Joe Sacco’s comic book account of his visit
to the occupied territories during the winter of 2001-2002 has been a major
success. Palestine, which was originally nine individual comic books, has
been published under one cover this year and is heralding a lot of attention
as it is being called a “new kind of journalism.” Sacco’s
285-page visual account of life in the occupied territories is told in the
first person, meaning that Joe, a 30 or 40-something cartoonist from
Portland, Oregon is included in the story. Palestine is sometimes funny,
most of the time devastating, always real.
"In
a world where Photoshop has outed the photograph to be a liar, one can now
allow artists to return to their original function – as reporters,"
said Pulitzer Prize- winning cartoonist Art Spiegelman.
In
fact, Sacco’s work has been compared to that of Art Spiegelman’s
Pulitzer Prize-winning comic, Maus. Published throughout the 1980s, the
ongoing comic book Maus
told the story of the Holocaust using characters that are that of their
stereotypical animal equivalent: the Nazis were represented by cats, the
Jews by mice, and the Poles by pigs.
Sacco,
however, does just the opposite. His work abolishes stereotypes and hinders
simplification. His characters are real, rendered in all their humanity and
disgrace. He captures their joy and humility. But ultimately, what makes
Palestine so remarkable are the stories and scenarios that Sacco transcribed
visually onto paper.
Sacco
held nothing back in his account, as he seemingly did his best to report
what he saw. The viewer is able to experience a day on the streets of Rafah
or Hebron, or even spend time in Ansar III. Sacco’s portrayal includes his
feelings and observations, making Palestine seem more like a diary than
something meant for the eyes of an audience.
“The
personal point of view, which is literal in the drawings but also in the selection
of quotes and events, is a valuable balance to all the news coverage over
the years that has anesthetized the general public in the west (USA), and
which is too abstract and impersonal to really convey the human experience
of this ongoing tragic situation,” says Barbara Roos, American Professor
of communications
and Middle East expert at Grand Valley State University.
Most
people have a really unclear picture of what it is like to be in the
occupied territories and have a skewed idea of who is the aggressor and who
is the victim.
“I
came from a standpoint of ‘Palestinian equals terrorist’; that’s just
what filtered
down in the course of watching regular network news,” says Sacco.
With
a degree in journalism from the University of Oregon, it is no doubt that
Sacco knows how to get a story. Winner of the American Book Award in 1996,
Sacco has rejected traditional journalism for a more rewarding career. He
nonetheless has the ability to get straight to his sources and ask probing
questions.
Sacco
spends day after day living with families and befriending Palestinian men
who speak English. The meticulously rendered and crosshatched illustrations
echo the stark reality that Sacco wishes to represent. And the comic book
medium makes for the perfect way to tell stories that are wrought with
emotion as one box fades into another or one thought is emphasized with
graphics that give life to stories that would otherwise be lost in a sea of
words.
“I
don’t know if it is the medium of the comic book, or simply Sacco’s
gifts as a journalist-story teller, but Palestine presents the reality of
Israel’s suppression of the Palestinians in a more nuanced, human, and
viscerally disturbing way than any documentary, article, or book on the
subject I have ever encountered. Says Simeon Eefsting, a graduate student of
Sociology at the American University in Cairo.
Sacco
visits hospitals, homes, and witness’s casualties and hears stories from
mothers first hand about having their entire family killed in a week’s
time. He is all the while being served glass after glass of tea and
throughout the book chokes down lump for lump the overly sweetened beverage
that he seems to consume in payment for stories.
And
it is true that Israeli soldiers are sometimes villanized throughout the
book, but you believe that this is truly how Sacco perceived them. This is a
subjective account, but you can trust Sacco’s story because you know
exactly where he stands at all times.
Originally
published by Fantagraphics Books, this newly published edition of Palestine
features an introduction by one of the world’s most respected authorities
on Middle Eastern conflict, the Palestinian-born writer and historian Edward
W. Said (Peace and Its Discontents and The Question of Palestine).
Said
heaps praise on Palestine. “Sacco’s art has the power to detain us, to
keep us from impatiently wandering off in order to follow a catch-phrase or
a lamentably predictable narrative or triumph and fulfillment.”
Sacco’s
work doesn’t stop at the occupied territories. He has published numerous
novel-length and short strips to match that of Palestine. Published by
Fantagraphics, Notes from a Defeatest is a collection of some of Sacco’s
previously published shorter pieces including “When Good Bombs Happen to
Bad People,” “More Women, More Children, More Quickly,” and “How I
Loved the War”. Safe Area in Gorazde is a follow up to Palestine. It tells
of the four months in 1995-1996 that Sacco spent in the former Yugoslavia,
documenting the lives of people in the Muslim enclave of Gorazde.
To
order Sacco’s books or to read more about him visit the Fantagraphics web
site at www.fantagraphics.com.
*Images:
From Joe Sacco’s Palestine
