Fujio F. Fujiko

Fujiko F Fujio is one half of one of the most prolific comic writing team of Fujiko Fujio whose volume of works are probably only rivaled by the famous American comic writing team of (Stan) Lee, and (Jack) Kirby. Birth name Fujimoto Hiroshi, he met his future comic drawing partner Abiko Motoo when he was in fifth grade at an elementary school in his native Toyama. He was impressed by the intelligence and thorough nature of Abiko's story writing style even at that age, and started to draw comic together (although only as a hobby at the time) which continued for over the next 40 years. In 1952 they made their comic debut with a comic titled "Tenshi no Tamachan" and two years later they moved to Tokyo to pursue their professional career. They were mentored briefly by the late Osamu Tezuka (of Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion fame) after coming to Tokyo like so many young comic artist of the time. Later they recalled seeing a stack of papers few feet high at Tezuka's house which were rejects of his comic pages. Tezuka's standards was so high that even under close inspection they couldn't tell what was wrong with the material. They helped Tezuka pen the last pages of Kimba the White Lion during that period. In 1956 they formed Shin Manga-To with Fujio Akatsuka, and Ishinomori Shotaro (of Kamen Rider, Kikaida, and Cyborg 009 fame). They were a close knit group of comic writer friends back then who had similar backgrounds of leaving their birth place and coming to Tokyo to start their careers. In the late '50s and early '60s Abiko with Fujimoto mostly penned action adventure comics oriented towards pre-teen boys such as the "Big One", "Silver Cross", and "Umi no Ooji". In 1964 they co-authored "Obake no Q-taro" which later became an animated cartoon series which saw wide spread syndication all over the world including North America, and Hong Kong. They continued their prolific career in the '60s and the '70s by penning other cartoons which saw animated syndication such as Paa Man, Kaibutsu-Kun, and Doraemon. One of their works, Ninja Hattori-kun, became a TV series acted by real live actors. Later in the '70s Fujiko started writing comics for adults, often depicting the surreal side of society as fiction which included the return of Obake no Q-Taro to the family of now grown up ex-friend Sho-chan. Q-Taro in this episode finds that reality of society robbed the youthful dreams of his ex-friends and returns to his spiritual world disappointed. They also penned a semi-autobiographical comic of their life and career at that time with Fujimoto being depicted as somewhat naive main character. In 1987 Fujimoto dissolved the partnership with Abiko, and for the first time in over 40 years, they decided to pursue their own careers with Fujimoto taking the pen name Fujiko F Fujio, and Abiko taking the pen name Fujiko Fujio (A). Fujimoto passed away in 1996 when he succumbed to liver failure.