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Recently I won on eBay what appears to be an original SHONEN manga from 1964. The cover is one that appears on page 89 of the TetsuWan Atom(u) DaiZukan (aka The Astro Boy Encyclopedia) which has every Shonen manga cover. Several things surprised me. First the size. I had read that every manga was the size of a phone book (sort of), but if this is an original manga then it is the same size as the Dark Horse paperback reprints, except not as thick. That is why I ask if any one with more knowledge than I, knows if Kobunsha published mangas in this size. I do not believe this is a reprint because of the year of publication and because the manga shows what appears to be the fourth installment of the "Greatest Robot on Earth" serial which appeared in the June, 1964 to Jan. 1965 issues of Shonen and this is clearly the Sept. 1964 issue. Well any way here are the covers, plus four pages of the manga showing how different the reprints are.
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Here are four pages (the most I dare to scan, as the manga, while in great shape for its age, may fall into disrepair if I try to scan more.) Any way they cover pages 69 thru 88 of DH #3. You will note that several of the panels are different from the ones in DH #3. I am sure the changes were done to condense the story into one volume. Any way enjoy here is some orignal Tezuka art, as there are full pages of action as opposed to the condensed version published by DH.
Let me know what you think and please provide me with an answer to my question above, (if you know the answer?) Thank you!
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AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, I agree! AWESOME! Especially the full page drawings in this chapter! It is unfortunate that they were not able to reprint these stories as they originally were drawn. Maybe some one who has the reprints of the originals may be able to comment. But I enjoy every one's comments; so please feel free to comment even if you don't have reprints of the originals or any of the DH series. Especially volume #3 which has this story, "The Greatest Robot on Earth!"
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This is the same thing that I have; but as I do not read Japanese, I am at a loss as to what exactly it is.

Is that blue ink? (I'm partly color blind) I have some original magazines with Jetter Mars manga and they use light blue ink as well.

In the books I have, light blue alternates with purple and black.

"jeffbert" wrote:This is the same thing that I have; but as I do not read Japanese, I am at a loss as to what exactly it is.

Thank you, Jeffbert! As I ascertained, it is an original TetsuWan Atom(u) manga from 1964. I now have both a copy of TetsuWan Atom(u) Club magazine, but also an original TetsuWan Atom(u) Shonen manga which features the fourth chapter of the TetsuWan Atom(u) serial, "The GREATEST ROBOT ON EARTH.)
What amazed me most was the full page drawings which do not appear in the reprints. Also thank you for answering F Man's question. I was not sure if they appeared in blue because of the age of the book or because that is actually what they were like.
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"ASTROBUDDY" wrote:[QUOTE=jeffbert;169361]This is the same thing that I have; but as I do not read Japanese, I am at a loss as to what exactly it is.

Thank you, Jeffbert! As I ascertained, it is an original TetsuWan Atom(u) manga from 1964. I now have both a copy of TetsuWan Atom(u) Club magazine, but also an original TetsuWan Atom(u) Shonen manga which features the fourth chapter of the TetsuWan Atom(u) serial, "The GREATEST ROBOT ON EARTH.)
What amazed me most was the full page drawings which do not appear in the reprints. Also thank you for answering F Man's question. I was not sure if they appeared in blue because of the age of the book or because that is actually what they were like.
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Actually I believe in my MANGA UNIT 04 (or was it 03?) THREAD, I mentioned that there were both the little 50 page books and the much larger magazine-sized books. The latter included many title pages that were used in the original SHONEN books to separate the Atom monthly or weekly installments from all the others. Does it say the year on the end of the book? Mine say "19xx 01" or '12' & I take it that they each contained a month's worth of comics.

On the bottom of the spine it has the year 1964. As you can see at the top of the spine it has 39, then 9, then 1. I take that to mean that it was published Sept. 1964 as Showa 39 is the year 1964. Inside it has the number 4. I take that to mean Chapter 4, as September would have been when the fourth installment would have been published as the "Greatest Robot on Earth" began in June, 1964. (June, July, August, Sept.--#4). Have you tried matching the reprints you have from your boxset to its equivalent DH volume. Do you have paperback size manga for each installment (there should be eight) of the "Greatest Robot on Earth"?
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