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The author of Dragon Ball is Toriyama Akira, born on April 5, 1955 in Aichi Prefecture. In 1974, he graduated from the design department of the prefectural industrial highschool and proceeded to work at an advertising design firm. He tired of the company and decided to take up drawing manga.

After a number of attempts, he debuted in 1978 in the weekly comics periodical, Shuukan Shonen Jump with a short story titled "Wonder Island." His first major hit came in the following year, with Dr. Slump, a manga about a clumsy genius scientist who creates a girl android. It continued until 1984, the year which Dragon Ball started. The animated TV serial Dr. Slump was shown from 1981 to 1986.

One of the reasons Toriyama-san sited for ending Dragon Ball was because he felt that the hectec schedule for weeklies weren't for him. He wants to draw manga at a more leisurely pace, having time for himself and his family.

Mr. Toriyama is, by nature, a shy person, and likes the country atmosphere over the city. (Hence the rural setting of Goku's residence) He also hates the cold. (Hence the tropical backdrop of KameSenin's abode, of TenkaIchiBudouKai, and of Penguin Village) His house in Aichi Prefecture already is in an out-of-way place, but he has stated that he would like to live in an even more rural area. However, his family was loathe to the idea.

In his free time, he enjoys being with his family, building models, playing video games, and riding on motorcycles. He has had a great variety of pets over the years, including dogs, cats, and birds. Most recently (as of Nov. '97), he seems to be enjoying taking care of tropical fish. He claims that his most favorite one is a fish called the "kongou-fugu" (I believe it is a type of blow fish).

As a child, he liked drawing and was greatly inspired by Disney's 101 Dalmations. When ever he draws himself, he often likes to render himself as a robot, as in the picture at top.

Well, Toriyama-san has released a new manga series! Titled Cowa!, the manga appears to be a slapstick series about two childish, monster- creatures. The main characters are Paifuu, a cute-looking, pointy-eared vampire- esque creature, and Rodorigesu Ho-se (Jose Rodriguez?), a modified Bubul-like creature. They live in an enchanted world filled with furry creatures, mummy-men, witches, and the occasional human. The story seems to be a mix of MajinMuraNo Bubul (see below) and Go! Go! Ackman. What does "Cowa!" mean? It appears to be the slang form for "kowai", meaning scary or frightening. For more info, check out the Cowa section of Curtis Hoffman's 3 Steps Over the Edge!

Paifuu and Jose from Cowa!:

Since the end of Dragon Ball in early 1995, he has worked on a few short stories. One of them is called Uchuujin Peke or Alien X. It's about an incompetent alien who is sent to earth to scout it out before invading it and making it the property of his own race. However, he ends up crash-landing. Another short story is Toki-mecha or Time-Mechanism. I haven't read this one, but apparently, it's about a girl named Tai who creates a time machine and becomes stranded in a primitive time. She meets a boy named Muu there.

Toriyama Akira also created a story titled MajinMuraNo Bubul, or Bubul of the Goblin Village, which was submitted as an entry in Jump magazine's Reader's Cup '97. The Reader's Cup was a contest in which the Jump manga artists would submit short stories, and the readers would vote for their favorite one. MajinMuraNo Bubul, which won first place, is about Bubul, a young monster-creature (kinda looks like a miniature Majin Buu, but blue, no not the Smurfs!), who lives in a different dimension, a world full of monster-creatures. There is a portal between that dimension and the earth dimension, allowing these creatures to travel to the world of human beings. Well, a bank robber happens to stumble upon this portal and ends up meeting Bubul and his younger brother, and the story begins from there.

He has also worked with a game maker, Square Soft, to create characters for a video game for Playstation. Called Tobal No. 1, it is a fighting game using 3-D polygon technology. One of the achievements of this new game is its 360 degree game play (unlike Virtua Fighter3 or Toshinden). He has also worked on the sequel, Tobal No. 2. Whaddaheck does "Tobal" mean? Well, Tobal is pronounced "to ba ru" in Japanese. Let's rearrange the sounds: "ba to ru." Now, we get the Japanese word for "battle," batoru (tatakai). This is my guess, but it seems quite likely.

Screen shot from the Tobal No. 1 game.

Speaking of video games, Toriyama-san has begun to use computer technology to color some of this work. Apparently, he has bought a Macintosh, and using a pen and an input pad, he adds color to his drawings. The cover illustration featuring Ackman for Toriyama Akira MaruSaku Gekijou vol. 3 (a compilation of his short stories) was colored this way. Judging from the lines in MajinMuraNo Bubul and the first episode of Cowa!, it seems like the entire drawing process was done on the computer. A quote from Toriyama sensei: "KonpuutaWa sugoi!" - "Computers are amazing!"

This is the description of the author given in DB Daizenshuu vol. 7 (Daijiten):

Toriyama Akira Author [HISTORY] Born 1955. Cartoonist. [1ST APPEARANCE (in the comic)] episode 480. [CHARACTERISTICS] The ultimate ruler of the DB World. He is much, much more superior than Kaioshin (Supreme God of the world kings). The things he likes are: cars, motorcycles, plastic models (puramo), movies, dogs, women, etc. The things he dislikes are: rejections (botsu), mice/rats, work, etc. [BATTLE HISTORY] He has heroically and continuously fought botsu for more than 10 years. Let's thank him a lot.
Translation: me

I've translated three of the interviews and the thank-you note from the back of the Coffee Table books:

DB Daizenshuu: TV Animation Part 1 Interview 3
DB Daizenshuu: TV Animation Part 2 Interview 5
DB Daizenshuu: Movies and TV Specials Interview 6
DB Daizenshuu: Daijiten (Dictionary) Thank-you Note 7

Hankering for more info on the main man behind DB? Well then, I point you to the Toriyama Akira Super Database, created and maintained by Curtis Hoffman.