Hello, and welcome to a celebration thread of Osamu Tezuka's "Phoenix" manga.
I am rereading the series and want to share some of what I love about it - assuming it all holds up!
Each book will get its own subthread. Consider this image a roadmap. Let's go!

Volume 1 - "Dawn"
Humanity's first appearance: already hunting the immortal Phoenix of cosmic legend.
In what will become a running theme, the Phoenix tends to be everywhere but belongs to no one. Can't humanity leave well enough alone?
(No. We will burn. Especially in Vol. 2.)

Tezuka's examination of human history (and future) includes the relentless drumbeat of war.
His opening story picks at Japan's history and frames China as invaders who slaughtered the native people. This is just one ingredient in the fruit salad of Tezuka's messages.

If you're new to Tezuka's art and think his style is a little "cartoony," a little "Disney-esque," you're right. He veers into silliness, gags, and caricature like a Saturday morning cartoon.

He also knows how to zoom out and let a scene breathe like nobody's business.

Tezuka is also sequential as all get out. No surprise: he essentially jumpstarted the anime industry as we know it and loved to experiment with motion and perspective.

About those gags - Tezuka sprinkles them throughout his work, including stylizing, self-inserts, breaking the 4th wall, and especially playing with paneling (just as he loved playing with boundaries of animation in film).

This Phoenix thread represents my first reread of the series in over a decade.
I am struck this time by some images that hint at scenes in later volumes.
Tezuka loves a good callback, and reincarnation is a big deal in this series.

Tezuka made comics while also earning a medical degree, naturally mixing the two.
He enjoyed drawing from life as part of his biology studies, and using medical trivia in his stories.
"Dawn" was serialized six years before he started "Black Jack" about a rogue brilliant doctor.

Tezuka tends to reinforce gender stereotypes and essentialism. The women in "Dawn" are either lovers, mothers, or bitter about aging. Nonetheless, "We're the ones that win - women!"

Likewise, men here are either hunters, warriors, or imminently traumatized children.

I don't want to turn over every last page for Tezuka insights and commentary - not in this thread, at least - so I will finish off the screenshots for "Dawn" on New Year's Day 2019 with a reminder from the Phoenix herself to never give up.

Coming up next time, in Phoenix Volume 2, "Future," Tezuka dumps early Japanese history in favor of... skipping straight to the end of the whole story? As well as humanity's?!

Also, who's this sonofagun?