Born in 1956 Tatsuya Miyanishi is one of the most popular childrens book artists currently in Japan. A graduate of the Nihon Universtiy College of Art's Fine Arts department Miyanishi is an artist in almost a renaissance sense. While most of his works tend to be oversized children's books, often featuring 50cm tall trim sizes, Miyanishi has also been known to dabble in Paper Dramas, planetarium programming, essays and grade-school level text books. His kids books cover a wide range of genres from superheroes to dinosaurs and everything in between. Over his career he has penned more than 75 books and last year his title Aren't You Delish was adapted into an animated film by Ajia-Do.
Mr. Reaper is Miyanishi's first book in English, but many of his books have been translated into French, Chinese, and Korean. He has won the Kodansha Cultural Award in the Picture Book category, as well as the Kenbuchi City Picture Book Village Award.