I was reading about Gege Akutami, the *Jujutsu Kaisen* creator, and kept seeing the word "mangaka" used without explanation.

A mangaka is a manga artist in Japanese. The word combines *manga* (comics/whimsical pictures) with *-ka* (a suffix meaning "person who does"). Unlike American comics, where writing, penciling, inking, and coloring are often split between specialists, a mangaka typically handles both story and art. Some have assistants for backgrounds and inking, but the mangaka is the central creative force.