Fujio Akatsuka

Fujio Akatsuka (赤塚 不二夫, Akatsuka Fujio, September 14, 1935 â€" August 2, 2008) was a pioneer Japanese artist of comical manga known as the Gag Manga King. His name at birth is 赤塚 藤雄, whose Japanese pronunciation is the same as 赤塚 不二夫.

He was born in Rehe, Manchuria, the son of a Japanese military police officer. After World War II, he grew up in Niigata Prefecture and Nara Prefecture. When he was 19, he moved to Tokyo.

While working at a chemical factory, he drew many manga. After that, Tokiwa-so accepted him. He started his career as a shōjo artist, but in 1958, his Nama-chan (ナマちゃã‚") became a hit, so he became a specialist in comic manga. He won the Shogakukan Manga Award in 1964 for Osomatsu-kun and the BungeishunjÅ« Manga Award in 1971 for Tensai Bakabon. He is said to have been influenced by Buster Keaton and MAD magazine.

In 1965, Akatsuka established his own company "Fujio Productions Ltd.".

In 2000, he drew manga in braille for the blind.

Many of his manga featured supporting characters who ended up becoming more popular and more associated with their series than the main character, such as Papa (Tensai Bakabon), Iyami, Chibita (Osomatsu-kun), and Nyarome (Mōretsu Atarō).

In April 2002 he was hospitalized for intra-axial hematoma and was said to frequently be in a persistent vegetative state from 2004 until his death. In July 2006, his second wife Machiko, who had been nursing him, suddenly died from a subarachnoid hemorrhage. On August 2, 2008, he died of pneumonia at a hospital in Bunkyō, Tokyo.

Selected works

• Tensai Bakabon (天才バカボン)
• Osomatsu-kun (おそ松くã‚")
• Himitsu no Akko-chan (ひみつのアッコちゃã‚")
• Mōretsu Atarō (もーれつア太郎)

Assistants

• Kunio Hase
• Mitsutoshi Furuya
• Kenichiro Takai
• Takao Yokoyama
• Ken'ichi Kitami
• Kazuyoshi Torii
• Yoshiko Tsuchida
• Tsutomu Adachi
• Don Sasaki
• Shohei Kizaki
• Keiji Terashi
• Kawaguti Masashi
• Koji Oikawa
• Kiri Mitsunori
• Kondo Yosuke
• Shiiya Mitsunori
• Yumi Nakano
• Yuki Hiroyo
• Akira Saito
• Jinichi Tokisato