ONE, also known as Tomohiro, is a Japanese manga artist famous for his manga series One Punch Man. Later on, the series was adapted into a digital manga with illustrations by Yusuke Murata.
ONE publishes the One Punch Man webcomic independently on his website without an official publisher. The manga remake is serialized on the web version of Weekly Young Jump. He is also known for his series Mob Psycho 100, which was serialized in the online version of Weekly Shōnen Sunday.
In one interview, the creator revealed that his interest in manga creation did not develop instantly. Rather, it was his childhood dream to become a famous mangaka. He even secretly drew a whole gag manga called “Middle-Aged-Man” in his high school.
Also Read: “I was a fan of…”: The Creator Has an Unlikely Inspiration for One Punch Man
One Punch Man Mangaka’s Early Passion for Manga
In an interview from 2012 (shared by the One Punch Man Fandom), the One Punch Man mangaka shared that he has always had a keen interest in drawing and manga creation, which led him to create his first manga in grade school.
When asked about the kind of response he received from friends when they saw his manga, the mangaka responded:
“I kept drawing manga from grade school onward, but never told anyone else about it, not even once. In grade school everyone else was into soccer or whatever video games were popular at the time, so I guess I was afraid of looking uncool if I drew manga. From middle school to college, I’d have friends who read manga, but didn’t know anybody who drew manga themselves, so I felt embarrassed about it.”
He further added:
“In the end, I went my entire student life without showing my manga to anyone or even telling people that I drew manga. But then, my parents got angry at me a few times when they found out I had drawn a gag manga called Middle-Aged-Man in my notebooks. In fact, I filled up about 50 notebooks just with manga.”
The mangaka mentioned that he created his own gag manga named “Middle-Aged-Man” during his high school days. He also added that he filled 50 notebooks with content for that manga, but he was too afraid to share it with his friends and family.
Tomohiro’s Journey to Become a Famous Manga Artist
In that interview, when asked about how he began drawing and publishing One Punch Man manga, Tomohiro explained that at the time, aspiring manga artists like him, who didn’t have laptops, would share their illustrations on mobile phone websites. He felt a strong desire to have people see his artwork. So, he decided to create his own website for this purpose.
He said:
“At first, I didn’t put up manga, just funny pictures. For instance, even if I drew a person, the back of their head would be really long, or they’d have a really wide forehead, or an unbelievably huge cleft chin (laughs). While I was drawing stuff like that, my site’s visitors increased to about a hundred. At the time there were lots of people imitating popular manga, trying to make pictures that were likely to sell, so I guess because of that I stood out from the pack.”
The One Punch Man creator also shared that he got viewers to read his manga but has trouble sharing a manga with viewers. At that time, camera phones were not good, so the pictures were too small to read. While searching for a solution, a friend who wanted to be a manga artist told him to take close-up photos of small pieces of paper with pictures and lines, about the size of a palm.
Source: One Punch Man Fandom
