Pan Migiwa

Pan Migiwa was born in 1964, "the same year", she says, "as Garo." Following high school, she began drawing manga out of a sense of frustration, and as "a strange act of self-assertion." in 1985, while supporting herself as an artist's model, she won the Garo award for best newcomer. Since then, her subtle explorations into the human soul ("There is a lot of humor in the soul," she says. "God loves a joke."), featuring the little girl named Panko, have been one of the magazine's most popular features. Panko's adventures have so far been collected into two volumes. Concerning her own work, Migiwa writes, "Standing in front of me is a mountain of things-like homework-that I should have conquered when I was little. Since I felt that this homework wouldn't be so difficult if I took it one step at a time, I decided to start from the beginning and go back to childhood. And when I began to draw these things, a kid named Panko emerged. Garo is the only magazine that allows me to draw this kid. So, naturally for me, Garo is my gateway to conquering the mountain"