Palestine

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With a special edition of the comic book released in November, Al Jazeera speaks to Sacco about his experiences, methodology, and the 15 years since the comic book’s first release. Like everybody else in the world I’ve tried to understand the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But it’s a horribly one-sided story in the Western media.

He began working for a local publisher writing guidebooks. Returning to his fondness for comics, he wrote a Maltese romance comic named Imħabba Vera ("True Love"), one of the first art-comics in the Maltese language. "Because Malta has no history of comics, comics weren't considered something for kids," he told Village Voice. "In one case, for example, the girl got pregnant and she went to Holland for an abortion. Malta is a Catholic country where not even divorce is allowed. It was unusual, but it's not like anyone raised a stink about it, because they had no way of judging whether this was appropriate material for comics or not." Out of the blue I received a book from him, Peace and its Discontents, with a nice note written about the Palestine release, when they were a series of comics. Allegedly his son had been reading them. a b Duncan Campbell (October 23, 2003). 'I do comics, not graphic novels'. The Guardian. Retrieved April 26, 2006.

A story told in comic strips

She would say, "The Gazans have no electricity because they dig up the pipes to use as weapons against the Israelis." And I would say, "Well, according to this book, the Gazans have no electricity because the Israelis cut it off all the time, at random, just to keep them unstable." For the average Westerner, the hooding of a detainee, stress positions, sleep deprivation … obviously all Americans know that goes on now, but those sorts of things go on in cells all over the world. But Sacco was more interested in travelling. In 1988, he left the U.S. again to travel across Europe, a trip which he chronicled in his autobiographical comic Yahoo. The trip lead him towards the ongoing Gulf War (his obsession with which he talks about in Yahoo #2), and in 1991 he found himself nearby to research the work he would eventually publish as Palestine. We see how a young professional and father undergoes similar treatment under ‘administrative detention’. His crime, calling relatives abroad. The Punishment? A broken door late at night and traumatized kids and being exposed to torture by a broken legal system.

More often, the Palestinians I met would say: “If you want to see something, follow me.” People at that time appreciated your interest in them and their lives, and were less worried or paranoid like they are today. The Great War: July 1, 1916: The First Day of the Battle of the Somme. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-08880-9 I am in 100 per cent control. I design the sets and lighting, I don’t need millions of dollars to do it. I don’t want a committee telling me how to produce it. Drawing on first-hand experiences, extensive research and more than 100 interviews with Palestinians and Jews, Sacco has gained access to unusually intimate testimony, giving space to details and perspectives normally excluded by mainstream media coverage. The enthusiasm and frequency with which Sacco is hauled into the homes of those he meets - to listen, take notes and drink endless cups of tea - underlines the desperation of the people he encounters; their hopes are pinned not on political promises but on telling their stories to a stranger who writes comic books.It became methodical, but there were certainly more random aspects to the book. I let myself be pulled in many ways, with the mindset: “What ever comes up, comes up.” Baker, Bill (December 28, 2000). "Comics Journalism 101: 5 Minutes with Joe Sacco". WizardWorld.com. Archived from the original on August 14, 2001. Sameh is a slightly balding Palestinian man in his late thirties. He is from the Jabalia refugee camp and works in Gaza with disabled children. He acts as one of Sacco’s translators. Unlike other translators, he seems to understand the visual component that Sacco wants to capture and goes out of his way to provide Sacco with every opportunity to experience and record it.