Osamu Tezuka

Once in a while life spits out a pleasant little surprise that makes me want to jump for joy. Osamu Tezuka’s Buddha is one of those.

It comes in eight volumes and some visionary at Vertical Press in New York decided to translate it from Japanese into English, flipping the pages from right/left to left/right.

Now our family is enjoying a long weekend at the country house reading these brilliant “graphic novels.”

My 8-year-old, Titan or “Thun” for short, is required to read didactic sermons about the Buddha’s life for his Religious Studies homework. He is supposed to read homilies like “resist temptation” or “do not fear death for it is inevitable”. But in Tezuka’s classic, these temptations and fears come to life. So, Thun neglects his assignments and reads Tezuka’s captivating tale instead. Good for him.