April 1989, manga artist Masami Yuki slips and falls breaking 4 of his fingers as he tries to stop his fall. At that moment in time he was illustrating and writing for the Patlabor manga series and was a member of the production company Headgear (comprised of Masami Yuki, Yutaka Izubuchi, Kazunori Itō, Akemi Takada, and Mamoru Oshii) who were in charge of the Patlabor franchise as well as being Patlabor’s creator. This caused a problem as they still wanted Patlabor to be in Weekly Shonen Sunday but without Masami being able to draw and write the manga they wouldn’t be able to have it in on time.
(Patlabor Shonen Sunday Cover 1988-1994)
After much debate and searching for a Mangaka who could fit their style and tone they decided on Naoki Urasawa who at the time was creating Yawara! For Big Comic Spirits and Master Keaton for Big Comic Original with Hokusei Katsushika and Takashi Nagasaki (who wrote what would become controversial later) to create some mini arcs whilst Masami healed. He would be on and off with stories due to other arrangements with last story of his last arc being published in 1994 just months before Monster was released. Although Urasawa was technically free lance he was made a temporary member of Headgear for copyright reasons.
(Image from Master Keaton |1988-1994)
(Patlabor Shonen Sunday Cover 1988-1994)
After much debate and searching for a Mangaka who could fit their style and tone they decided on Naoki Urasawa who at the time was creating Yawara! For Big Comic Spirits and Master Keaton for Big Comic Original with Hokusei Katsushika and Takashi Nagasaki (who wrote what would become controversial later) to create some mini arcs whilst Masami healed. He would be on and off with stories due to other arrangements with last story of his last arc being published in 1994 just months before Monster was released. Although Urasawa was technically free lance he was made a temporary member of Headgear for copyright reasons.
(Image from Master Keaton |1988-1994)