Peppe

Giuseppe Durato (born December 24, 1992), better known by the pen name , is an Italian manga artist living and working in Japan. His first manga series, Mingo, was serialized in Big Comic Spirits from 2019 to 2020. Peppe was a cast member of the reality television series Terrace House: Tokyo 2019–2020, which showed him in the period just prior to the launch of Mingo.

Early life Born in Fossacesia, Italy to parents who are both chefs, Peppe is the eldest of three siblings; he has one brother and one sister. Planning to move to Japan, Peppe entered Ca' Foscari University of Venice focusing on Japanese Studies in order to fully understand the culture first. His favorite manga artist is Taiyō Matsumoto. Other artists he was influenced by include Tite Kubo, Takehiko Inoue and Kengo Hanazawa. Peppe was an assistant to manga artist Keiko Nishi. His manga won an August 2017 Encouragement Award. The artist included some of his housemates from the show in Mingo, including Ruka Nishinoiri in chapter one, and Hana Kimura following her death in May 2020. Chapter one also features an "Obake Inu" drawn by Kaori Watanabe, credited as foxco. It is a comedy based on the artist's own life and follows an Italian man named Mingo who travels to Tokyo to study Japanese. Mingo was a nickname given to Peppe in high school; since he wanted to be a manga artist, he was called "Manga", and this eventually evolved into "Mingo." To celebrate the release of the first volume, an event was held at Aoyama Book Center on December 17, 2019. It included an interview with the artist, a slideshow of childhood photos, and an appearance by Peppe's fellow Terrace House castmate Ryo Tawatari. In April 2020, Mingo collaborated with Italian fashion brand Tod's. The 30th and final chapter was published on August 3, 2020, in issue 36/37, which also included an interview with Peppe. The fourth and final volume was released on October 12, 2020. Based on his experience on the show, he created the two-page for Big Comic Spiritss combined issue 4/5 of 2022.

Works