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Manga artist Takao Saito, who created the longest-running Japanese comic book series of all time, has died aged 84.

Saito's best-known work was Golgo 13, the tale of a professional hitman, which was first published in 1968 and later adapted into games and films.

Its 201st edition came out in July this year, breaking the Guinness world record for the most volumes ever published of a single manga series.

He died of pancreatic cancer, his publisher Shogakukan said.

Born in western Japan in 1936, Saito had his first manga cartoon published in 1955, while he was working as a barber.

The success of another of his works, 1960's Typhoon Goro, led him to move from Osaka to Tokyo and launch his own production company.

But his most famous work was Golgo 13, also known Duke Togo, an assassin who carries out hit jobs around the world.

Saiko illustrated and wrote the series, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2018.

In the 1950s he also helped create "gekiga", a realistic genre of manga aimed at adults.

His publisher says it will continue the Golgo 13 series after his death.

In 2013, Saito said he feared the series could be cut at any moment, so he had planned the series' finale.

"I always had nightmares about my manga getting cut, and I thought it would get ended right away, so I had an ending prepared," he said.

"[But] the manga has continued so long that it is no longer the property of the author; it belongs to readers."