Sorry it's been awhile. SF was great. I'm kind of sick at the moment. I have a fever or something. I am taking the CBEST on Saturday. We are also having a Joy Electric show in Cypress. Go to the site for the details. That's all I got for now.

Barefoot Gen is one of the most powerful comic books I have read in a long time. It tells the story of Gen, a boy living in Hiroshima at the time of the atomic bomb, and, while fictional, it is largely based on the actual experiences of the author, Keiji Nakazawa. Considering the grim subject matter, Barefoot Gen is done in a surprisingly cartoonish style, which may be partly due to the conventions of Japanese comics in the 1970s. This, combined with the frequent use of over-the-top physical beatings to convey emotional impact, create some problems for Western readers. If you can understand the cultural reasons behind these things, though, the comic book offers a compelling picture of the effects of the atomic bomb, as well as a powerful message against war in general.

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