Kazuo Umezu.

mangaka · cartoonist

Japan, 1936 to 2024

In short

Kazuo Umezu or Kazuo Umezz (楳図かずお, Umezu Kazuo; birth name 楳図一雄; September 3, 1936, October 28, 2024) was a Japanese manga artist, musician and actor. Starting his career in the 1950s, he is among the most famous artists of horror manga and has been vital for its development, considered the "god of horror manga". In 1960s shōjo manga like Reptilia, he broke the industry's conventions by combining the aesthetics of the commercial manga industry with gruesome visual imagery inspired by Japanese folktales, which created a boom of horror manga and influenced manga artists of following generations.