Hirohiko Araki

Hirohiko Araki is a Japanese manga artist (also known as a mangaka) that's best known for being the creator of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, JoJo wasn't the first manga that Araki has worked on though, he went through a long journey to become the well established mangaka that he is today. Hirohiko Araki first started drawing manga in the 4th grade and he went to prep school through junior high and high school to refine his skills, Araki never submitted his work to publishers until he got to his first year in high school, unfortunately for him, all of his submissions were rejected. Araki was a bit frustrated with the situation since there were many other mangaka around his age (some even younger) that were making big debuts recently, Araki decided to go on a trip to Tokyo so he can ask an editor from Weekly Shonen Jump (a well known manga magazine) on why his submissions are being rejected and what he can do to improve. Araki met with a rookie editor from Weekly Shonen Jump and he gave the editor a submission that he finished just the night before, the editor took no mercy and criticized Araki on every single page that he worked on, Araki was exhausted by the end but it was worth it since the criticism was constructive and the editor told Araki that he had potential, just as long as he fixed up the mistakes that were pointed out. Araki went on to clean up his work for the next few days and submitted his final submission to the Tezuka Awards, the submission was known as Poker Under Arms(1980) and it won the the runner up prize for the Tezuka Awards. For the next few years, Araki would go on to work on other manga series such as Cool Shock B.T. (1983), Baoh: The Visitor (1984), and Gorgeous Irene. All of these works were published in Weekly Shonen Jump and they were all very short lived and had only a few chapters, it wasn't until 1986 were Araki created his magnum opus which we know today as JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Even though Araki's previous works were short lived, I don't think they should be considered failures since they all had contain small elements that would later be seen in JoJo, his previous works were necessary stepping stones to get to where he is today with JoJo, those works helped evolve his style into the signature style he uses for JoJo, things wouldn't be the same if he had never developed that bizarre style that he uses in his manga.