Book Off Manga
Osamu Tezuka, Black Jack 1, Shonen Champion Comics
This was the oldest of the volumes, published in 1974, in a small 11×17.5 cm format; the retail price on this edition was ¥390. Something about the character seemed familiar, but I bought this (as with all of them) for the artwork, with its striking use of black and white throughout (all line, no grey tone), its varied settings, and its frenetic sense of pace.
So I was pleased to discover that Black Jack was the third most popular title drawn by the artist of Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion. Kimba was a staple of afternoon ABC-TV when I was a kid, so maybe the imprinted memories of his graphic style steered me towards this.
Black Jack is a doctor-for-sale. In this first volume, he dissects a dolphin at sea, hangs out with a bird-girl in a wheelchair, and does a lot more slicing open of bodies than I remember being in Kimba.