By Keiji Nakazawa
Last Gasp, 266 pp.
Rating: Teen (13+)

In a week when Cromartie High School and Yotsuba&! are all but put on hiatus, it’s hard to imagine anything more depressing. Think off-the-hook comics depressing. I don’t mean Akira, Adolf or Abandon the Old in Tokyo depressing either. Think full-blown, real human tragedy, punches-you-in-the-gut depressing. I’m not talking about Art Spiegelman’s excellent comic Maus, which autobiographically covers the Holocaust; but rather something on the same level: Keiji Nakazawa’s Barefoot Gen, the (mostly) autobiographical account of a young boy Gen and his mother and brother who survive the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

After a long hiatus, Last Gasp has resumed publication of this remarkable ten-volume series. Even if you don’t want to read the first four volumes (you should), volume five starts with a handy recap that sets the tone and brings you up to speed. Gen is reunited with Ryuta and his gang and sees the hardships faced by children even worse off than him. Though Gen has an incredibly hard life and has lost most of his family in the bombing, Ryuta and his friends are orphans, forced to steal and beg to make ends meet. In desperation, Ryuta and his gang get involved with the mafia who frequently use bomb orphans as sacrificial pawns in their turf warfare. The cruelty and coldness of the Japanese public and American soldiers and scientists is heart-wrenching in the face of the overwhelming tragedy of the atomic bombing.

The political ramifications of Barefoot Gen only grow stronger in volume five, and grow darkest and most salient with the episodes involving American scientists working for the ABCC (Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission) who coerce Japanese doctors and coroners into taking advantage of their countrymen. The American scientists were sent to Japan with the orders to study, but not cure, 80,000 Japanese affected by the radiation poisoning caused by the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The ABCC entices the Japanese doctors with opportunities for disaster zone profiteering, and gives them monetary rewards for sending them radiation patients, even though the doctors know it will do nothing for them.

Barefoot Gen’s art, though nothing to write home about, is certainly compelling, terrifying, and convincingly human. It has a bit of the cartoony feel of Tezuka’s work, and the action and expression of some of Kazuo Uemezu’s (to a much lesser degree, thank god).

There is no excuse to not be reading Keiji Nakazawa’s masterpiece Barefoot Gen right now. Despite its dark mood, Barefoot Gen is ultimately a story of triumph and personal strength overcoming the most sickening adversity, and Barefoot Gen’s fantastic combination of medium-transcending humanitarian messages, authentic characters, and riveting plot make it an essential comic for any reader. I can’t recommend it enough.

Volume five of Barefoot Gen is available now.