There’s a famous story about how Osamu Tezuka was introduced to and influenced by American comics and it involved an artist known only as The Duck Man.
The reason for this anonymity was because The Duck Man worked for Walt Disney creating Donald Duck comics, hence his nickname.
As Walt Disney had the habit of taking credit for everything, no-one knew who The Duck Man was.
However, the quality and popularity of his comics, as well as their influence on people such as Tezuka, meant that eventually his identity was revealed.
In a recent and genuinely excellent video by matttt (shown below) he covers this story about The Duck Man, as well as Tezuka’s exposure to his work.
It also explains how The Duck Man was purposefully kept in the dark about the popularity of his comics, because Disney didn’t want to give him more money.
It’s depressing to think that the same issues that we are grappling with over the management of the global entertainment industry haven’t really changed in the decades since.
The story also reminds me how Japanese artists such as Kunio Okawara and Kazutaka Miyatake, to name a few, have also been very open about their influences from American artists.
Sadly, this candour is something that American artists tend to lack when it comes to discussing their obvious Japanese influences.
In any case, this video is a wonderful and accurate breakdown of a genuinely remarkable artist and how manga as we know it started out.
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