Treasure Trove
This announcement made me, and I'm sure a bunch of other niche manga fans, very happy.
The comics of Osamu Tezuka have been a hard sell in the west because they lack many of the things that have come to define modern popular manga (ninjas, battle auras, boys kissing, collectable-battling things, tie-in anime series etc.) Along with the sheer volume of his works over 40 years and how so many of his early comics wouldn't appeal to anyone besides his fans and manga historians, to have his complete works published in English was a pretty far-fetched hope. I can't find any reference for how well his last few translated books (Apollo's Song, Ode to Kirihito, MW and Dororo) sold but I can't imagine they did well. Even Tezuka's Phoenix, which is officially the best thing ever printed on paper, was rumoured to have sold unspectacularly. If there's no chance of turning a profit with his older stuff maybe they can at least raise his profile by moving with the times and making them freely available on the web.
I still don't know where these scans will be hosted though. I tried checking the official Tezuka World site but it's been overhauled with a new look that seems to have been designed with the intent to keep non-Japanese speakers out.
The comics of Osamu Tezuka have been a hard sell in the west because they lack many of the things that have come to define modern popular manga (ninjas, battle auras, boys kissing, collectable-battling things, tie-in anime series etc.) Along with the sheer volume of his works over 40 years and how so many of his early comics wouldn't appeal to anyone besides his fans and manga historians, to have his complete works published in English was a pretty far-fetched hope. I can't find any reference for how well his last few translated books (Apollo's Song, Ode to Kirihito, MW and Dororo) sold but I can't imagine they did well. Even Tezuka's Phoenix, which is officially the best thing ever printed on paper, was rumoured to have sold unspectacularly. If there's no chance of turning a profit with his older stuff maybe they can at least raise his profile by moving with the times and making them freely available on the web.
I still don't know where these scans will be hosted though. I tried checking the official Tezuka World site but it's been overhauled with a new look that seems to have been designed with the intent to keep non-Japanese speakers out.