Hidekaz Himaruya

Hidekaz Himaruya (日丸屋 秀和 Himaruya Hidekaz, born May 8th, 1985, in Fukushima), is the creator of the series Axis Powers Hetalia.

Himaruya started the original webcomic while he was attending college at Parsons School Of Design in New York City, with the storyline still going at the present time. He is currently an art design major and makes posts about his day-to-day life on his site blog, along with the latest character designs and sketches.

Besides Hetalia, his site Kitayume also showcases his other manga projects and artwork. His latest series, Chibi-san Date, currently runs in the magazine Comic Birz by Gentosha Comics (who also published the printed versions of the Hetalia manga).

Himaruya had continued to live in New York up until some point in early 2009, when he moved back to Japan following the release of the Hetalia anime and his deal with Comic Birz.

Trivia

 * In the earlier days of the Kitayume site (2003-2007), he used the name Kazuyoshi Himaruya (日丸屋 和良, Himaruya Kazuyoshi), which most notably appears in the credits of the Gakuen Hetalia demo.
 * On his blog and update logs from archived versions of Kitayume, Himaruya mentions that he's a fan of both South Park and Happy Tree Friends.
 * Himaruya's hobbies (mentioned on the bio page at Kitayume) include photography, architecture, and collecting postcards.
 * The programs he uses to color and ink his artwork are: SAI Painter and Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.