Don't forget to read Part I of Akadot's interview with Fred Ladd.

If Osamu Tezuka is the God of Comics, fathering the popularity of comics in Japan and creating the first animated television series in Japan based on his creation, Testuwan Atom, then Fred Ladd is its favorite uncle, rearing the child in a foreign environment, America.

Akadot continues its interview as Ladd delves deeper into the early days of Tetsuwan Atom, better known as Astro Boy, in America.

Where did Tezuka draw his inspiration for Astro Boy?

FL: I'm often asked about the eyes. Were you going to ask about the eyes?

Well, I wasn't, but go ahead.

FL: [Laughing] A frequently asked question is, "Why did Tezuka make such oversized eyes on all the characters?" The first time I got that question I was kicking off a week of Japanese animation, showing the origins of it at a charitable event. And, the first time it happened I was almost sorry I volunteered. My wife and daughter were in the audience and they cringed when they heard the question about why did Tezuka make such big eyes. Everybody thought it was to draw some kind of allusion to the Asian eye but that wasn't it at all.

I first thought that he got it from Mickey Mouse. That was my assumption. If you take a good look at Mickey and Minnie they have a huge oval shaped eye with a little indentation on one side to represent a light reflection. But that wasn't it.

I asked Tezuka and his answer was that he got the idea from Betty Boop. He loved Betty Boop. And, if you look at Betty Boop she has huge eyes. Tezuka said he so loved the look of those big eyes that he gave his characters big oversized eyes.

He wasn't emulating Disney, a guy he idolized. He thought Walt Disney was the greatest thing on two feet. When he visited the Disney studio for the first time Walt took him through personally. Tezuka said it was the highlight of his life.

Betty Boop was the inspiration for anime. Not Mickey Mouse or any of the others.

At this time Japan was reeling from a shortage of currency and they wanted dollars.

Once the word spread to Tokyo that, hey Mushi [Productions] is exporting pictures to America, it's a big hit, money money money dollars! overnight a dozen studios sprung up, literally! It's the same thing here. If a producer walks around here and he happens to sell a western that "clicks" the next day you got 4,800 guys around the studio with western scripts under their arms trying to sell them.

So the same thing happened in Japan. The said this is they way to go and they opened up animation studios all over the place. If you looked at the Disney studio they had nine grey haired men that did all the animation. Well in Japan there were no old men because there was no animation industry. Tezuka started it all.