Kazuo Umezu
Kazuo Umezu ( Japanese 楳 図 か ず お , Umezu Kazuo , actually: 楳 図 一 雄 ; * September 3, 1936 in Wakayama Prefecture , Japan ) is a Japanese manga artist .
He is one of the most famous cartoonists in the field of horror manga, but has also drawn gag and science fiction manga. His work is translated into English and French, among others. Numerous films and television series are based on his mangas. He had an influence on renowned horror artists such as Junji Itō .
biography
Umezu was born in 1936 in a village on Kōya-san in Wakayama Prefecture and grew up in Gojō in Nara Prefecture . He made his first caricature when he was ten years old.
Manga Lending Books ( Kahihon'ya ) published his first comics as a professional draftsman. Tomobook-sha brought out his two debut works, Betsusekai and Mori no Kyōdai , in 1955 when Umezu was nineteen . Also about Shigeru Mizuki and Takao Saitō worked at that time for Kashihon trade publishers. In 1962 he moved to Tokyo , where he drew manga for mainstream magazines such as Shōjo Club , Niji or Shōjo Friend , which were aimed at teenage girls. Examples of his Shōjo manga from this period are Romance no Kusuri and Hebi Shōjo . While the former is a love story with funny interjections, Hebi Shōjo (Eng. "Snake Girl") is one of the horror mangas with which he should gain a great reputation.
He also established himself as a draftsman of comics for boys ( Shōnen ). His approximately 2,000 page manga series Hyōryū Kyōshitsu was published weekly from 1972 to 1974 in the manga magazine Shōnen Sunday , one of the manga magazines with the highest circulation. The story is about the fact that a primary school with over 800 students is being moved into a future in which mankind has already seen some catastrophes. Umezu focused on the sixth grader Sho Takamatsu, who, like his classmates, encounters strange creatures who have the planet in their power. Hyōryū Kyōshitsu won the Shōgakukan Manga Prize in 1975 and was made into a film in 1987 under the direction of Nobuhiko Obayashis .
He had another great success with Makoto-chan , which appeared weekly from 1976 to 1981 in Shōnen Sunday and consists of about 4,300 pages. In contrast to Hyōryū Kyōshitsu , the gag manga takes a humorous path, the exclamation Gwashi! the protagonist became well known in Japan.
He drew works such as Watashi wa Shingō and Kami no Hidarite Akuma no Migite for various magazines that are dedicated to an adult, male readership, i.e. publish his mangas . From 1990 to 1995 Big Comic Spirits was published in 14-sai . In 4,100 pages, which also appeared in twenty anthologies by Shogakukan , he describes the rooster George, who escapes from a research institute and finds himself in a devastated civilization of the near future. The rooster eventually falls in love with a human girl.
Kazuo Umezu is also known as a person in Japan. He is considered eccentric and often appears in unusual shirts on Japanese television. He also worked as a musician (for example, he designed the theme song for the 1980 anime film about Makoto-chan ) and released the CD Yami no Album in 1975 .
In 2018 he was awarded the Prix du patrimoine .
Works (selection)
- Kuchi ga Mimi made sakeru Toki ( 口 が 耳 ま で さ け る 時 ), 1960
- Romance no Kusuri agemasu !! (ロ マ ン ス の 薬 あ げ ま す !! ), 1961
- Hebi Shōjo ( へ び 少女 ), 1966
- Nekome no Shōjo ( 猫 目 の 少女 ), 1966
- Akanbo Shōjo ( 赤 ん ぼ 少女 ), 1967
- Orochi ( お ろ ち ), 1969–1970
- Iara ( イ ア ラ ), 1970
- Again ( ア ゲ イ ン , Agein ), 1971–1972
- Hyōryū Kyōshitsu ( 漂流 教室 ), 1972–1974
- Makoto-chan ( ま こ と ち ゃ ん ), 1976–1981
- Watashi wa Shingō (わ た し は 真 悟 ), 1982–1986
- Kami no Hidarite Akuma no Migite (神 の 左手 悪 魔 の 右手 ), 1986–1989
- 14-sai ( 14 ), 1990-1995
literature
- Masanao Amano, Julius Wiedermann (Ed.): Manga Design . Taschen Verlag, 2004, ISBN 3-8228-2591-3 , pp. 112-115
Web links
- Official website (Japanese, English, German)
- Entry in the Comic Encyclopedia (English)
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Umezu, Kazuo |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | 楳 図 か ず お (Japanese); 楳 図 一 雄 (Japanese, real name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Japanese manga artist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 3, 1936 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Wakayama Prefecture , Japan |