Osamu Tezuka has long been famous as a children’s manga artist, but Ode To Kirihito (Vertical; October 24, 2006) belongs to a growing list of mature graphic novels by the master making their way to American readers. The title character, Dr. Kirihito, comes across a fatal disease that transforms humans into dog-like beasts, only to be afflicted by it himself. He learns that through self-restraint and a conviction of human purpose, the Monmow disease can be rendered only skin-deep. From a remote mountain village believed to be the source of the disease to a South Africa torn by apartheid, beauty is not only in the eye of the beholder, Ode To Kirihito reminds us, but such openmindedness is a human duty. In the tradition of The Elephant Man, Tezuka’s narrative tour de force rivets our attention on deformity and its acceptance. The story implies a specifically Christian ethos, beginning with the pun on the name Christ – pronounced kirisutoin in Japanese.