Tsutomu Nihei is an internationally known Japanese comic artist and draftsman. Born in 1971, Nihei made his debut in the comics world as the winner of the 1995 Afternoon Magazine Four Seasons Award for short stories. He then briefly worked as an assistant to veteran comicker Tsutomu Takahashi before making his break-through hit BLAME! (published by Tokyopop). The BLAME! franchise was so well received worldwide, that it inspired an animated mini-series and eventually drew the attention of Marvel Comics in the US. Nihei would later go on to draw Wolverine (X-Men) and HALO comics for Marvel to great fanfare. An architectural student, Nihei's early work were mainly wordless, relying on visuals and backgrounds to tell their stories. Now, his works are deeply rooted in hard science-fiction, as was seen in the multiple NY Times Bestselling books HALO: The Graphic Novel (published by Marvel Comics) and BIOmega (published by Viz Media).