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New Barefoot Gen Manga Release

posted on by Christopher Macdonald
Volumes 5-10 to be published in English for the first time

Underground publisher Last Gasp has announced that it will be re-translating and re-publishing the first four volumes of Barefoot Gen, following which it will translate and publish the remaining six volumes. This will be the first time that volumes five through ten are available in English.

Last Gasp picked up the rights to Barefoot Gen from Penguin Books and re-published the first four volumes, with the translation that had been used by Penguin and New Society. The new translation is being done by "Project Gen" out of Japan, under the supervision of the original creator, Keiji Nakazawa. In addition to the all new translation, they will be putting back several pages that had been edited out of the previous English version.

Originally serialized in Shonen Jump from 1973 to 1974, Barefoot Gen is one of the seminal classics of Japanese manga. It was first brought to North America by New Society in 1987 and then subsequently re-printed by Penguin Books and Last Gasp. Keiji Nakazawa himself is a survivor of the Hiroshima bombing, and Barefoot Gen is a semi-autobiographical look at the days leading up to, and following the bomb. Volumes One to four are the main story, focusing on the period immediately before and after the bomb, while volumes five to ten follow the protagonist through the rest of his life.

Barefoot Gen was adapted into a movie in 1983. The movie is available on DVD in North America from Image Entertainment.

The first two 284-page volumes of Barefoot Gen should be released this fall for $14.95 each.

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