The Surgeon with the Hands of God.

In the worlds of anime and manga, there is no one artist more important than the late, great, God of Comics, Osamu Tezuka. Creator of characters like AstroBoy and Kimba the White Lion, he was the man responsible for anime and manga being what it is today. I believe that it's important for anime fans to appreciate the history behind anime, and so I am definitely a big follower of his work. And of all the stories and characters Tezuka created, my favorite is definitely Black Jack.

For those of you who don't know, Black Jack is an incredible but unlicensed surgeon who charges outrageous fees for his operations. When he was a child he was in a terrible accident that tore his body apart, and his miraculous recovery made him go into the field of medicine. Black Jack is an important character because Tezuka himself was also a doctor, though he chose a career in manga instead and never actively practiced. Tezuka used his medical knowledge to create his stories for Black Jack, so even when Black Jack would perform amazing feats that no doctor could really perform, they were still grounded in some sort of reality. He's a very dark and mysterious character, but even though he looks scary and seems cruel, he's not really a bad guy. By his side as always is his assistant Pinoko, the cute little girl with a very twisted backstory.

Knowing that I was going to use a lot of black in this picture, I decided to "ink" the original drawing on my computer with a digital tablet instead of inking it by hand with pens and brushes. I colored it with a soft brush style and threw in a background made from some textures and grungy brushes. The Japanese character is from the word "black". Not necessarily the colour black, but the concept of black.

Finished Spring of 2005 with Photoshop.

© Osamu Tezuka

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