Manga

To list all of Tezuka's manga requires a lot more space than I've got here. Tezuka was writing and drawing manga from 1945 until 1988. I believe the estimation of Tezuka's work is 150,000 pages of manga throughout his life, and around 3,000 titles. That's a lot of manga. The best place to get comprehensive information is at Tezuka Osamu World, the homepage for Tezuka Productions Company.

Here, I'll just give a list of those manga of Tezuka's that are available in English. It's a comparatively short list, but more of his work is being translated all the time. A few years ago there wasn't nearly as much available to those of us who don't read Japanese yet. Because some of the translations do not include volume numbers (Adolf), I'm also listing the volumes in the series and the correct order for them.

One note that should be said is this: Tezuka has a very characteristic artistic style that might be described as 'cartoony.' This can be off-putting to Western manga fans who have become used to other, later artistic styles. My advice is don't assume that the art style implies a certain kind of story, because Tezuka uses the same artistic style to tell serious stories and humorous stories and if you give him a chance he makes it work.

Adolf Ni Tsugu (Adolf)
volumes: A Tale of the Twentieth Century, An Exile in Japan, The Half-Aryan, Days of Infamy, 1945 and All That Remains
about: Adolf is the story of three different men named Adolf (a Jewish boy, a half-German/half-Japanese boy, and Hitler) during World War II. This was the first of Tezuka's work I read. It's a very serious manga for adults with hardcore social drama issues at the core, and considered one of Tezuka's masterpieces. This is a very late work from Tezuka, originally serialized in Shukan Bunshun in 1983. While the translation gives the title as Adolf, the correct translation should be The Story of Three Adolfs.

Black Jack
volumes: Black Jack vol. 1, Black Jack: Two-Fisted Surgeon
about: Black Jack is about a surgeon who isn't legally allowed to practice but does so on the underground market where people pay handsomely for his services. You can see a lot of Tezuka's training in medicine come through in this series. The series was originally serialized in Weekly Shonen Champion from 1973 to 1984. Viz has only released two volumes, but there is an older translation if you want to search out used copies. This is one of Tezuka's most popular titles (though no where near Tetsuwan Atom) and I hope Viz releases more of the stories, or allow their license to expire so another company can pick it up.

Buddha
volumes: Kapilavastu, The Four Encounters, Devadatta, The Forest of Uruvela, Deer Park, Ananda
about: Buddha, as the title might tell you, is Tezuka's fictionalized biography of the Buddha. It was serialized in Kibo-no-tomo/Shonen World/Comic Tom between 1972 and 1983 (the magazine changed its name several times during the run). The translating publisher here is Vertical, which I'm not familiar with, but the printing and binding are very nice, much nicer than what Viz puts out.

Hinotori (Phoenix)
volumes: Dawn, A Tale of the Future, Yamato/Space, Karma, Resurrection
about: Phoenix is Tezuka's life work. Many argue this is his finest series (I'd agree). Phoenix first appeared in 1954 in Manga Shonen, next in 1956-1957 in Shojo Club, then in 1967-1973 in COM, then returned to Manga Shonen in 1978-1981, and finally in Yasei Jidai from 1986-1988. The stories are episodic, and the plot of each story is separate from the others, but the overall themes build on each other. Therefore read it in the actual order! Viz did a number on it, releasing the second volume first (several years first!) and it doesn't have the same impact when read out of order.

sci-fi manga
titles: Lost World, Metropolis, Next World vol. 1, Next World vol. 2
about: These are some of Tezuka's earliest works. Lost World is from 1948, Metropolis from 1949, and Next World from 1951. Lost World is about a world populated by dinosaurs that approaches Earth. Metropolis is about the creation of an artificial humanoid named Mitchy. Next World is about the future, war, doomsday, and people leaving Earth. The three titles don't have anything to do with each other, except that they are all early science-fiction works by Tezuka, so can be read in any order.

Tetsuwan Atom (Astro Boy)
volumes: v. 1 - 18
about: This is the big one - the series that really made Tezuka famous in Japan. Tetsuwan Atom first appeared in 1952 and is more famous in Japan then Mickey Mouse is here. Atom is created by a scientist in the image of his dead son. The scientist loves him like a child but forgets Atom is a robot and becomes angry when he doesn't grow. So he sells him to a circus. Dark Horse brought this over, and their translation is great but they don't collect the individual stories in order.