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Shirow Masamune was born in 1961 in Kobe, Japan and attended Osaka University of Arts, where his fellow classmates included Hideaki Anno, the future creator of Neon Genesis Evangelion. Shirow began his professional manga career in 1985 with Appleseed, which won one of Japan’s top prizes for science fiction, the Seiun Award. Dark Horse first began to publish Shirow’s work in 1992, beginning with his art book Intron Depot and manga Orion and Dominion, followed in 1995 with the first English edition of his most famous manga series, Ghost in the Shell. In 1996, Shirow was the first manga artist to be featured on the cover of Wizard: The Guide to Comics. Through his futuristic designs, dynamic action sequences and visionary concepts, Shirow has become one the most influential manga artists on international creators, counting among his fans the film directors James Cameron and Neill Blomkamp.