Ryouichi Ikegami began drawing his first comic series at age 17. Despite his age, his first two collaborative efforts (1973's AIUEO Boy with Kazuo Koike and 1974's Otoko Gumi with Tetsu Kariya) proved so popular they set the pattern for what would turn out to be one of the manga world's biggest success stories. Although many many of his earlier works were written and drawn solo, nowadays Ikegami works almost exclusively with collaborators.
