'Crayon Shin-chan' creator missing

SAITAMA (Kyodo) Yoshito Usui, the cartoonist who created the popular "Crayon Shin-chan" series adapted for TV and film, has been missing since last week, the Saitama Prefectural Police said Wednesday.

Before he left his home in Kasukabe, Saitama Prefecture, on Friday morning, Usui, 51, told his family he was going hiking in the mountains of Gunma Prefecture and would return by evening, the police said.

His family reported him missing the next day and the Saitama police have been searching for him, along with police in Gunma and Nagano prefectures.

Usui started drawing "Crayon Shin-chan," the tale of Shinnosuke Nohara, a boy in kindergarten living in Kasukabe. The character first appeared in a comic book published by Futabasha Publishers Ltd. in 1990.