Book Cover Art – Artist of the Week

LEARN HOW TO DRAW MANGA: iDRAW MANGA

This week I’ve spent organizing a whole bunch of the Japanese Manga comic books I’ve picked up over the last few months to see what I have on hand, and while doing so, have been comparing all the book cover art and decided it was too hard to pick just one Manga artist as the artist of the week. So, I’ve decided to showcase a few of my favorites in one place so you can pick for yourself which one you think is the best of them:

AKIRA TORIYAMA

He started out in 1979 with the story WONDER ISLAND, which debuted in WEEKLY SHONEN JUMP. He then became known for the anime and manga series DR. SLUMP. In 1984, his DRAGON BALL series was released in installments in WEEKLY SHONEN JUMP.As you can see, his style is heavily influenced by Disney’s original 101 DALMATIONS and Osamu Tezuka’s ASTRO BOY.

RUMIKO TAKAHASHI

Takahashi’s career as a mangaka (manga artist) began in 1978. Her first published story was THOSE SELFISH ALIENS, a funny science fiction story. She also published TIME WARP TROUBLE, SHAKE YOUR BUDDHA, and the GOLDEN GODS OF POVERTY in SHONEN SUNDAY, a magazine that published most of her major works for the next twenty years.Her work is so popular that she has become one of the richest women in Japan. Her Inu-Yasha books won the Shogakukan Manga Award in 2002.

TAKAO AOKI

Aoki’s most well-known work is BEYBLADE, a Manga series about children who battle with spinning tops.He works for Shogakukan. Word is that he went to Chiyoda Art school and took a special course in manga. However, since 2005, he hasn’t come out with anything new, so it’s not known if he’s retired or ?? (His official site was last updated in 2005.)

MAKOTO RAIKU

Raiku started the manga series Konjiki no Gash!!, which started out in SHOGAKUKAN’S SHONEN SUNDAY magazine. In the United.States, both the manga and anime are known as Zatch Bell!. In one chapter of the Konjiki no Gash Bell!! manga, Raiku makes an appearance with his own story, and also plays the role of Umagon’s partner in the game. In 2003, Konjiki no Gash!! received the 48th SHOGAKUKAN MANGA AWARD in the Shōnen category.

KAZUKI TAKAHASHI

Takahashi started out as a mangaka in 1982. His first work was TOKIO NO TSUMA which came out in 1990.However, he did not find success until 1996 when he created Yu-Gi-Oh!Takahashi’s Yu-Gi-Oh! manga started the creation of the Yu-Gi-Oh! cards or originally known as “Magic and Wizards”, a reference to the card game MAGIC: THE GATHERING. (The name of the card game was changed to “Duel Monsters” for the anime adaptations.)

CLAMP

Clamp originally began in 1989 as a twelve-member dōjinshi circle, but by 1990, the circle had diminished from twelve to seven. Of the remaining seven, Tamayo Akiyama, Sei Nanao, and Leeza Sei left the group during the production of the RG Veda manga. Other former members of Clamp also included Soushi Hishika, O-Kyon, Kazue Nakamori, Yuzuru Inoue and Shinya Ōmi. Currently, there are four members in the group.

(Some information has been adapted from Wikipedia.)