Hideo Azuma was born in 1950 in Hokkaido. He moved to Tokyo where he was assistant to Rentaro Itai and debuted in 1969. Through the 70's and 80's he produced a large body of work including the comedies Futari To Gonin (Two People and Five) and Yakekuso Tenshi (Desperate Angel), the Science fiction Seiun Award wining Fujouri Nikki (Absurd Diary) and is also known as the father of Lolicon Manga. But the pressures told, and in 1989 he ran away from his responsibilities and went homeless. After this experience and his eventual return to normal life, he then repeated the cycle in 1992, this time becoming a gas pipe layer in another town. Later, in 1998, his alcoholism was so bad that he was forced into rehab. This book is his expression of those three periods of his life told, not in a deep or depressed way but, as befits his nature, in a buoyant and cheerful cartoony style. In 2005 Disappearance Diary was awarded the Grand Prize from the 9th Japan Media Arts Festival and the Excellence Prize at the 34th Japan Cartoonists Association Awards.