Monkey Punch

Monkey Punch (モンキー・パンチ, Monkī Panchi?) is the pen name of Japanese manga artist Kazuhiko Katō (加藤一彦, Katō Kazuhiko?, born May 26, 1937), creator of the successful manga series and media franchise Lupin III. In April 2005 he became the professor of Manga Animation at Otemae University, in their Faculty of Media and Arts, and was a visiting professor at Tokyo University of Technology in May 2010. He was born in Hamanaka, Hokkaidō and currently resides in Sakura, Chiba.

Katō began drawing at a very young age, but didn't draw manga until junior high school, when his manga strips were used in the school newspaper.

Katō first started to work as a professional manga artist, under the pen name Kazuhiko Katō (加東一彦, Katō Kazuhiko?, pronounced the same as his real name, but written with different characters), for a publisher that specialized in rental books and magazines. In 1965, he made his debut with "Playboy School" (プレーボーイ入門, Purēbōi Nyūmon), writing under the name of Eiji Gamuta (がむた永二, Gamuta Eiji?). The editor of the magazine that "discovered him" then suggested the pen name Monkey Punch. Katō claims that he didn't like the name, but agreed because it was his boss's idea and his next series was only supposed to be a 3 month project. When the series, Lupin III, became popular, he was stuck with the name.

Lupin III made its debut on August 10, 1967 in the first issue of the magazine Weekly Manga Action (WEEKLY漫画アクション). It went on to become an extremely popular and successful media franchise, spawning numerous manga, four animated television series, five animated feature films, a live-action film, three OVAs, yearly television specials since 1989, music CDs, video games, and a musical. Monkey Punch himself even directed the 1996 film, Dead or Alive.

Monkey Punch has acknowledged the influence of Mad magazine artists Mort Drucker and Sergio Aragonés on his work.