Monkey Punch has passed away at 81. The Japanese manga creator, who was born Kazuhiko Kato on May 26, 1937 in Hamanaka, Hokkaido, Japan, passed away following complications from pneumonia.
The official date of Monkey Punch’s passing was Thursday, April 11.
Kato began drawing in junior high school and was working on manga strips for his school newspaper. Kato eventually went to technical school where he continued his drawings. Once he continued to develop, Kato adopted the name Eji Gamuta before accepting the pen name Monkey Punch.
From Screenweek.it:
In 1996 Punch directed the fifth feature film Lupine III – Deadly Trap , broadcast in Italy for the first time on Italia 1 and then distributed on home videos with the titles Lupine III: The Movie – Dead or Alive and Lupine III: Dead or Alive – Trap mortal .
Celebrated all over the world, it was awarded the Inkpot Award at the San Diego Comic Con, with the Golden Romics, the AMD Award and the Tokyo Anime Awards.
Monkey Punch created Lup III and has acknowledged Mad Magazine artists Mort Drucker and Sergio Aragones among his influences.
All of the information we know about Kato’s passing can be seen below.
Kazuhiko Kato “Monkey Punch” Cause of Death: Pneumonia
. . Un altro pezzo della nostra infanzia ci lascia. Sayonara Monkey Punch-sama, domō arigatō! Monkey Punch passed away on April 11, 2019 due to complications from pneumonia.