Kazuhiro "Kazu" Kibuishi is an American graphic novel author and illustrator. He is best known for being the creator and editor of the comic anthologyFlight and for creating the webcomic Copper. He is also the author and illustrator of the ongoing Amulet series.
Early life and education
Kibuishi was born April 8, 1978, in Tokyo, Japan. He moved to the United States with his mother and brother in 1982. Kibuishi enrolled at the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1996 in pursuit of a film studies degree. While attending UC Santa Barbara, he credits the university's newspaper, the Daily Nexus, as where his illustration career started. Despite previously drawing for his high school's newspaper, " all began when I started writing comics for the Nexus. I actually went to UCSB for film. I was trying to quit drawing." He would ultimately serve as the Art Director for the Daily Nexus for three and a half years, and developed his comic Clive and Cabbage during his tenure. He graduated from UC Santa Barbara in 2000 with a B.A. in film studies.
Career
Kibuishi started drawing at age five. He has stated that it was "the sadness that came from no longer having cool robot TV shows like Ultraman around once we came to the States that triggered a lot of my early drawings and projects." He has also noted Garfield and the magazines Mad Magazine, and CARtoons as catalysts for his love of comic books in particular. After he graduated from UC Santa Barbara, Kibuishi worked as an animator for Shadedbox Animations for two years. He decided to leave animation to focus on comics, where he could spend more time writing. He started producing the monthly comic Copper at his website which ran for seven years, ending in 2009.
''Flight''
Flight was conceived by Kibuishi as an anthology with contributions coming from friends. The project was promoted at the Alternative Press Expo, where it attracted the attention of Erik Larsen, then-new publisher of Image Comics. This caused the project to explode, attracting talent from all over the industry. Image published the first volume in 2004 and the anthology series concluded with the eighth volume in 2011.
''Explorer''
Following the conclusion of Flight, the Explorer series was Kibuishi's anthology for children using many of the same contributors to Flight. Seen as a successor series, Explorer covered three books and concluded with Explorer: The Hidden Doors.
''Amulet''
Kibuishi is the creator of Amulet, a series of graphic novels which debuted in 2008 with . Scholastic won the rights to publish the series after they were victorious in a hotly contested auction. In addition to The Stonekeeper, other titles in the series include The Stonekeeper's Curse, The Cloud Searchers, The Last Council, Prince of the Elves, Escape From Lucien, Firelight and Supernova. The series currently has eight books.
Kibuishi is married to fellow illustrator and collaborator Amy Kim Ganter. He has two children, Juni and Sophie. He resides in Bellevue, Washington. He suffered a life-threatening case of bacterial meningitis which resulted in a hospital stay for weeks and being induced into a coma for treatment.
