. So the students were on the left and the U.S. was the bad party, the capitalist power.
Tezuka’s stance was ambivalent toward the student movement. He thought students were becoming too politicized and cynical, and the movements [brought]no substantial change, same as in the West. Tezuka was a member of the Communist Party for about a year. But then he realized Communists were a mirror image of who they were fighting against. The student movements used too much terror and violence for his taste. Evil [prevails] in these works, and I think that’s what he felt like, too. The good people are also conflicted and unable to act, and evil just gets away with it.
PWCW : How is MW different from Apollo Song or Ode to Kirihito or any of his other mature works?
IM : Tezuka said he wanted to write a work unlike [what he was known for], where the work would be full of evil of all sorts. He was trying consciously to be unlike Tezuka in this work. The theme of evil, rampant evil, and no redemption of any sort—of his major works, this is certainly the darkest. There are some timely topics in here including homoeroticism and the Catholic clergy, weapons of mass destruction, political corruption and America’s military intervention abroad. We’re definitely trying to target the post teenage group, people who don’t read manga or comics but read mysteries.
PWCW: Will the book be shrinkwrapped?
IM : No. We have a bestiality shot on the spine. The thing is, there is a lot of racey panels, but I don’t think the intent is ever pornographic. I don’t think we have to alert retailers the way we would have to if we were putting out something like MPD Psycho [the story of a serial killer, published by Dark Horse]. This is Tezuka, after all. And if there’s controversy, of course, we welcome it. If it does generate controversy, people are going to have to discuss the nature of this author, his place in comics, his other works, and that’s actually a desirable outcome.
PWCW : How have these books done in the market?
IM : So-so; they could do better. They’re among Vertical’s bestsellers, but compared to other manga they could do better.
PWCW : Have you been disappointed in the reception Tezuka’s serious manga has received in the U.S.?
IM: Buddha was an eight-volume hardcover manga. It was an act of madness [to publish it here]—and the madness continues. Like Apollo Song, it’s 500 pages, unflipped, of the best possible paper, with a bellyband, and it’s $20 bucks—it’s crazy. The profit margin is slim; even if it becomes a bestseller, the margin is slim.
People refer to us as a boutique publisher saying we do deluxe editions but will they please notice how low the price point is? We’re killing ourselves publishing these editions as one-shots. Even Tezuka Productions asked us, “Are you sure you want to do this? We don’t mind if you split it up.”
We just try to price it in such a way that it doesn’t become unaffordable for the regular Joe. But we are for-profit, we are a commercial operation. So we came to the conclusion that we like doing it. If people become Tezuka fans, there are so many more works we can do. Even if the profit margins are thin, it is a viable business model. There’s no end to Tezuka works. If there were only three good Tezuka works, we wouldn’t price it so low; we’d have to make a profit on those three works.
PWCW : Any interest from Vertical in licensing Kimba the Lion [a classic manga and anime work by Tezuka ]?
IM : We’re interested, but the depiction of black people in Kimba is problematic. If everyone can for a moment put their sensitivity aside then we can do it. Otherwise people may be offended by the stereotypical drawing of Africans. A disclaimer might not be enough. And the author no longer being alive, it can’t be redrawn. If people promise to be understanding, we will publish it.
Of course, we would first have to talk to Tezuka Productions, too. They might have their reservations. I know for a fact that they are very careful about Kimba. They got into trouble in Japan in the early 1990s when certain groups said that it should be taken off the shelves—and it was. So they added a disclaimer and now you can buy it, but you don’t see it that much in bookstores.
The thing is, MW was part of a line I had in mind from the beginning. When we did Buddha and it was successful, we were confident that we would be able to do more Tezuka works. I had a lineup in mind; MW is the second to last, next is Dororo. After that, I’ll take requests. My personal favorite is Black Jack.
