Yusuke Murata was born in Miyagi, Japan, 1978. Known primarily as a manga artist, Murata got a taste of the creative industry at a young age. Aged twelve he entered a competition to design Mega Man villains. Which he won, twice. Two of his design were adapted for the games, and he is credited for Dust Man in Mega Man 4 and Crystal Man in Mega Man 5.
A little older, Murata had the very fortunate opportunity of being mentored by Obata Takeshi. At which time Murata was also illustrating for a number of one-shots published in Weekly Shonen Jump. Most notably his work for Eyeshield 21, a collaboration with writer Riichiro Inagaki. Originally a two-part one-shot it became serialized starting in 2002 and concluding in 2009. The 333 chapters, were collected and published into 37 tankōbon volumes by Shueisha, and later licensed for an English-language release by Viz Media. Eyeshield 21 has sold over 20 million volumes in Japan alone.
Murata’s other major, currently ongoing, work is Wanpanman aka One-Punch Man. Its author, ONE, originally drew and released it as a webcomic9. Starting in 2009, it quickly went viral, and in 2012 surpassed 7.9 million hits. Which is when Murata contacted ONE with a proposal to redraw the comic for digital publication. On June 14, 2012 the duo published the first chapter on Shueisha’s Young Jump Web Comics website. By December, 2012, Shueisha published a printed version. Viz Media again attained the license for the English version and released volume one and two September this year. Both the first and second volumes debuted on the New York Times Manga Best Sellers list and the series was nominated for an Eisner Award.
One-Punch Man has also fathered an anime adaptation. Animated by Madhouse, of Ninja Scroll and Death Note fame, the series premiered a couple weeks ago on TV Tokyo to very favorable reviews. You can actually watch the series on Daisuki with English subtitles.
To get even more of a Yusuke Murata fix, you can watch him work on Ustream, follow him on Twitter, and as a special treat check out this very inventive Twitter comic masterpiece.
