Archibalderdash and the manga master

I found this year's batch of Archibald Prize portraits uninspiring - even more so the finalists in the accompanying Wynne (landscape painting or figure sculpture) and Sulman (genre or subject painting/mural) competitions.

I never agree with the winner of the Archie and 2007 was no different. The experts chose John Beard's monochrome depiction of fellow artist Janet Laurence, which I think looks like a square cut from a flawed photograph. There was no portrait that really blew my doors off, however Michael Mucci's "The Power And The Passion" was at least striking - rendering former Midnight Oil singer and Labor politician Peter Garrett as a literal giant.

The Wynne and Sulman Prizes were just depressing. Admittedly, I've always been intolerant of abstract art, but several of these pieces weren't worth magneting to a Kelvinator let alone being hung in the state gallery. One exception was Alexander McKenzie's densely wooded, darkly inviting scene "The Double Island" (Wynne). Oleh Witer's "The Cup" (Sulman) also caught my eye each time I walked by, though I haven't yet puzzled out the reflections.

The Art Gallery Of NSW is charging $8 to view the finalists in the aforementioned contests. For a couple of bucks extra at the same venue you can see what I believe is a more worthwhile exhibition: "Tezuka: The Marvel Of Manga".

Even those who don't know the name Osamu Tezuka (1928-1989) will be familar with his anime series "Astro Boy" (known in Japan as "Tetsuwan Atomu") and "Kimba The White lion" ("Jungle Emperor"). But it's not until you see the manga versions - this presentation intersperses black-and-white facsimiles with original inked pages and watercolour/gouache paintings (usually covers) - that the man's genius becomes evident.

He did more than illustrate cute, big-eyed characters - he built ambitiously complex, alien, familiar, beautiful, offensive, whimsical, morally challenging worlds whose pleasingly aerodynamic inhabitants glide across ever-rearranging panels.

Tezuka unashamedly explored sexual identity with a gender-swapping robot ("Metropolis"), a transvestite princess ("Princess Knight") and an orphan able to switch between childhood and womanhood with magic pills ("Marvelous Melmo").

In a more cultural vein, he adapted Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel "Crime And Punishment" and translated into comic form the lives of Buddha ("Buddha") and Beethoven ("Ludwig B"), though he never finished the latter project.

His darker inventions include Black Jack, a rogue surgeon who charges squillions to cure the ailments no-one else can, and the insatiable Tomura Toshiko (in "Human Metamorphosis"), who continually sleeps/steals/whatevers her way to the top.

The exhibition also features excerpts from "Wonder 3" (alien agents exploring Earth in horse/duck/rabbit bodies), "Apollo's Song" (a rumination on love's many forms) and "Eulogy For Kirihito" (mutated, doglike humans face discrimination). While the anthropomorphic examples may sound silly, like all of Tezuka's work they contain images of remarkable poignancy that put me in mind of Western greats such as Jean "Moebius" Giraud and Paul Chadwick.

Given almost as much floor space as "Astroboy" is Osamu's magnum opus, "Phoenix". Its meaning is more elusive than that of his other creations and its form more challenging...until you give in and go with it. Then the mythical bird of the title carries you back and forth between ancient history and science fiction in a flight of glorious artistic indulgence.