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Reviewed by Park Cooper Okay, it’s been some time since I got Black Jack volume 1 from Vertical. So long that I also got volume 2. So long that I decided I liked Osamu Tezuka’s work so much I would even get Astro Boy out from my local library and try reading that too. So long that I’m on like volume 18 of Astro Boy. Suffice to say, I like Black Jack. I shall give it an A. But let me tell you about it. Do you like House? Well if you’ve been hiding in a cave under the Gobi desert for the last 10 months in order to get away from the election coverage, then let me tell you (that Obama won, and also) something you should have known last year anyway—the magic has officially gone out of House, but you might like this Black Jack fellow. My first exposure to Black Jack was in anime form. I didn’t like it at all. Black Jack just didn’t work as a slow-moving medical drama. Black Jack demands to be experienced just as fast as you can read it. Here is Black Jack: As a youth, he was in a terrible accident, and a genius doctor stitched him back together. And I mean stitched—his hair is partially white, presumably from shock, but also his skin doesn’t quite match—he had a little school friend who was part Japanese and part of African heritage (I know, what are the odds, how much did that happen 50 years ago, but what the heck, go with it), so that Black Jack’s skin on his FACE doesn’t even quite match itself. And there was lots of hard physical therapy after that. But the young man who was destined to become Black Jack did it, and went on to study medicine. Now he is Black Jack, the black-hearted OUTLAW DOCTOR (please stop laughing) who charges insanely high fees... and also does a little pro bono work now and then that he tries not to let anyone know about. Because although he is scary-looking to many, he actually has a heart of gold. No one knows the hurtin’ inside that Black Jack feels... None, that is, except for his little... assistant, let’s call her... Pinoko... a growth that was inside a woman that turned out to be the woman’s incorrectly-grown twin-sister... with a brain, eyes, heart, and nerves... So Black Jack got some prosthetic parts and made her a little girl body. So chronologically, his assistant is 18... but in every other way... physically, emotionally... she’s more like 5. At least now those of you who read volume 3 of Dark Horse’s MAIL understand what the HECK that creator was thinking as far as the little-girl-assistant in THAT book... Anyway, not unlike Will Eisner’s The Spirit (Fie! Fie on you, Frank Miller!), Black Jack is your basic tell-any-kind-of-story-you-want genre. Tezuka can use it to make you laugh, he can make you cry, he can rail against the injustices of the world, he can tug at your heartstrings in a bittersweet way—as he does with Astro Boy, incidentally. Some highlights of Volume 1: --The secret origin of Dr. Honma, Black Jack’s mentor—how he made a terrible mistake during Black Jack’s original operation that taught them both the folly of thinking that any human can gain power over death—or over life --Why Black Jack can never be with the woman he once loved—even though she’s technically still alive... and practicing medicine --The story of a painter whom Black Jack helps to live... long enough to finish the painting of a nuclear test he was witness to in the Pacific Some highlights of Volume 2: --The origin of Black Jack’s facial scarring and what became of the friend who left him a skin graft --The president of a small country needs Black Jack to save him—but political enemies want him to let the president die, and they’ve kidnapped his assistant Pinoko! Can Black Jack save Pinoko AND the president? --Terrorists seize a hospital and make all operations stop for an hour—then, when their demands aren’t met, they cut the power AND destroy the hospital’s back-up generator! How can even Black Jack finish his operation in total darkness? Exciting stuff, eh kids? Vertical’s done a nice job with these—I say the volumes are arguably worth the 16.95 each they’re asking—they’re not only larger than average for your non-squinting convenience, but they’re also LONGER than average—an average of 296 pages per book. Well, I just went to the mailbox and got volume 3, so please look forward to next time. Comment on this review of Black Jack v1-2: Special Spotlight Review on the Manga Life Forums. |
6 October 2009
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