How did Yusuke Murata come to draw One-Punch Man?
He asked. A famous artist read a rough webcomic, fell for it, and picked up the phone.
Yusuke Murata, the artist of Eyeshield 21, was already a professional at the top of his field when he found ONE’s webcomic and became a fan. Under contract to Weekly Shonen Jump, he held back at first: asking to redraw a stranger’s free comic, he has said, felt like it would “sound too fishy.” Then ONE tweeted that he was thinking of quitting his job to draw manga full-time, against the advice around him, and Murata contacted him immediately.
THE APPROACH, DOCUMENTED
From the interviewsThe tweet that moved him
In the pair’s Sugoi Japan interview, Murata describes reading ONE’s tweets about going professional and deciding on the spot. Fans later dated the first public exchange between the two accounts to January 2011.
The other version he tells
Murata has also told it more gravely: hospitalized with hives and an infection that reached his organs and windpipe, he decided that if he was going to die, he wanted to spend his remaining time drawing a manga he truly loved, with ONE. The two accounts sit side by side in the record.
Two one-shots first
Before the remake launched, the new team tested itself in print: Doto no Yusha-tachi in Weekly Young Jump on April 1, 2012, and Dangan Tenshi Fan Club in Miracle Jump on April 17, 2012.
Murata opened the door
Murata used his own industry connections to bring the project to Shueisha. The remake launched on Tonari no Young Jump on June 14, 2012, less than three months after the first one-shot.