Osamu Tezukas tegneserie debut “Shintakarajima”, et action adventure drama, der blev udgivet i et enkelt bind af et lille forlag i Osaka i januar 1947, er blevet genoptrykt for første gang i 62 år i februar 2009 af Shogakukan Creative Inc.
“Shintakarajima”, kendt som “New Treasure Island” på engelsk, er den første selvstændige Tezuka tegneserie udgivelse. Den originale manga bog er uhyre sjælden, så de fleste Tezuka fans har måttet leve uden denne bog, der koster over $50.000 på brugt markedet (5 millioner yen). Jeg selv har kun forsiden som postkort. Osamu Tezuka, kendt og elsket i Japan som “the god of manga”, kunne være blevet 81 år i år.
fra http://www.sonic.net/~anomaly/japan/manga/tezuka.htm
Tezuka first started to work in the comics industry at the age of seventeen, drawing a comic strip for a newspaper; a year later he published his first full-length manga book, Shintakarajima, “New Treasure Island”, based on a story by Shichima Sakai. With common manga stories running just around forty pages, this 200-page epic caught readers by surprise; a fan of American animation, Tezuka’s page and panels layouts incorporated a dynamic use of layout and “camera angles” that brought a sense of depth, space, and movement to the book that comics had never displayed before. Many fans said that reading the book was like watching a movie; and, at a time after World War II when many people could barely afford to buy food, this book was said to have sold around 400,000 copies.