Cobalt Image Search

[Little Brown Fox]

Okay, so if you put in the Japanese name for "Astro Boy" (or rather, "Mighty Atom") into Google Image Search (鉄腕アトム , and then pair it with Cobalt's name (コバルト , you can get a lot of cute and interesting images of Atom's goofus brother, Cobalt. BUT-

By far one of the most interesting (and perhaps, even historically relevant) results I found while doing this for the first time last night, was this image:



Unfortunately, it isn't very large, and therefore, would be difficult to make out the words well enough for a decent translation. But, we can all still clearly see what is going on here, can't we?

The image came from here, and if you click on it, you can get a slightly better look at it, as well as at the image before and after it. (The next panel is in color, even.)

I knew what this was almost the moment I'd laid eyes on it (I even had a suspicion when I saw the thumbnail on Google), and I thought I should share this amazing find with the rest of you, in order to perhaps gain a little insight into what exactly is happening here.

[Sporkia]

You discovered the magic of searching for Cobalt in Japanese too? (Most productive search I've ever done, let me tell you. vwv)
I actually have a larger image of his actual death in green as the result of a similar search.

,

Compare it to the DH manga (which I've flipped for your convenience) and it's really not that different. I'm guessing their similar designs made Tezuka's life easier with editing this because it looks like he only had to do some very minor edits.
I was honestly kind of surprised because I'd expected a lot worse from the original version.

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

First of all the image link is dead, you probably can't link to it, but the page link works. On a mobile device it throws a large navigation panel up with kanji characters. It's immediately obvious what story that is from, where Cobalt was drawn like Astro's twin and not in his taller form.

I keep forgetting that you have to read the Japanese panels right to left, like in Hebrew!

BUT the DH manga is the version where Cobalt doesn't die. The image you posted in green is the same as in the DH version, it's Atom turning the mirror inside the robot around to blow itself up. The only difference I can see is Atom was added to one from jumping from the crater. Not being able to read the Japanese, I wonder if the original had Cobalt doing it, and NOT jumping from the crater, with the final frame of Atom saying "it worked" changed to something else. It looks like the expression on his face in that frame is different.
The last panel in the that link
http://ameblo.jp/mtjmtj02/image-10034478382-10022195060.html
is different from the ones in DH.

Cobalt has both arm and leg jets in the manga.

Great find! Now the original version of mad machine that was in another post was very different from the DH version, so Tezuka sometimes man huge revisions to his stories.

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

OK I entered コバルト 手塚 in Google and got some interesting stuff ....
Not all of it with Cobalt thought. Google managed to link in some manga porn images as well, I won't go there, though there was ONE image that I did link which is close .... An Astro goof story?



Not sure what this last one is, That's Tezuka's Garon character, but not Astro?

Now THIS one is er .... Tezuka what were you thinking???? (Ahh found it! That was from Astro II, and it IS in Dark Horse. It looked more outlandish in Japanese and in small size.)



What is Tenma up to?

[Little Brown Fox]

Oh, I think that that's Captain Atom you have there... hm...

Garon probably showed up because he's present in a few Astro Boy stories.

Actually, I don't think that "editing" like we have today existed back then, so he still probably had to redraw the entire page, albeit with Atom and Cobalt in reversed roles, for the most part.

Hm, I had forgotten it was a stinkin' mirror... oh well; I don't feel like going back and editing my story... In all honesty, I was kind of curious to see how my story stacked up with the "real" version of events. (I don't see why he had to change it to Atom, though; Cobalt still could've done it and survived...)

I wish I knew what they were saying in those panels. I bet that the dialogue is vastly different, given the circumstances. I can tell he's screaming Cobalt's name in that last panel, though.

[jeffbert]

GARON has his own manga series, & Pik (the little boy) rides inside his chest & acts as his Jiminy Cricket; his conscience. BTW, Pik was among the crowd discussing the upcoming ROBOTTING match, in (Atom's manga adventure) URAN.

[jeffbert]

[img]http://tezukaosamu.net/jp/mushi/201301/images/intro/photo04.jpg[/img]
What is Tenma up to?

This sequence is from page 69 of the SPACE TRAVELERS, Tezuka's adaptation of CAPTAIN ATOM into a series about Atom, himself. The date at the bottom of the page, is 12/1953; I believe this is the date that installment was published. Here is the top 1/2 of the page:

smaller (CAPT_A_069).jpg (75.31 KiB) Viewed 1683 times

Notice Tamao's large ears, he is from another Earth that exploded long ago; his people had been in huge spaceships searching for a new home for many years. Finding our Earth, they attempted to assimilate, but some Earthmen worried about the limited food, & the feeding of twice as many as before, etc. They formed The Black Shirt Brigade, sworn to eliminate the people from space, whose large ears made them easy to identify.

I do not know about the hypodermic needle, but they used guns to shoot shrinking rays (or fluid) on those they wanted to eliminate.

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

I'll have to compare that to the version in the DH reprints. Mustachio has large ears too. Guess all the outer space people did.

[Little Brown Fox]

Wait, is this in the Dark Horse collection? I don not recall.

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Captain Atom is in DH, but it is not the original, but rather a redrawn version that Tezuka did later on for a re-release.