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".

He 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 manga magazine. After that he published a few more one-shots and then started "Ou Dorobou Jing" (王ドロボウJING), which become his major work. Tamori wa Taru was his assistant.

Yuichi Kumakura has been heavily influenced by animated films, especially those from Disney, with his favorites from the studio being "Pinocchio" and "The Sword in the Stone". Tim Burton is also his biggest inspiration, and his favorite movies are "The Nightmare Before Christmas", "James and the Giant Peach", "Beetlejuice", "Batman (1989)" and "Batman Returns". He is also a big fan of David Lynch's surrealist works and loves "Twin Peaks". Yuichi Kumakura was also influenced by the art style from Capcom's illustrations team (especially on Darkstalkers and Street Fighter), Mike Mignola, and the late comic book artist Juan Giménez.

He is a heavy smoker and therefore had to retire in 2006 due to some health issues, where "KING OF BANDIT 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".

"Ou Dorobou 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".