Masamune Shirow was born in Japan on November 23, 1961. Shirow studied drawing and oil painting at the Osaka University of Art. While there, he wrote and drew his first published comic, Black Magic, for fanzine Atlas.
After graduating, Shirow taught high-school art. During those years, he created Appleseed, the first volume of which was published in 1985 by Seishinsha. Dominion followed in 1986. That same year, Appleseed won the Galaxy Award -- equivalent to the U.S. Hugo -- for best science fiction comic. After assisting in the direction and character design of the Black Magic M-66 animation video, Shirow went to work on Ghost in the Shell.
In 1995, Shirow released Dominion: Conflict 1 through his long-time publisher Seishinsha. 1995 also saw the publication of the first Japanese episode of the second Ghost in the Shell series, and the worldwide release of the multimillion-dollar Ghost in the Shell animated feature movie.
An extremely private individual -- 'Masamune Shirow' is a pseudonym -- the man who is Shirow has never appeared in public or allowed himself to be photographed as Shirow. He lives in Hyogo, Japan, following the loss of his house in the 1995 Kobe earthquake, enjoys reading, and keeps numerous spiders as pets.
Source (used by permission): DarkHorse.com
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