Several year’s ago a friend passed me a copy of Tezuka Osamu’s ‘Hi no Tori’ and encouraged me to read it. The wide-scope of the series, ranging from the distant future to prehistory, the desire for eternal life, power, understanding, and love is wildly compelling and perhaps the most interesting manga I have read.

On the surface, Tezuka’s art seems like a memory from childhood Saturday mornings cartoons (Astroboy indeed).  But that is just a surface. Spend time with his work and it washes over you and captures you. Tezuka’s imagery is a complete world where everything fits together and holds you within it.

But the images that stick in my head the most through several of his books, are the wide-view, cinematic landscapes, movements, and environments that fill his backgrounds. Graphic, line-driven, calm, breathable, but brimming with energy.