Murakami is a serious artist, whose theory of the "Superflat" opened the door for a comparison of manga with classical Japanese scroll painting and printmaking, but the show was promoted with a quote from Marc Jacobs, the fashion designer with whom he'd collaborated on Louis Vuitton handbags.

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In a Japanese episode, the characters enter a gorgeous brushstroke-style painting.

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Inspired by Fukushima, this 100-metre painting is designed to suggest the scrolls painted by Japanese monks over 600 years ago for those who had to endure earthquakes, floods or war.

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This spring the Park Avenue Armory will be the site of his artistic expedition to Mars, complete with a biology lab for Martian plant cultivation. (Sachs borrowed the technology from marijuana growers.) And this month his show "Work" opens at New York's Sperone Westwater gallery, featuring pieces like a Japanese tea ceremony and a version of Roy Lichtenstein's razor-blade painting "Duridium, " made here out of screws.

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