We have just
lost an inspiring artist and leader in the Super Robot cause. Mitsuteru
Yokoyama passed away in his Tokyo home after a fire.
Here
is a 16 April, 2004 BBC article footnoting his outstanding career:
The
Japanese creator of the Ironman 28 manga cartoon has died in a
fire at his home in Tokyo. Mitsuteru Yokoyama, 69, who also created
Little Witch Sally, was found unconscious in his bed with severe
burns and later died in hospital.
Police said the fire
was suspected to have been started by a lit cigarette by his bedside.
Ironman
28 was one of the first Japanese cartoons to be exported to the
US, where it was known as Gigantor.
Yokoyama was inspired
to draw by the late Osamu Tezuka, Japan's best-known manga cartoonist
and creator of the Astro Boy series.
Crime crusade
Launched in 1956, Ironman
28 - known as Tetsujin 28 in Japan - was based on the US B-29
bombers that flew over the Kobe port where Yokoyama lived as a
boy.
The original comic book
characters were transformed into a black-and-white animation in
Japan before being picked up by Fred Ladd in the US, who created
a colour version and changed the name to Gigantor.
The robot was controlled
by a young boy called Jimmy Sparks as they embarked on a crusade
against crime.
