• Black Jack by Osamu Tezuka (Vertical, 288 pp.) — Manga fans got a treat in October with the first English-language North American publication of Osamu Tezuka’s Black Jack series. Tezuka is better known to English audiences as the creator of Astroboy and Kimba the White Lion. Black Jack follows the adventures of the titular hero, an unlicensed crack surgeon-for-hire operating throughout Japan.

Fans of the cartoon versions of Kimba and Astroboy will instantly recognize Tezuka’s style, which is echoed in modern manga books. Originally published in 1973, the series shows the influence of earlier western series, such as Tales of Horror, which contained a detailed level of surgical gore. Many of the Black Jack stories use disfigurement as a symbol of moral corruption, and the aloofness of corporate medical institutions as a critique of Japanese leadership. As with the notorious crime and horror comics of the 1950s, Tezuka betrays a love of dramatic plot twists to help make his point.

• Moresukine by Dirk Schwieger (NBM Publishing, 176 pp.) — German artist Dirk Schwieger’s Moresukine examines modern Japan. Shortly after moving to Tokyo, Schwieger invited his online fans to e-mail him assignments — among them, visiting famous Tokyo landmarks, eating unique Japanese delicacies like sticky nattoo beans and the poisonous fugu fish, and reporting on pod chambers and love hotels. Schwieger recorded his encounters in his Moleskine notebook (Moresukine is the Japanese translation) and scanned the drawings directly to his blog. What the episodes suffer by being brief, they make up for in immediacy. In the last section, Schwieger documents the experiences of some of his favourite online artists after challenging them to have a conversation with someone Japanese in their town. The rather lengthy contribution by the Paris-based Monsieur Le Chien is a particularly fun reflection on western depictions of Japan.

• Nozone Vol. X, Nicholas Blechman ed. (Princeton Architectural Press, 176 pp.) — Further stretching the boundary of “cartoons,” the Princeton Architectural Press has released the 10th volume of its Nozone anthology. It is a collection of graphic design with the theme “Forecast.” Grave warnings of environmental disaster abound, with images of Manhattan sunk beneath the newly formed “Gore Sea,” or freeze-dried provisions for a future apocalypse that include ice skates (in case the global warmists are wrong) and crucifixes (in case the Christian fundamentalists are right). Other highlights include the four-colour adventures of “Weatherman,” a superhero whose meteorological interventions only serve to exacerbate global weather instability and “The Tale of Chicken Licken,” an allegory of efforts to inform the American public about environmental issues. Most charming are the in-house designs for various indices showing how current trends will impact temperature, sea levels, forests and pancake consumption.