Japanese author Keiji Nakazawa has been posthumously inducted into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame. This is both a recognition of the artistic importance of Nakazwa’s magnum opus, Barefoot Gen, and further proof of how Japanese media has been gaining traction in the West as both a form of entertainment and artistic expression. Nakazawa was previously nominated for induction in recent years, before his acceptance in 2024.
As reported by Anime News Network, the Hall will also be inducting Ron Turner, the founder of Last Gasp Publishing, which helped publish Barefoot Gen and many other manga for English-speaking audiences. Nakazawa is the latest Japanese author to join the ranks, with many more being nominated and accepted starting at the beginning of the 2000s.
Given the manga’s insight into Japanese society during the 1940s and 1950s, Barefoot Gen deserves the international accolades it has missed.
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Barefoot Gen Enters Comics Hall of Fame
Manga originally published in 1973, collected into 10 volumes
Nakazawa’s historical manga is based on his recollections of the end of World War II, which follows the childhood of Gen Nakaoka, who grows up and has to survive both the graphic nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and the ensuing post-war chaos of Japan’s surrender. The stark tale spent its early days of serialization jumping from publisher to publisher, and eventually was collected in 10 volumes, as the story ends with Gen’s final challenges as a teenager. Today, the manga has found popularity enough to receive multiple adaptations, including two animated movies that were produced by Madhouse in 1983 and 1986.
The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, which was founded in 1988, is a prestigious American prize that normally focuses on Western comics. The Hall of Fame, which plans to separate into another ceremony this year, honors “major contributions” to comics, though a criterion requires nominated stories to have been published 35 years back. This coincides with several Japanese authors that were inducted starting in the 2000s, including Osamu Tezuka (Astro Boy), Rumiko Takahashi (Ranma 1/2), and Kazuo Koike (Lone Wolf and Cub). Nakazawa himself was nominated on two prior occasions, in 2020 and 2023, before finally succeeding this year.
Western recognition of Nakazawa’s talents has been a long time coming, though his passing in 2012 means it is also posthumous. Still, the wave of Japanese inductees shows that the Western comics industry is opening up and paying more attention to manga’s artistic merits. While the 35-year minimum may seem extreme, nominees that readers can casually recognize may come sooner than one may expect, as Akira Toriyama (Dragon Ball) and Naoki Urasawa (Pluto) were suggested in 2019. Celebrating Barefoot Gen‘s achievement, therefore, both lauds the manga’s important and unique subject, as well as what it represents as a manga to the world.
