Joseph Luster
August 4, 2020 
Jiro Kuwata was a prolific manga author known for co-creating pioneering manga and anime superhero 8 Man, as well as working on Shonen King’s ’60s Batman manga—released in English as Batman: The Jiro Kuwata Batmanga. Unfortunately, publisher Akita Shoten announced this week that Jiro Kuwata passed away on July 2 at the age of 85.
Born in 1935, Kuwata’s debut work was The Strange Star Cluster, which was published in 1948 when he was just 13 years old. The publisher was Shonen Gahosha, and to this day it marks the company’s youngest debut. He went on to make a splash with Maboroshi Tantei in 1957, which was turned into a tokusatsu series, and created 8 Man with Kazumasa Hirai in 1963.
8 Man never properly had a finished final chapter, because Kuwata was sent to jail for possession of a handgun before he could complete it. Once he was released, his Batman manga ran from 1966 to 1967, and he retired from serialized manga in 1977, focusing instead on works centered around Buddhism.
In 1992, Kuwata was finally able to complete 8 Man properly alongside co-creator Hirai, and worked on advising the ongoing spin-off sequel 8 Man vs. Cyborg 009 prior to his passing.
Source: Akita Shoten via Crunchyroll
