Toriyama traces his origins as an artist to his elementary school days. Even today, he remembers the first time his drawing began to really come together. "My first memory of a satisfactory drawing was that of a horse," he says. "I still remember it. I knew I got the joints right."

"I've always liked to draw,” he continues. "When I was little, we didn't have many forms of entertainment like we do today, so we were all drawing pictures. In elementary school, we were all drawing manga (comics in Japanese) or animation characters and showing them to each other.' But when asked if this early, self-made training in drawing is what led to his current career as a manga artist, Toriyama is skeptical. "Perhaps," he says. "I just kept on drawing. We all start out with around the same drawing skills, don't we? I started to do portraits of friends and whatnot and started to think drawing was fun."

As to what he drew back then, Toriyama points to the popular animated shows of the day. "I don't remember the very first animation show I saw, but the one of which I have the fondest memories is Tetsuwan Atom. I used to send out coupons to collect Atom stickers." Nothing too surprising there, as Osamu Tezuka's Tetsuwan Atom (a.k.a. Astro Boy) is remembered fondly by nearly every Japanese child who grew up during its on-air run. More surprising is Walt Disney's hand in Toriyama's early art career.

"When I was a child, there was a drawing class in the neighborhood," Toriyama says. "The kids would go there and draw pictures. I remember drawing 101 Dalmatians and getting a prize. That must have gotten into my head and made me what I am today," he laughs.

Aside from Atom and 101 Dalmatians ("I remember that movie for the great art"), Toriyama remembers watching Tetsujin 28, 8-Man, and the TV show Osamatsu-feun. We all imitated Iyami's 'shee' from that show," he recalls fondly. Later in his elementary school career, he began to like the live-action costumed hero shows and monster movies.

Nearing junior high, his tastes began to run more toward regular, theatrical movies, but his roots were not forgotten. Toriyama confirms that the Ginyu Special Forces in Dragon all had poses based on the live-action shows he watched with his son. "Those shows are pretty fun," he admits.

Monkey Business

Before he created Dragon Ball, Toriyama the artist had already become well known in Japan for his slapstick manga (and later anime as well) Dr. Slump, a story of a cute li'l robot girl and her antics with her inventor's family. Dragon Ball's genesis came on the heels of Dr. Slump. "In ending Dr Slump, I conferred with my editor many times about what to do for my next serial (weekly comic pages)," Toriyama says. "I always liked Jackie Chan and had seen his Drunken Master II many times. Torishima encouraged me to draw a kung fu manga if I liked it that much. That was the one-shot Dragon Boy I drew. The readers liked it, so I decided my next serial would be in this vein."

To give himself a change of scenery from the "American West Coast" art style of Dr. Slump, Toriyama decided to keep the Drunken Master origins for his new serial in mind and go with a focus on China.

“If its going to be Chinese, it might as well be from the Monkey King,” Toriyama decided. "The Monkey King is, after all, a tall tale with adventure," he says. "However, I decided to go with a Monkey King with some modem elements. I thought it would be easy to arrange with a base story all ready." The Monkey King, known in Japan as Saiyuki, or "The Journey west," is a legend known to nearly every Asian child as the archetype of the quest story. An early thought to draw Goku as a real monkey, however, was discarded as unoriginal. "That would have been the Monkey King exactly. That wouldn't show any creativity, so I decided to make the main character human. I wanted a normal human boy, but that wouldn't have character." Ultimately, Toriyama decided to add a little something extra.

"The main character in Dragon Boy had wings, so I wanted something immediately obvious like that. So Goku got his tail. That way, he could hide behind a rock, but if his tail showed, the readers could tell he's right there. Then, I added the Dragon Balls that grant your wish when you collect all seven of them. I thought I could make a Monkey King type of journey story.

In keeping with the Monkey King's tale, Toriyama fitted out his supporting characters to stand in for Goku's traditional companions in the quest.  Bulma fits the part of Sanzo the priest, who harnesses Goku's power; Oolong stands in for Hakkai the pig; and Yamcha is Gojo, the river monster. The parallels are near exact fits, with slight variances—in the original Saiyuki legend, the Monkey King is bound to Sanzo’s service by a golden headband, which the priest can constrict with a word. In Toriyama's world, Oolong is the one to receive a "restraining" order of a somewhat different type from Bulma (PP candy). Even the group's goal of collecting the seven Dragon Balls harkens to the Monkey King and his companions' search for sutras sacred beyond price. The Dragon Balls have the power to fulfill dreams — certainly beyond price. But apparently, Toriyama's initial idea for Dragon Ball went no further than that first Saiyuki-like quest for the Dragon Balls. "In the beginning, I was planning to end Dragon Ball when all seven Dragon Balls had been collected."

Martial arts and Merchandising

Although Toriyama's success with Dr. Slump would have been acclaim enough for any artist to retire on, Dragon Ball was such a hit that it completely eclipsed its predecessor. Serialized in the weekly manga anthology magazine SHONEN JUMP (which sells from four to six million copies per week) from 1984-1995, Dragonball became one of the most popular and most widely known manga and anime series in the history of Japan, but that was only the tip of the iceberg. Foreign editions of Toriyama's manga have been translated and published in countries all over Asia and Europe, such as Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan, Italy, France, and Spain, and the animated version of Dragon Ball has been seen in France, Spain, Belgium, Italy, Greece, Mexico, Brazil, the Philippines, Indonesia, Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, Once you add CDs, video games, and mega merchandising all over the globe, sales of Dragon Ball-related goods are estimated at US$3 billion worldwide.