the ultimate leader of the Pirate Guild with powerful psychic powers, revealed after his death to be an incarnation of Adolf Hitler's soul. Production Cobra is Buichi Terasawa's debut manga series. Previously he had written and illustrated between twenty and thirty science-fiction shōjo (targeted towards girls) short stories for manga contests held by manga magazines, with one of them earning an honorable mention. Terasawa created Cobra by combining the Spaghetti Western subgenre and Japanese stories featuring a "wandering swordsman". Terasawa wanted to create a hero who would be able to carry a concealed weapon and then the Psychogun was created before the titular character. His concept of a hero has been greatly influenced by "spaghetti westerns with a James Bond-type spin to them." Also from Bond series came the concept of several women who circulate around Cobra. For Cobra, he also drew inspiration from the French actor Jean-Paul Belmondo and his "phlegmatic style", specifically from his characters on Breathless (1960) and That Man from Rio (1964). The then rising actresses Dominique Sanda and Catherine Deneuve also inspired the names of the Royal Sisters. One of Cobra's main enemies, Crystal Bowie, was named as a tribute to English musician David Bowie. In general, Terasawa has been influenced by films, including Star Trek, René Laloux's animations, the James Bond film series, Akira Kurosawa's films, and Disney films prior to The Little Mermaid (1989). For example, Jane Fonda's performance in the cult science-fiction film Barbarella (1968) served as a direct model for his character Jane, whose hairstyle was also inspired by Princess Aurora's in the Disney animated film Sleeping Beauty (1959). For his storytelling, panel layout, and narrative pacing in general, he draws influence from manga artist Osamu Tezuka, who mentored him. Terasawa declared, "Without him, ... Cobra would never have existed. Publication Written and illustrated by Buichi Terasawa, Cobra was first published in 1977 in Shueisha's Japanese shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump as a one-shot edition. It was later serialized for six years, running from the November 6, 1978 issue to the November 12, 1984 issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump, and released under the magazine's Jump Comics line in eighteen tankōbon volumes between August 15, 1979 and August 15, 1985. Cobra was re-published from February 10, 1988 to November 10, 1998 in a ten-volume aizōban edition under Jump Comics Deluxe entitled Space Adventure Cobra. The manga series was only partially released