An All-Star Roster of International Artists Honor the Legendary Mangaka, As Part of the Kickstarter Campaign for the Highly Anticipated Documentary
TEZUKA! God of Manga
Available Only on Kickstarter, for a Limited Time
Now funding on Kickstarter, the documentary TEZUKA! God of Manga, is celebrating the cultural legacy of the legendary manga and animator creator Osamu Tezuka, one of the 20th century’s most influential artists. The highly anticipated film from Peabody Award-winning director Jason Andrew Cohn and the Bread & Butter Films production team (Camille Servan-Schreiber, Jinko Gotoh, Glen S. Fukushima, and Roland Kelts) will feature in-depth interviews with legendary manga and animecreators about the life and legacy of Tezuka, who’s known throughout the world as the God of Manga. To showcase Tezuka’s influence on international artists, the Kickstarter campaign features art prints from an international selection of illustrators, cartoonists, and fine artists including Eisner Award-winning cartoonist and designer Jim Rugg who has designed a limited edition Astro Boy Blacklight Poster Art Prints and Astro Boy T-Shirt that are available exclusively through the TEZUKA! God of Manga Kickstarter campaign.
Inspired by the iconic, and psychedelic posters of the 1970s (including Jack Kirby Marvel’s iconic Marvel Comics posters), Rugg has revitalized the art of the blacklight poster for a new generation, reminding audiences of the beautiful appeal of a forgotten art form. Here the award-winning cartoonist is applying his eye for reverberating colors and design to Tezuka’s most beloved character, Astro Boy, with a breathtaking 18 X 24 inch blacklight print. The design is also available as a limited edition, Kickstarter exclusive T-shirt.
“Astro Boy is such an all time great character!” said Hulk: Grand Design and Street Angel cartoonist Jim Rugg. “It’s an honor to pay tribute both to Astro Boy and his esteemed creator. Tezuka is a Mount Rushmore creator.”
In addition to his Astro Boy Blacklight Poster Art Prints, Rugg has also contributed a beautiful ballpoint pen drawing of Astro Boy to the TEZUKA! God of Manga campaign, alongside collectible art prints featuring tributes to beloved Tezuka stories and characters by some of today’s hottest manga and comic artists, including an Acetylene Lamp print by Shinichi Ishizuka (Blue Giant), Astro Boy by Dave Baker (Mary Tyler MooreHawk) and Jorge R. Gutierrez (Book of Life), Black Jack by Jeff Lemire (Sweet Tooth) and Yuko Shimizu (Barbed Wire Baseball), Buddha by Jesse Lonergan (Dome), Phoenix by Matt Kindt (Mind MGMT), Princess Knight print by Elsa Charretier (November), Unico by Gurihuru (Unico Awakening, and Vampires by Nicole Goux (Punk’n Heads).
“Our goal is to introduce Osamu Tezuka to the English speaking world like never before,” said TEZUKA! God of Manga director Jason Andrew Cohn. “And what better way to make that introduction than by way of art?”
Amoving, immersive, and visually stunning romp through comics history, the TEZUKA! God of Manga documentary unfolds in three acts, beginning with his childhood in the suburbs of Osaka in the shadow of the Pacific War. Launching from young Tezuka’s dream of creating manga and founding his own independent animation studio, the film chronicles his ascendence to becoming a national sensation and the subsequent counter-cultural backlash in the 1960s, when young manga readers gravitated away from Tezuka and toward edgier artists in the gekiga movement. The third act explores Tezuka’s remarkable comeback with enduring storylines like Phoenix and Black Jack. Featuring in-depth interviews with legendary manga and animecreators including Katsuhiro Otomo (Akira), Riyoko Ikeda (Rose of Versaille), Naoki Urasawa (Monster), Go Nagai (Devilman), Yoshiyuki Tomino (Gundam), MADHOUSE co-founder and anime producer Masao Maruyama (Tokyo Godfathers), anime director Rintaro (Metropolis), best-selling fantasy author Ada Palmer (Too Like the Lightning), Samuel Sattin (Unico Awakening), and Jorge R. Gutierrez (The Book of Life), the film will leave viewers reflecting on a creative legacy that extends beyond Tezuka’s dozens of television cartoons and animated films and estimated 150,000 pages of published manga.
TEZUKA! God of Manga is scheduled for completion by 2028, in time for the centenary of Osamu Tezuka’s birth. Fans can support the film on Kickstarter now. For more updates follow Tezuka! God of Manga on X, Bluesky, and Instagram.
Dan Kleiner