Palestine by Joe Sacco
Palestine, Joe Sacco (Fantagraphics, 2001) Joe Sacco makes documentary comics. In this instance he spent two months in Palestine recording his activities, observations, and interviews over the winter of 91-92. He makes no claims for “objective” journalism, plainly stating that he takes the trip to get the Palestinian side of the story, having already heard plenty of the Israeli side from the mainstream media. Reading this book is at times quite disturbing, seeing the refugee camps, and hearing stories of how the Palestinians are treated.
Sacco gives us historical background where it is needed and nicely straddles the line between history, the stories of others, and his own activities. I find him oddly absent in the book, though. He rarely shows himself speaking and only occasionally makes references to his own feelings, skirting the issue of what good it will do for him to make the comic (he is asked this a number of times but we don’t hear a detailed response).
The art is a mix of the real and the cartoon. Sacco obviously draws on photographs, but he abstracts and generalizes as necessary to make a smooth visual story that integrates into the (for a comic) large amounts of text. I’ll be looking up his more recent book on Bosnia, Safe Area Gorazde. Also see:
The Guardian has put online an 8 page comic from Joe Sacco (Warning: Huge pdf) that is in their weekend edition (yesterday’s I believe). Sacco travelled to Iraq and spent some time with U.S. Marines. Worth reading if you have a fast enough connection to download the file.
Tags: nonfictioncomics
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