Fujiko F Fujio is one half of one of the most prolific comic writing
team of Fujiko Fujio whose volume of works are probably only rivaled by
the famous American comic writing team of (Stan) Lee, and (Jack) Kirby.
Birth name Fujimoto Hiroshi, he met his future comic drawing partner
Abiko Motoo when he was in fifth grade at an elementary school in his
native Toyama. He was impressed by the intelligence and thorough nature
of Abiko's story writing style even at that age, and started to draw
comic together (although only as a hobby at the time) which continued
for over the next 40 years.
In 1952 they made their comic debut with a comic titled "Tenshi no
Tamachan" and two years later they moved to Tokyo to pursue their
professional career. They were mentored briefly by the late Osamu
Tezuka (of Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion fame) after coming to
Tokyo like so many young comic artist of the time. Later they recalled
seeing a stack of papers few feet high at Tezuka's house which were
rejects of his comic pages. Tezuka's standards was so high that even
under close inspection they couldn't tell what was wrong with the
material. They helped Tezuka pen the last pages of Kimba the White Lion
during that period.
In 1956 they formed Shin Manga-To with Fujio Akatsuka, and Ishinomori
Shotaro (of Kamen Rider, Kikaida, and Cyborg 009 fame). They were a
close knit group of comic writer friends back then who had similar
backgrounds of leaving their birth place and coming to Tokyo to start
their careers. In the late '50s and early '60s Abiko with Fujimoto
mostly penned action adventure comics oriented towards pre-teen boys
such as the "Big One", "Silver Cross", and "Umi no Ooji". In 1964 they
co-authored "Obake no Q-taro" which later became an animated cartoon
series which saw wide spread syndication all over the world including
North America, and Hong Kong. They continued their prolific career in
the '60s and the '70s by penning other cartoons which saw animated
syndication such as Paa Man, Kaibutsu-Kun, and Doraemon. One of their
works, Ninja Hattori-kun, became a TV series acted by real live actors.
Later in the '70s Fujiko started writing comics for adults, often
depicting the surreal side of society as fiction which included the
return of Obake no Q-Taro to the family of now grown up ex-friend
Sho-chan. Q-Taro in this episode finds that reality of society robbed
the youthful dreams of his ex-friends and returns to his spiritual
world disappointed. They also penned a semi-autobiographical comic of
their life and career at that time with Fujimoto being depicted as
somewhat naive main character.
In 1987 Fujimoto dissolved the partnership with Abiko, and for the
first time in over 40 years, they decided to pursue their own careers
with Fujimoto taking the pen name Fujiko F Fujio, and Abiko taking the
pen name Fujiko Fujio (A). Fujimoto passed away in 1996 when he
succumbed to liver failure.
