The first volume will include these two volumes from the earlier editions
Each volume of the new five-volume series by Keiji Nakazawa will contain two of the existing ten volumes; volume 1 of the new edition will be 572 pages at $35 MSRP.
The semi-autobiographical story of a young boy who survives the atomic bombing of Hiroshima was the first manga to be translated and published in English, in this case as Gen of Hiroshima, by Leonard Rifas’ EduComics, beginning in 1980. Only two volumes were published before the effort was abandoned. Last Gasp (which had distributed the EduComics editions) began publishing new editions in 2004 (see "New Edition of ‘Barefoot Gen’"), with a new translation and new packaging, and eventually published all ten volumes in both hardcover and softcover. The first volume included an introduction by Art Spiegelman.
In 2015, Last Gasp ran a Kickstarter campaign to support printing of 4,000 copies for schools and libraries, and included a short comic story by Raina Telgemeier about how she first encountered the work, which was given to her by her father when she was 10.
The first volume of the new Last Gasp edition will include the introduction by Spiegelman and the visual afterword by Telgemaier.
Nakazawa passed away in 2012 (see "R.I.P. Keiji Nakazawa"); Last Gasp published two additional works by the manga-ka, including a prose memoir and a new edition of his early manga I Saw It, in 2023 (see "Two Books by ‘Barefoot Gen’ Creator").
