[Kanji_The_Wanderer]

This is a direct reference from wikipedia:

NOBUHIRO WATSUKI (born May 26, 1970) is a Japanese mangaka, best known for his samurai-themed series Rurouni Kenshin. He once worked as an assistant for his favorite author Takeshi Obata, and is influenced by Marvel comics such as the X-Men, Spider-Man, Hulk, and Spawn when making his characters.

Nobuhiro Watsuki was born in Nagaoka, Niigata prefecture, Japan. When Watsuki was a young boy, his brother, who was three years older, drew manga. Watsuki’s older brother was his role model so he started drawing Manga as well. Watsuki was also inspired by various Manga artists of the older times. A few of them were Osamu Tezuka and Fujiko F. Fujio. Later on, his brother stopped drawing manga but, “Because Mr. Watsuki was dumb, he kept drawing it (manga) for a while.”

When Watsuki was in middle school, he practiced kendo. Kendo is the art of wooden swords. He still drew Manga but also wanted to partake in sports. Watsuki admits that he was very weak. “So weak in fact,” says Watsuki, “That I was an embarrassment to my 183 centimeters of height.” (RK vol. 1) Watsuki never won a kendo match. One time, though, he was selected to be a starter. This happened because the boy who was supposed to start was suspended for causing an uproar. After a while, Watsuki got frustrated with kendo, and eventually quit. When he was challenged to come up with a new character for Rurouni Kenshin, he used his outlook on kendo for a base of Myōjin Yahiko.

Nobuhiro Watsuki has had many works in the past. In high school he won the Hop Step award for his work on his comic sleeve he called Podmark. Not much is known about Podmark because it has not been translated to English. Later on, Watsuki was an assistant in the work of Arabian Lamp-Lamp. The model for Sagara Sanosuke was based on a different version of Lamp. In 1994 a new sleeve was created and published in Shonen Jump Weekly. It seems that this was the first sleeve about Rurouni Kenshin. His most recent work, Buso Renkin (Arms Alchemy) was published on June 2003, also in Jump.

When not working on manga, Watsuki enjoys playing video games, reading other manga, and watching television. His favorite American comic book is X-Men because he likes the action. His favorite Anime (other than his own) is Neon Genesis Evangelion. He likes video games like Samurai Spirits and things of that sort. He also enjoys action movies like Die Hard and The Matrix.

MANGA WORKS:

Crescent Moon in the Warring States (first professional work)
Rurouni: Meiji Swordsman Romantic Story
Rurouni Kenshin
Kenshin Kaden
Yahiko no Sakabatō
Meteor Strike
GUN BLAZE WEST
Buso Renkin
Embalming -DEAD BODY and BRIDE
Embalming II -DEAD BODY and LOVER