Vertical Inc. is producing exclusive limited edition hardcovers of the first three volumes in its series reprinting Osamu Tezuka’s Black Jack manga for Diamond Comic Distributors.  The hardcovers are more expensive ($24.95 vs. $16.95 for the widely available trade paperback edition), but they also include stories that won’t appear in the paperback editions. According to About.com,Vertical is producing 1,500 copies of the first Black Jack volume for Diamond, followed by editions of 1,200 for the two subsequent volumes.  Both the hardcover and the softcover editions of Volume 1 will be released on September 23rd.

The trade paperback collections that Vertical is releasing are basically translated versions of editions published in Japan when Tezuka was still alive and composed of stories personally chosen by the creator in the order he preferred.  For some reason Tezuka excluded a number of stories, and it is from this pool of material that Vertical has chosen the extra material for the Diamond volumes.   The first exclusive Diamond hardcover will include a story, “The Two Janns,” about renegade surgeon Black Jack’s attempt to separate Siamese twins.  Subsequent volumes will also have extra stories chosen from episodes rejected by Tezuka.

Diamond's exclusive hardcovers will also sport different covers, which were designed by Vertical's art director Peter Mendelsund.