Cobra creator Buichi Terasawa has died at the age of 68. The designer died of a myocardial infarction last Friday, according to BFMTV. He took his first steps in the world of manga alongside Osamu Tezuka, considered a legend of the genre, in the 1970s. He will be his assistant for works like Phoenix or The Life of Buddha. The Japanese launched out on their own with Cobra in 1977, which was a hit with more than 50 million copies sold.

The animated series will also be a global success. He then offered the public Midnight Eye Goku (1987), Kabuto (1987) and Black Knight BAT (1985), the first color manga on a computer. After the death of his master in 1989, he did not return until 1992 with Takeru, the first manga entirely designed on a computer. He will then devote himself to Cobra, Over the Rainbow (2019), the sequel to his first manga.

His main character for Cobra is inspired by Jean-Paul Belmondo, for physicality and cheekiness.

Buichi Terasawa suffered from a brain tumor. As our colleagues point out, he had been operated on several times, and suffered from paralysis which affected the left side of his body, which also explains his drop in productivity. The creator of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, a particularly lively manga, paid homage to him during the third part of his work, drawing inspiration from Buichi Terasawa for his character Hol Horse.