Usamaru Furuya is a Japanese manga artist. He graduated from Tama Art University, where he majored in oil painting and developed an interest in sculpting and Butoh dance. During elementary school, Furuya enrolled in the Osamu Tezuka Manga Correspondence Course and by the time he reached high school he had discovered a darker, more underground style. During college his work evolved from figurative to eventually dealing more with abstract shapes. In 1994 Furuya published his debut series Palepoli in Garo. After graduating from college, he initially planned to work as a full-time artist while doing illustrations on the side, but his manga became successful and his career blossomed. [More at Wikipedia]

January 25th, 1968 in Tokyo Prefecture (Age 56)