"Over the course of his long career (Osamu) Tezuka became a defining force in shaping the genre, publishing more than 700 manga running to more than 150,000 pages. Early Tezuka characters had large eyes, inspired by their American counterparts Betty Boop and Disney's Bambi. Large eyes have since become a stylistic hallmark of the whole genre."
Obviously the insfluence of this artist spreads far and wide into the world of cartoons and Manga art, however, from the persepctive of this blog, it is the medical mangas published by Tezuka that are of the most interest. Tezuka began his medically themed mangas in reaction to his 'frustration at what he saw as an ineffectual medical establishment.' Drawing on his medical training, Tezukas popular manga 'Black Jack', includes realistic portrails of sometimes impossible operations, but with care taken to include correct anatomical information and surgical techniques. The level of medical realism in Tezuka's work has added enough credibility for the Japanese medical establishment to use images from 'Black Jack' in public information campaigns, and make this manga one of the primary sources of inspiration for students choosing to study medicine.
Black Jack operates on himself with no anesthetic, but with all anatomy present and correct
Reading this article made me wonder about the power of science to capture the imagination. In some ways this is an obvious question, fictional medicine is a world of life and death, and most people in the world have experience of visiting a doctor, either themselves, or through family and friends. Added to the basic human fear of death and illness, you have a powerful narrative device. With science can there ever be the same level of emotional involvement? For example, Maxwells laws of electromagnitism revolutionised the world of physics, and it is hard to imagine most modern technology having been invented without this elegant piece of mathematics. As a physicist, I can be amazed by mathematical descriptions of the natural world, that can be proven to be universal in any place in the universe. However, there doesn't seem to be the same room for hanging a narrative over the Maxwell equations as there would be over open heart surgery, for example.
Of course, science fiction is full of metaphorical stories involving mad scientists, or future goverernments abusing science. Compared to the medical Manga however, these narratives show scientists in an unrealistic light, and also predominantly as sinister or tragic characters. My question therefore is; is there room for a more realistic drama, or novel, or cartoon about modern science? If an author or artist could create an inspiring and enrapturing comic, or cartoon or film about scientists, wouldn't that be a novel way to cure the current lack of interest in numerical sciences, both in terms of university students, and the general populus? I can see a proposal being written to the IOP asking them to consider funding a cartoon series, or a series of novels, about a handsome young physics professor at Oxford University who works for the UK government, solving crimes, or aiding MI5, in his time away from his research on condensed matter physics. In my mind I see a Hunter S Thompson style mavarick, always in trouble with the dean, but immune from trouble due to his brilliance in mathematical science. In fact, I might get my pen out and start writing now!
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