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Keiji Nakazawa Nominated for 2nd Time for Eisner Hall of Fame

Comic-Con International announced on Friday that the Eisner Awards judges have nominated the late manga creator Keiji Nakazawa for the Will Eisner Comic Awards Hall of Fame this year. Nakazawa is part of a selection of 16 nominees, four of whom will be selected by vote to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Other nominees for this year include: Gus Arriola, Brian Bolland, Gerry Conway, Edwina Dumm, Mark Evanier, Creig Flessel, Bob Fujitani, Warren Kremer, Todd McFarlane, Ann Nocenti, Paul Norris, Bud Plant, Tim Sale, Diana Schutz, and Phil Seuling.

Nakazawa was previously nominated for the Hall of Fame in 2020, but was not inducted.

Nakazawa is the creator of the world-renowned Barefoot Gen manga about the Hiroshima atomic bombing and aftermath. Nakazawa was born in Hiroshima in 1939. At the age of 6, he survived the 1945 Hiroshima bombing and the loss of most of his immediate family — his father, older sister, younger brother, and younger sister. Only he, his mother, and two brothers who were not at home survived.

After graduating from middle school in 1954, Nakazawa moved to Tokyo in 1961 and became a published manga creator at the age of 24 in 1963. Last Gasp Publishing republished the Barefoot Gen manga in North America. The story has been adapted into two animated films and a live-action television drama special in Japan. Last Gasp Publishing will also release Nakazawa's I Can't Forget the Bomb: Barefoot Gen and the Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima: A Memoir book, and his I Saw It (Ore wa Mita) manga later this month.

Nakazawa passed away in 2012.

Creative professionals working in the comics or related industries, publishers, editors, retailers (comics store owner or manager), graphic novels librarians, and comics historians/educators can vote online now for four nominees, and the vote will continue until April 28. The award ceremony will be held at this year's Comic-Con International: San Diego event from July 19-23.

The previous Japanese inductees of the Eisner Hall of Fame were Osamu Tezuka (2002), Kazuo Koike (2004), Goseki Kojima (2004), Katsuhiro Ōtomo (2012), Rumiko Takahashi (2018), and Moto Hagio (2022). Akira Toriyama and Naoki Urasawa were nominated in 2019, but were not among the four selected.

Sources: Comic Con International: San Diego, The Beat (Taimur Dar)