Junji Ito
Junji Ito (伊藤 潤二, Itō Junji, born July 31, 1963) is a Japanese horror manga artist. Some of his most notable works include Tomie, a series chronicling an immortal girl who drives her stricken admirers to madness, Uzumaki, a three-volume series about a town obsessed with spirals, and Gyo, a two-volume story where fish are controlled by a strain of sentient bacteria called "the death stench." His other works are Itou Junji Kyoufu Manga Collection, a collection of different short stories with the occasional appearance of a certain character named Souichiro and his family, and Itou Junji No Neko Nikki: Yon and Mu, a light-hearted story about moving in a new house with his cats.
Biography
Junji Ito was born in the Gifu prefecture of Japan in 1963. He was inspired from a young age by both his older sister's drawings and the work of Kazuo Umezu. Ito first began writing and drawing manga as a hobby while working as a dental technician in the early 90's. In 1987, he submitted a short story to Gekkan Halloween that won an honorable mention in the Kazuo Umezu Prize (with Umezu himself as one of the judges).
