Who is Fumio?

Funio Obata was born in Japan, he made his way to the UK when he was young and innocent and has been living on the British soil since 1991. Fumio enjoys the division between the two cultures.

Always fond of drawing, Fumio grew up reading vast amount of comics all the time. At school his exercise books and textbooks were always full of cartoon sketches. Despite of general prejudices he wished to become a professional cartoonist in the future.

After moving away from his native Tokyo he spent four years at a boarding school among the lovely countryside in Gloucestershire. There he learnt English and how to swear in front of big boys.

He Studied illustration at Glasgow School of Art between 1996 - 99, and there he fell in love with Scotland, its nature and first paced hard working boozing life style.

Between 2001 and 2003 he studied multi-media at Royal College of Art in London and under the guidance of some great tutors he finally decided to pursue his career in animation and pictorial story telling. His profession lies within three areas, animation, illustration and comics.

Fumio occasionally enjoys dressing up in the traditional way but some people find it quite troublesome. One time he was nearly arrested by 5 huge policemen near the Westminster, London on the suspicion of carrying dangerous weapons which turned out to be mere plastic Samurai swords.

He is currently producing his comic strips on a regular basis developing his own unique style and voice. It's hard work but he believes he can get there one day before he suddenly drops dead from overwork.

Fumio returned to Scotland in 2005 where he now works in Redkite Animations.

Download Fumio's CV (46KB)