This is it, one of the most important comics works of all time, the complete ten-volume saga will now be presented in English for the first time, courtesy of Project Gen and Last Gasp. Barefoot Gen chronicles one family’s experience living in Hiroshima before, during and after WWII. This opening volume provides an emotionally moving chronicle of this family’s hardships during wartime -- hardships that were more severe than most due to the family's pacifism and anti-war stance. This book, however, will always be remembered most for its absolutely searing first-person account of experiencing the first atomic bombing. There is no other account in any medium that matches the power of Nakazawa’s. The experience of reading this book will be permanently imprinted in the memory of anyone who reads it; it is an unforgettable experience. Produced in the 1970s, Barefoot Gen precedes Art Spiegelman’s Maus by a decade, and in fact -- as Spiegelman’s introduction attests -- was both a catalyst for and a profound influence on that Pulitzer Prize winning work. Barefoot Gen almost single-handedly established the genre of comics-as-dramatic-history that has gone on to produce other great works in addition to Maus, such as the works of Joe Sacco (Palestine, Safe Area Gorazde) and Persepolis, among many others.
