Shigeru Sugiura

Shigeru Sugiura was a Japanese manga artist famous for his surreal, nonsense gag manga. He has influenced many artists in a variety of fields, including the gag manga artist Fujio Akatsuka.

Enthusiastic fans include such figures as the novelist Yasutaka Tsutsui and the musician Haruomi Hosono. He is cited as the inspiration for the tanuki in Isao Takahata's anime film Pom Poko and Hayao Miyazaki made a television commercial inspired by his work.