Suggestions on where to find the original version of Tezuka's manga?

[Fuzzy Pickles!]

Once I learn a significant amount of 日本語 (Japanese), I plan on buying Tezuka comics not only as a way to learn the language in a fun way, but also to enjoy Tezuka's product. The issue is, Tezuka is known for revising or outright leaving out chapters in his manga; such as Vegetable and Seat of Pleasure having never been re-printed in Black Jack or Chi-Tan's story never being re-printed in Mighty Atom's case. Because of these reasons, I want to be able to find the original version (or at least reprints that contain the exact same content as the original such as Phoenix's 2009 reprint being the same as the original stories) so that I will be able to get my hands on every story that I want to know about.

How do I pinpoint which print was the original version or at least reprints that contain the same content as the original? That way, I can minimize having to buy the same volume all over again just for a story that did not get re-printed.

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Many of the stories were printed in various magazines. If you've read any of Fred Schodt's books on Japanese Manga, he describes how there are (were?) many different magazines catering to different age and gender groups, each having their own genre of stories. Most of these magazines were printed on cheap paper that were not very good from an archival point of view, so unless someone had bought some magazines and sealed them up in air tight bags for the future's sake, many of these original issues may be lost for good.

[Earthshine]

Oh man... I would probably try to see if the Dark Horse manga is a direct translation of books already in existence in Japanese (if Dark Horse just took the Japanese manga, flipped and translated it). But then again many of these stories were revised... so maybe that's not a good idea.

I'm not sure where to begin immediately, a good place to start for getting a hold of some original first edition printed stories would be at the source; Japan.

You would more than likely have to travel there and do some research as to where to buy these collections or talk to other collectors. Maybe there are archival collections that have been released in Japan that we don't know about that HAVE all the stories, unrevised and unedited in their various Manga stores.

[Fuzzy Pickles!]

Many of the stories were printed in various magazines. If you've read any of Fred Schodt's books on Japanese Manga, he describes how there are (were?) many different magazines catering to different age and gender groups, each having their own genre of stories. Most of these magazines were printed on cheap paper that were not very good from an archival point of view, so unless someone had bought some magazines and sealed them up in air tight bags for the future's sake, many of these original issues may be lost for good.

There has been papers centuries old that still survive to this day. In comparison, the oldest Mighty Atom comic is not even sixty-five years old. I doubt that the original editions have vanished into thin air completely; there's bound to be at least a few complete copies of each original chapter left. Some of the stories might be rare, but I wouldn't say they are impossible to find. It's more of trying to find these chapters in complete condition rather than if they exist anymore.

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Cheap paper used in those old magazines had a high acid content and was not stable. Age isn't the issue, chemistry is.

[Earthshine]

Must agree with Penguin there. Of course there is always a possibility that there exists copies that are very well intact but I'd expect to have to drop quite a bit of cash to buy it. Think about how much an old DC comic costs from the 60s and it might be comparable.

Acid in paper = very quick death.

That's why many sketch books say very clearly that they are acid free. As long as paper is acid free or low in acid they can stand the test in time for presumably forever.

The paper artifacts we have dating back thousands of years don't really have much acid in them because of how they were 'produced'. Now (meaning within the last 100 years or more) various acidic agents are added to the pulp of the paper to make it, whereas back then they did not have such processes.