Before influencing a generation of American comics fans through his cartoon seriesSpeed Racer , mangakaTatsuo Yoshidaillustrated the 1959 manga serialization of DC Comics’Superman . This is one of the earliest examples of cross - pollenation between American comics and Japanese manga , two art forms that would go forward to mold each other throughout the decades .

In the 1940s , Tatsuo Yoshida was a kid in post - War Japan who had get into amusing art largely due toSupermanand other comicshe was able to get from American soldier stationed in Japan at that prison term . According toLambiek Comiclopedia , it was through that picture that Yoshida teach himself how to draw in the hope of one day becoming a manga creative person . After work as an illustrator for a local paper , Yoshida decided to make to leap to full - time manga artist in the early 1950s . After moving to Tokyo , and with the reinforcement of his blood brother , Yoshida base success with several manga titles that became democratic . finally , that achiever led to DC Comics ' selection of Yoshida to pilot its entry into the Japanese market with Superman .

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Yoshida was sacrifice considerable mastery over how to acquaint and develop Superman into Japanese manga - funny culture . Naturally , this lead to aSuperman and Clark Kentmanga that exhibited a act of Japanese artistic ingredient that are absentminded from the American version , such as showing the full advance of an action that was common in manga . For instance , Yoshida would illustrate the complete process of what encounter when Superman punch through a rampart ,   rather than simply show the initiation of an action mechanism and its upshot , which was rough-cut in the American Superman comics .   Additionally , amusing " issues " in Japan were   published in a compendium of comics rather than as an single title , standardized to how manga is currently bring in to the American populace via publications such as Viz Media’sWeekly Shonen Jump . But mostly mouth , Yoshida kept the account   and themes close to those that were being developed and exhibit in the American iteration of the series . That is , Yoshida recreated for a Japanese audience the most popular level and theme of thecurrent issues ofSupermancomicsbeing write in the United States .

Interestingly , unlike current manga exercise , the first several page of each chapter of the manga were printed in full vividness . As with his earlier manga , Yoshida ’s Superman adaptation was well receive . at last , his study on Superman melt between 1959 and 1960 , and was later accumulate into 14 case-by-case issues volumes . It also provided him with the security that allow him   to ramify out and eventually become the manga artist he dreamed he would be . As a result of his success as a manga artist , which was in no modest part significantly helped by his exclusive running play as Superman ’s only illustrator in Japan , Yoshida , and his brothers adjudicate to establishthe Tatsunoko Production company ,   which focused on generating character manga and gum anime .

Indeed , without a doubt , Superman was a factor that helped Yoshida obtain the celebrity and luck to focus on his heart ’s desires . With Tatsunoko Productions , Yoshida created   some of the most iconic manga in the history of the writing style . His neat off includeSpeed RacerandBattle of the Planets . Tatsuo Yoshida ’s employment work DC Comics’Supermanto the Nipponese public is the first chapter of a legacy that continues to charm a multiplication of manga and comic authors , artists , and fan on both sides of the Pacific .

Jon Kent (AKA Superman’s Young Adult Son) with Kryptonite in the background

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Source : Lambiek Comiclopedia

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Tatsuo Yoshida

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