How did Hirohiko Araki start drawing manga?
Araki grew up in Sendai drawing manga from childhood, encouraged by friends and by a father who bought art books, an influence visible in everything he later did. He submitted work to publishers while still at school, and after entering Miyagi University of Education he made the decision that defined his life, leaving without a degree to take manga seriously in Tokyo, against his family's wishes.
His debut came quickly. Poker Under Arms, a Western themed short drawn under the name Toshiyuki Araki, was selected in the Tezuka Award competition in 1980, when he was twenty. The recognition brought editor relationships at Shueisha, and he began publishing short works and then series in Weekly Shonen Jump, switching to his real name, Hirohiko Araki, as he established himself.
The early series were his training ground. Cool Shock B.T. (1982) followed a boy magician detective and taught him mystery plotting and stylish presentation. Baoh (1984 to 1985) was a darker action work about a boy turned into a biological weapon, full of the body horror and dramatic posing that JoJo would refine, and it later received an anime adaptation. The Gorgeous Irene stories added the glamour and menace of his female characters.
When JoJo's Bizarre Adventure began in 1987, it was therefore not a beginner's lucky hit but a fourth series by a 26 year old who had already tried the Western, the detective story and the horror action piece. This hub's early works entry covers Baoh and its companions in detail; the short version is that JoJo's confidence about changing genre every part was earned in these apprentice books.
