Ryoichi Ikegami

Ikegami Ryouichi is a Japanese manga artist who usually works as an illustrator in collaboration with a writer. He is best known for series such as 'Crying Freeman' (1986-1988), written by Kazuo Koike, and 'Heat' (1999-2004), written by Buronson (Yoshiyuki Okamura). The latter won the 2001 Shogakukan Manga Award for general manga. Ikegami has worked on several popular series, such as 'Mai, the Psychic Girl' with writer Kudou Kazuya, 'Crying Freeman', with writer Koike Kazuo, as well as 'Sanctuary' with "Heat"'s with writer Fumimura Shou. He also wrote and drew 'Spider-Man: The Manga', a manga version of 'Spider-Man'. Yoshihide Fujiwara is a former assistant of Ikegami's. Ryouichi Ikegami began drawing his first comic series at age 17. Despite his age, his first two collaborative efforts (1973's 'AIUEO Boy' with Kazuo Koike and 1974's 'Gallant Gang' ("Otoko Gumi") with Tetsu Kariya) proved so popular they set the pattern for what would turn out to be one of the manga world's biggest success stories. Although many of his earlier works were written and drawn solo, nowadays Ikegami works almost exclusively with collaborators and shows no signs of stopping. He was an assistant to manga artist Mizuki Shigeru in 1966. He became a professor at the Osaka University of Arts in 2005. Ikegami received the Fauves d'Honneur at the 2023 Angoulême International Comics Festival.