Eisner Award-winning manga artist and author Shigeru Mizuki specialized in Yokai stories, or monster stories, and was best known for his horror series, GeGeGe no Kitaro (Spooky Kitaro).
Mizuki was born in Sakaiminato, a coastal town, in 1922. During World War II, he was drafted into the Imperial Japanese Army and sent to Papua New Guinea. His experiences during the war would impact the rest of his life; he lost his left arm during an air raid where he had been caught in an explosion. Multiple stories he would later write were influenced by his World War II experience, such as Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths (for which he won his first Eisner) and Watashi no Hibi.
Mizuki’s debut work was in 1957, called Rocketman; other notable works include Akuma-Kun and Showa: A History of Japan. Showa, published by Drawn & Quarterly in North America, won the 2015 Eisner Award for Best U.S. Edition of International Material – Asia this past July.