Furuya, Usamaru

Birthplace: Tokyo, Japan Current residence: Tokyo, Japan Furuya Usamaru's path to manga was unusual. He studied sculpture and abstract three-dimensional figures in art school, and afterwards even became involved with butoh dance. For a while he worked as a high school art teacher. He made his debut as a manga artist with the ground-breaking four-panel "gag" strip Palepoli, which was serialized in the legendary avant-garde comics magazine Garo in 1994. Since then he has gone on to publish in major weekly magazines in Japan, such as Young Sunday (where Short Cuts was first serialized). In English, his work has appeared in PULP: The Manga Magazine and Secret Comics Japan. (Source: "About the Artist" of Short Cuts English Edition) Twitter: @usamarus2001