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Here, I will briefly detail the differences between the Dark Horse & the Japanese manga version I have in my UNIT 4.

1st, Kyutaro's papa has a very different face. In the JLV, he has a prominent chin, & spiked hair.
<--DH <--JLV
DH has his hair over one eye, & the other seems half-awake. Only after he loses his mask (he wears a football over his face), is the face the same in both.

2nd, there are about 85 to 90 panels omitted from the version that DH is using. Not that DH cut any, just that its source did. Among these is an entire 75 panel sequence featuring a robot air force that goes out to destroy the flying saucers (that resemble a pair of lips). This sequence would be between rows 2 & 3 of page 205 of volume 17.

3rd, there are a few panels whose sequence is different in the DH than in the JLV. occasionally a panel will be after the one that follows it in the JLV. I do not understand why, except that, perhaps to make them fit better on the pages.

The JLV has a 3 row 2 column format, compared to the DH's 4 row 3 column one. In many cases, the far right and far left edges are cropped in the DH; whose panels are rectangular; while the JLV has square panels for the most part, so the cropping is necessary. A few panels are wide and short, usually still using 3 rows; likewise, some are tall, entire height of page, but still 2 columns. More than a few panels cover entire pages; these, the DH places on 2 of 3 columns, and usually 3 of 4 rows. Yet, often DH crops these as only the upper or lower halves are significant. Also, DH often splits tall thin or short & wide panels, into 2 of its standard rectangles, with only the significant parts present, the middle cropped out.

Thank you for sharing. It seems to me that now with this set of mangas as they were originally published in Japan, you now have enough material for several books on Astro Boy or even magazines. Get to self-publishing bro, I'm first in line to buy.

I

And I'm in line right behind him!!

I only wish, ASTROBUDDY. But there are the other comparisions that I must do, though only a few will be in the book as examples of parts omitted, redrawn, or simplified. But then there is the language problem. So both you & AprilSeven must wait.

I'm completely lost... so Tezuka drew two version of some of his stories? Not that he would be the only one, but I had never realized!

Yes in a matter of speaking. What Jeffbert has is the original manga reprinted as they were originally published. When Tezuka first starting drawing, his style had not yet evolved to what it would become. That is why when his work started to be reprinted, he made changes where he felt improvements over the originals were needed. But of course I believe this is all explained somewhere in the Dark Horse series which is based on one of the many reprints of Tezuka's works. That is why scholarly work like Jeffbert's little teasers are so wlecome and so needed. Kudos to you again, Jeffbert. I look forward to your next bit of "Astro" news.

I

Thank you, ASTROBUDDY.

Hergé, among others, did the same with the first Tintin albums.

That's true, I do think of him as a kind of hakase - "professor" of all things Astro/Tezuka!

- Hai!