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Manga Legend Kazuo Koike Dies

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A Japanese Comic Veteran Passes

Writer Kazuo Koike, who wrote acclaimed manga series Lone Wolf & Cub and Crying Freeman, has just died, it has been reported over the last few days…

At the start of Koike’s career, he studied under Golgo 13 creator Takao Saito and he was also the writer on that series. Koike, collaborating with artist Goseki Kojima, created the much-loved Lone Wolf & Cub series, which was reprinted in English initially by First Comics and then by Dark Horse. Batman legendary creator Frank Miller was a huge fan of this series, which also spawned a number of films based on it in the 1970s. The pair became known as The Golden Duo thanks to the success of Lone Wolf & Cub. Koike was also the writer on the successful manga series Crying Freeman, drawn by Ryoichi Ikegami, which was adapted into a live action film back in 1995.





He was also the writer of a number of golf manga and he set up a course to teach people how to be a manga artist. Graduates of his school included: Rumiko Takahashi – manga artist: Urusei YatsuraRanma ½InuYasha etc., Akira Sakuma – game designer, freelance writer: Momotaro Densetsu series, Hideyuki Kikuchi – horror writer: Vampire Hunter D, Tetsuo Hara – manga artist: Fist of the North Star,Yuji Horii – game designer, freelance writer: Dragon Quest series, Keisuke Itagaki – manga artist: Baki the Grappler,Naoki Yamamoto – manga artist: Dance till Tomorrow and Takayuki Yamaguchi – manga artist: Apocalypse Zero and Shigurui.

Lone Wolf & Cub art by Goseki Kojima

His loss is a huge one. Everyone here at Tripwire send our condolences to his family.

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