Kazuo Koike is a prolific Japanese manga writer, novelist, and entrepreneur. Early in Koike's career, he studied under
Golgo 13 creator Takao Saito and served as a writer on the series. Koike, along with artist Goseki Kojima, made the manga
Kozure Okami (
Lone Wolf and Cub), and Koike also contributed to the scripts for the 1970s film adaptations of the series, which starred famous Japanese actor Tomisaburo Wakayama. Another series written by Koike,
Crying Freeman, which was illustrated by Ryoichi Ikegami, was adapted into a 1995 live-action film by French director Christophe Gans.
Goseki Kojima was a Japanese manga artist known for his collaborations with Kazuo Koike. The team was often referred to as the "Golden Duo." Kojima's best-known work was
Lone Wolf and Cub. Other titles attributed to Kojima are
Samurai Executioner and
Path of the Assassin. In 2004, Kojima won an Eisner Award.
Frank Miller began his career in comics in the late 1970s, first drawing then writing
Daredevil for Marvel Comics, creating what was essentially a crime comic disguised as a superhero book. It was on
Daredevil that Miller gained notoriety, honed his storytelling abilities, and took his first steps toward becoming a giant in the comics medium. After
Daredevil came
Ronin, a science-fiction samurai drama that seamlessly melded Japanese and French comics traditions into the American mainstream; and after that, the groundbreaking and acclaimed
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and
Batman: Year One, both of which not only redefined the classic character, but also revitalized the industry itself. Finally able to fulfill his dream of doing an all-out, straight-ahead crime series, Miller introduced
Sin City in 1991. Readers responded enthusiastically to Miller's tough-as-leather noir drama, creating an instant sales success. His multi-award-winning
300 series from Dark Horse, a telling of history's most glorious and underreported battle, was brought to full-blooded life in 1998. In 2001, Miller returned to the superhero genre with the bestselling
Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again. Frank Miller continues to push the medium into new territories, exploring subject matter previously untouched in comics, and his work consistently receives the highest praise from his industry peers and readers everywhere. In 2005, with the hugely successful
Sin City movie release, codirected with Robert Rodriguez, Miller added a director's credit to his already impressive résumé and introduced his characters to an entirely new legion of fans worldwide.
