280. !"# %&’( )*+,-.’/# of Osamu Tezuka (1928-1989), manga and anime grandmaster, is located in Tezuka Productions’ animation studio in Niiza, northwest of Tokyo. On a wall in that !"#$%&’$($’)$* ,!’$ !’ -$(( .(/0( (01#$ 23$ .’2- ist’s death in 1989—there hang framed sketches of Donald Duck and Woody Woodpecker, personally dedicated by Carl Barks and Walter Lantz to Japan’s most famous cartoonist. There are works by other giants besides, including an animation drawing from Winsor McCay’s Gertie the Dinosaur (1914). But there is no obvious trace of the individual who most shaped Tezuka’s style: Floyd Gottfredson. Often championed as “the god of manga” by 4.1(5 6$789. 3.( 3.* . &’!4!81* $:$#2 !1 #!,0#( .1* animation—and not only in Japan. As Japanese pop cul- ture spreads across the globe, Tezuka’s work has gained a diverse international following. An older generation in North America knows him as creator of the animated series Astro Boy (1963-66) and Kimba the White Lion (1965-66). In India, Tezuka’s eight-volume biograph- ical Buddha (1972-83) is a perennial favorite. There is no escaping Tezuka for historians; whether they are studying the explosive growth of postwar manga or the roots of sho - jo girls’ comics and cute kawaii characters. And in the beginning, there was Disney. Tezuka declared his debt to the studio’s animation and comics on numerous occasions. However, it appears that he may not have been fully aware of whose Disney artistry, exactly, he adored and emulated. On the occasion of Mickey Mouse’s 60 th anniversary, Tezuka described » by Ryan Holmberg the heirs of gottfredson: OSAMU TEZUKA left: Osamu Tezuka in the early-to-mid-1950s. Photo © and courtesy Tezuka Productions; used with permission. right: Cover to Tezuka’s Manga College (1950). All Tezuka comics images © Tezuka Productions; used with permission.