Katsuhiro Otomo

Katsuhiro Ōtomo is a Japanese manga author and film director, born on 14 April 1954 in Tome, Miyagi Prefecture. After a decade of short stories, he began serialising “Akira” in Young Magazine in 1982 — a post-apocalyptic science-fiction epic that transformed manga — and in 1988 directed its landmark anime film adaptation. He then moved largely into film, notably with “Steamboy” (2004). He was inducted into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame and received the Grand Prix of the Angoulême festival in 2015.