Monkey Punch

Birth: May 26, 1937

Death: April 11, 2019

Age: 81

Gender: Male

Hometown: Hamanaka, Hokkaido Prefecture, Japan

Years Active: 1965 ~ 2019

Monkey Punch is the pen name of mangaka Kazuhiko Katou, creator of the successful Japanese manga series Lupin III, which is still being animated to this day.

Influenced by Osamu Tezuka's works, he began to draw and moved to Tokyo in 1957 after graduating from high school. From 1959, he wrote for a publishing company specializing in rental books under the pen name "Kazuhiko Katou," while working on doujins with his younger brother, Teruhiko Katou, and another friend. After moving to Tokyo, he was influenced by the American parody magazine "MAD," and his style changed to an American comic book style. This caught the attention of Fumito Shimizu, editor-in-chief of Futabasha, and in 1966 he made his full-fledged debut with Playboy Nyuumon under the pen name Eiji Muta. Under the name of "Mania Group," it was made to look as if Senji Mashuu (摩周仙二) and Eiji Kirita (霧多永二) were participating, but in reality, Katou wrote the whole story by himself.

In 1966, under the orders of editor-in-chief Shimizu, he changed his pen name to Monkey Punch. Katou didn't like the name because it was given to a newcomer at random, and he planned to change it after about a year, but he couldn't change it because the work he published under this name the following year became a big hit.

In May 1967, he was selected to draw the cover art for "Zengan Manga Story Action Tokushuu-gou," which was published mainly for newcomers to "Manga Story," such as Baron Yoshimoto and Ken Tsukikage, and he continued to draw the cover art for "Shuukan Manga Action," a weekly seinen manga magazine that was newly launched in August with Shimizu as editor-in-chief. He also began serializing Lupin III under the title with the notation "Original by Leblanc." in the August 10 first issue of Manga Action.

In addition to Lupin III, he has also created works such as Fukushuu Daikou, Cinderella Boy, and MUSASHI: Gundou. In 1996, he took on the challenge of directing an animated film with Lupin III: Dead or Alive.

He passed away due to pneumonia on April 11, 2019.

Awards:

• Inkpot Award
• Rome Comic Festival ROMICS Gold Award
• AMD Award for Merit
• Japan Cartoonists Association Award Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Award

(Source: Wikipedia)