Akira Toriyama was born on April 5th, 1955 at the Aichi District, Japan. He graduated and became a graphic designer. In 1978, he published his first manga called Wonder Island. Later that year, he started "Highlight Island" followed by "Tomato Girl Detective". In the year 1980, he started "Dr Slump", which brought him success and fame. Then the Dragonball series. Dragonball was the most successful comic in Japan, it got such a high level of respect and reputation Toriyama continued on and created Dragonball Z also the latest Dragonball GT. Altogether they sold over 200 million copies...(?) (this included DB, DBZ & DBGT) worldwide...mostly Asian countries actually. Toriyama was also the character designer for the popular Dragon Quest series and Chrono Triger video games. He was indeed the most respected Anime and Manga artist of all time.
His Work Dr Slump:
Approximately 100 volumes in total. A story on a robotic girl. This was Toriyama's first successful Anime, which brought him respect and fame. This series of comics are very funny and a good read.
DragonBall:
There are 42 volumes. The storyline is great along with sick looking characters. Although the story gets a little predictable later on and the drawings gets poorer when it reaches the end of the series. However overall is still excellent.
DragonBall Z:
More Dragonball. The Z stands for Zen. The main reason that they they put that there is because this dragonball series is where Goku has exelled (or will eventually excell) many high masters of the arts. This is the newer version of DragonBall, with more enemies and a few different characters. The new characters look absolutely awesome. Hint: Watch the movies rather than the comic book version, because the movies KICK BUTT!!!
DragonBall GT:
More Dragonball. DragonBall GT stands for Grand Tour. The drawings are very much different compared to the other Dragonball series. GT wasn't created by Akira Toriyama, but probably by his Bird Studio artists. DragonBall GT is a totally different story with MORE sick characters. The story is about how Goku is turned back into a little kid again. At that time, the seven magical balls (or dragonballs) are spread across the universe. From comments I've received, I believe this series of Dragonball is not very good and is changing the way what Dragonball used to look like (the cartoon is starting to move towards Sailor Moon kind of comic). I haven't seen the GT series yet so I don't have much of an opinion right now.
Go Go Ackman: A good fantasy story about a boy with a huge sword. I did not find it interesting so I won't tell you more about it. (What do you notice about Ackman, does he look like someone familiar...?)
"Too much fantasy looses reality, too much hope may seem somehow empty" - Akira Toriyama
