Riichi Ueshiba (Japanese name: 植芝 理一 ) is a veteran comic artist from the southern Japanese city of Fukuoka. His early days as a comic artist were developed while he was going to the prestigous Waseda University in Tokyo back in 1990. After his second year in college, over summer break, Ueshiba took his first step into the realm of professional comics by writing the script for what would become his hit debut work Discommunication. He would then submit the work to Kodansha's Chiba Tetsuya Contest for New Artists. And to his surprise the short would go on to pick up the General Award for their 1991 edition granting him the option to be signed up to work on a series for the publisher.