Sunday Comics: Black Jack

Sunday Comics is a weekly feature where I spotlight awesome comics that you may want to check out.

The Comic: Black Jack (Volume One, anyway...I have yet to read later volumes)


By: Osamu Tezuka

Type: Collected vignette-style installments

Content Rating: PG-13, for surgical/medical procedure images.

Plot:Surgeons are human, and sometimes, despite their best intentions and skill level, there are procedures just beyond their capability. That's when you need someone above and beyond the capacity of most surgeons. That's when you need, dare I use such a cheesy term, a super-surgeon. That's when you need someone like Black Jack. Mysterious, heavily scarred, and working without a license, hiring the man known only as Black Jack for an operation is expensive and technically illegal but his sheer skill speaks for itself--he's indisputably, among the medical community who know of him, one of the best surgeons on the planet. The sorts of operations attracted to him are often strange, and many even have supernatural elements, such as a telepathic keratoid cystoma. As we go through various short stories depicting some of Black Jack's experiences, we also learn bits and pieces about who he is--and was, prior to the miraculous operation that saved his own life when he was younger.

Personal thoughts:Single-word summary: addictive. Once I had picked this up I had a difficult time putting it down. I understand Mr. Tezuka has a fair bit of medical background himself, which definitely shows through, in spite of the outlandishness of many of the operations (a brain transplant, for example). A dark, mysterious stranger with a heart of gold is far from original, but having that stranger be a surgeon certainly is, and I hadn't read any really quality manga in a while, so this was a welcome gear-shift. My only complaint was Pinoko, Black Jack's assistant and surrogate daughter. She's adorable, but I frankly hate the speech impediment they gave her in the translation. It's far more annoying than cute. As a final word, the cover is brilliantly designed--a very shallow relief that gives the impression the cover is being "peeled back" to be operated upon. Black Jack is not for the medically squeamish, but should provide good times otherwise, especially if you have some interest in medicine or surgery yourself.

Holden Out.