Kumakura, Yuuichi

Yuichi Kumakura is a Japanese manga artist. He is from Niigata prefecture and he is also know by his pen name "U-1 Kumakura".

Kumakura dropped out from high school in the first semester, then began publishing manga while working as a part-time job, and made his debut in 1994 with "Soukenden" (双剣伝) on Comic BomBom magazine. After that he published a few more one-shots and then started the "King of Bandits Jing", which become his major work.

Kumakura was heavily influenced by animation works from around the world, such as Disney animations and his two favorite movies, "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and "James and the Giant Peach", as Tim Burton is his biggest inspiration. He was also influenced by the artstyle from Capcom's illustrations team (especially on Darkstalkers and Street Fighter), and by the late comic book author, Juan Giménez.

He is a heavy smoker and therefore had to retire in 2006 due to some health issues, where King of Bandits Jing went on an indefinite hiatus. Kumakura was also working on a new series titled "Q & A" or "Queen and Amaretto", which unfortunately remained unfinished with only three chapters published, later compiled into a small artbook called "Love-Children".

King of Bandits Jing, in addition to the anime and OVAs, also received artbooks and two games for the Game Boy Color titled "Angel" and "Devil". There is also a collection of playing cards illustrated on the front and back by the author himself titled "Jingc@rds".