Baba, Noboru

Baba Noboru (1927-2001) was a manga artist as well as a picture book artist, whose works continued to be loved by many to this day.

Born in Sannohe Town of Aomori Prefecture, Baba moved to Tokyo after becoming friends with Shiraki Shigeru, a writer of children's literature from the same hometown, and started his career as a manga artist. After producing the popular children's manga works such as "Posto-kun" and "Buutan", Baba expanded his field of work to include newspapers and weekly magazines, gaining support from multiple generations. Baba also was active in the world of picture books, in particular, his work, "Juuippiki no Neko" (Eleven Hungry Cats) was made into a 6 volume series, which has been a record breaking long-running bestseller, selling over 3 million copies. It was later adapted into two animated films respectively in 1980 and 1986.

Baba received the Shogakukan Children's Manga Award with Butan in 1954. He also received the Sankei Award for Children's Books and Publications for Juuippiki no Neko in 1968.

(Source: AniDB)