News
Manga Pioneer Osamu Tezuka's Editor Passes Away at 84
posted on by Egan Loo
Nobumichi Akutsu, one of Osamu Tezuka's earliest editors and editor-in-chief of Akita Shoten's pioneering manga magazine Bōken-Ō, died of cancer of the larynx on September 12. He was 84. His funeral service will be attended only by close family relatives, and his first son Makoto will lead the mourners. Tezuka had named a character in his manga works in Akutsu's honor.
Bōken-Ō was part of the first generation of children's manga magazines after World War II, along with Shōnen Club, Shōnen Gahō, and Shōnen. Akutsu first edited for Tezuka in the 1951-1953 Bōken-Ō manga Age of Adventure. Among the dozens of Tezuka works he edited are Son-Goku the Monkey, The Fossil Man Strikes Back, X-Point on the South Pacific (a manga that director Hayao Miyazaki described as His Favorite manga as a child), and The Devil of the Earth.
Thanks you to dormcat and enjin2000 for information on Akutsu's background.
Source: The Mainichi Newspapers
Image © Osamu Tezuka
