Buddha: Volume 3: Devadatta

The Eisner and Harvey Winner
The third volume of this epic graphic novel send Siddhartha further into a world mired in pain and suffering. The journey to peace and enlightenment looms far but bright.
Prince Siddhartha quickly learns that the monk's path is covered in thorns and self-abuses much more profound than shaving your head. His new companions Dhepa and Assaji accompany him to plague-ridden town, ruled by the ravishing Visakha. On a different path filled with as many vagaries is Devadatta, an orphan who learns only that bad almost always gets worse.
To strange cities, and dire prophecies...

Osamu Tezuka (1928-89) is the godfather of Japanese manga comics. He originally intended to become a doctor and earned his degree before turning to what was then a medium for children. His many early masterpieces include the series known in the U.S. as Astro Boy. With his sweeping vision, deftly intertwined plots, feel for the workings of power, and indefatigable commitment to human dignity, Tezuka elevated manga to an art form. The later Tezuka, when he authored Buddha, often had in mind the mature readership that manga gained in the sixties and that had only grown ever since. The Kurosawa of Japanese pop culture, Osamu Tezuka is a twentieth century classic.