Kazuhiro "Kazu" Kibuishi (born April 8, 1978) is a Japanese-born American graphic novel author and illustrator. He is best known for being the creator and editor of the comic anthology Flight and for creating the webcomic Copper. He is also the author and illustrator of the ongoing Amulet series. Early life and education Kibuishi was born April 8, 1978, in Tokyo, Japan. He moved to the United States with his mother and brother in 1982. Kibuishi enrolled at the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1996 in pursuit of a film studies degree. While attending UC Santa Barbara, he credits the university's newspaper, the Daily Nexus, as where his illustration career started. Though he had previously drawn for his high school's newspaper, Kibuishi has stated that "[his career] all began when I started writing comics for the Nexus. I actually went to UCSB for film. I was trying to quit drawing." He would ultimately serve as the Art Director for the Daily Nexus for three and a half years, and developed his comic Clive and Cabbage during his tenure. He graduated from UC Santa Barbara in 2000 with a B.A. in film studies. Career Kibuishi started drawing at age five. He has stated that it was "the sadness that came from no longer having cool robot TV shows like Ultraman around once we came to the States that triggered a lot of my early drawings and projects." He has also noted Garfield and the magazines Mad Magazine, and CARtoons as catalysts for his love of comic books in particular. After he graduated from UC Santa Barbara, Kibuishi worked as an animator for Shadedbox Animations for two years. He decided to leave animation to focus on comics, where he could spend more time writing. He started producing the monthly comic Copper at his website which ran for seven years, ending in 2009. Flight Flight was conceived by Kibuishi as an anthology with contributions coming from friends. The project was promoted at the Alternative Press Expo, where it attracted the attention of Erik Larsen, then-new publisher of Image Comics. This caused the project to explode, attracting talent from all over the industry. Image published the first volume in 2004 and the anthology series concluded with the eighth volume in 2011. Explorer Following the conclusion of Flight, the Explorer series was Kibuishi's anthology for children using many of the same contributors to Flight.