Takehiko Inoue
Takehiko Inoue started "Vagabond" having wondered what the character was like when he read "Musashi". Having come off of drawing a sports manga, he wanted to create a series about more basic concepts, such as "life and death, the human condition, etc." Rather than portray Musashi's later life in his "enlightened state", which has been written about often, the author chose to depict the lesser known "young man reaching that point of enlightenment when he comes from a place of being so like an animal." In 2009, he stated that he made his weekly deadline thanks to only having to draw the people, with his five assistants drawing the backgrounds.