A landmark of journalism and the art form of comics. Based on several months of research and an extended visit to the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the early 1990s, this is a major work of political and historical nonfiction.
Prior to
Safe Area Gorazde: The War In Eastern Bosnia 1992-1995—Joe Sacco's breakthrough novel of graphic journalism—the acclaimed author was best known for
Palestine, a two-volume graphic novel that won an American Book Award in 1996. Fantagraphics Books is pleased to present the first single-volume collection of this landmark of journalism and the art form of comics. Based on several months of research and an extended visit to the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the early 1990s (where he conducted over 100 interviews with Palestinians and Jews),
Palestine was the first major comics work of political and historical nonfiction by Sacco, whose name has since become synonymous with this graphic form of New Journalism. Like
Safe Area Gorazde,
Palestine has been favorably compared to Art Spiegelman's Pulitzer Prize-winning
Maus for its ability to brilliantly navigate such socially and politically sensitive subject matter within the confines of the comic book medium. Sacco has often been called the first comic book journalist, and he is certainly the best. This edition of
Palestine also features an introduction from renowned author, critic, and historian Edward Said (
Peace and Its Discontents and
The Question of Palestine), one of the world's most respected authorities on the Middle Eastern conflict.
Joe Sacco lives in Portland, Oregon. He is the author of many acclaimed graphic novels, including
Palestine,
Safe Area Gorazde,
But I Like It,
Notes from a Defeatist,
The Fixer,
War's End, and
Footnotes in Gaza.
Edward W. Said was University Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Royal Society of Literature and of Kings College Cambridge, his celebrated works include Orientalism, The End of the Peace Process, Power, Politics and Culture, and the memoir Out of Place. He is also the editor, with Christopher Hitchens, of Blaming the Victims, published by Verso. He died in September 2003.
Sacco uses the comic book format to its fullest extent, creating bold perspectives that any photojournalist would envy.
— Utne Reader
Sacco is a pioneer.
— Journal of Palestinian Studies
Based on his research, interviews, and personal experiences in Palastinian Occupied Territories in 1991 and 92, [Palestine] takes you there and gives you a first-hand account of the atrocities and suffering in the conflict with Israel. He gives you a close up visual rendering of the physical and emotional conditions of the people, who struggle daily for survival... Sacco has rendered the terrible conditions of life into a compelling and sympathetic artistic documentary. It is sad, but most good stories are sad... What’s better, his drawing is detailed and realistic, very approachable and interesting.
— American in Auckland
