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Osamu Tezuka's Dust 18 Gets 1st Original Version Book Printing

Manga creator Osamu Tezuka's career is so prolific, we're still finding sketches and manuscripts long after his death. Recently, there's been a number of reprintings and compilations of Tezuka's works, sometimes including newly found material.

Publisher Rittorsha is the latest to gather a long out of print Tezuka work, this time collecting it into book format for the very first time. The publisher released Dust 18 in a single, 400-page book on Friday. The sci-fi manga was originally serialized in Shogakukan's Weekly Shonen Sunday magazine in the early 70s. The story takes place after a plane crashes into the side of a mountain, a mountain that is revealed to be the origin of human life. The majority of the plane's passengers die in the crash except for a lucky 18 people who are saved by the power of the mountain. Their luck runs out however as enemies from another world arrive to kill the those that were supposed to die in the crash.

Dust 18 was originally released in book format under the title Dust 8, but included quite a few changes. The previous version had approximately 100 pages edited from the original publication. In one instance, two chapters were merged to create a single chapter, there were corrections to characters' facial expressions and dialogue, and the ending was altered. This new version looks to answer fan's request for a version that is the same as what was published in Weekly Shonen Sunday. The newly published version pulled materials based on existing manuscripts and old magazine issues. Previously unpublished material is included, too.

Dust 18 is available for purchase in Japanese for 3,456 yen (US$31). It is not currently available in English.

Source: Comic Natalie