Ode to Kirihito
Osamu Tezuka, 1970-71
(orig. title: Kirihito Sanka; this Cro. ed.: Oda Kirihitu, 2016)

Just got through reading the two-volume Croatian translation of this (another library check-out for me). As far as I can tell, there are two editions of the English translation, first published in 2006: a monster one-volume book (the story is well over 800 pages) and a subsequent two-volume set.
Given the scope of the story, summarizing it is going to be a bit of a challenge, but here goes: a patient who has a mysterious disease called Monmow is checked into a major university hospital in Japan; the illness causes skeletal deformities that eventually give the infected person the appearance of a dog. Its pathogen cannot be determined, and debate arises as to whether it’s a viral infection or due to some environmental factor. And initially, all known cases are from a remote village on the island of Shikoku. The hospital’s chief of staff, the highly-respected Dr. Tatsugaura, sends a talented young intern, Kirihito Osanai, to the village to investigate.

Once he gets there, he finds that the people, from the local administrator on down, treat him quite inhospitably, with the exception of a young woman named Tazu, whose father is dying from Monmow. While treating him, Kirihito also contracts the disease. He nevertheless starts investigating the possible causes of the disease and comes to a likely solution, but then finds that he’s being prevented from leaving the village to get to the nearest telephone to report his findings. He eventually escapes together with Tazu (whom he married in the meantime) but they don’t get far before Tazu is brutally raped and murdered by a violent drifter. After this, Kirihito’s life goes into a downward spiral, as he’s kidnapped by gang of criminals who take him to Taiwan, where he’s held in the palace of a powerful crimelord who keeps him there with other ‘freaks’ and misfits as a form of entertainment. He eventually escapes but instead of making his way back to Japan, he ends up in the Middle East…

Meanwhile, work on finding a cause for the disease continues at the university hospital, where Dr. Tatsugaura insists that it’s caused by a virus. However, others have doubts, and the efforts take on a global scope when Dr. Urabe, Tatsugaura’s protégé, learns of a similar disease among a group of (Black) mine laborers in southern Rhodesia (remember, this takes place in 1970) while attending a medical conference in Johannesburg.

(Unfortunately, even while dealing with racism head-on, Tezuka was not immune to stereotypical depictions)
When Urabe starts looking into it there, he really begins to doubt the viral theory. And when he comes back to Japan, he realizes that Tatsugaura has an agenda, as he’s angling to become the next president of the Japanese Medical Association, so he’s not always acting in line with the best interests of his patients or his profession and oath.
Okay, I'll stop here even though I’ve barely scratched the surface. This is an epic story, well worth reading. It delves into a number of themes, including medical ethics and racism, as well as engaging with Christianity in a really interesting way (one of the main characters is a Catholic nun from South Africa who also contracts the disease).

Tezuka, by the way, completed medical school, so his descriptions of diseases and medical procedures here are really quite grounded. Otherwise, be warned, the story also takes some really dark turns – Tezuka is known, esp. outside of Japan I think, for all ages material like Astro Boy, but this is very much an adult story that often confronts some really ugly and disturbing aspects of humanity.
I haven’t really mentioned the art, but I think the samples I’ve posted throughout this post speak for themselves.