Joe Sacco – PALESTINE [Comicbook Journalism]

Beschrijving

Sacco next travelled to Sarajevo and Goražde near the end of the Bosnian War, and produced a series of reports in the same style as Palestine.

The comics Safe Area Goražde, The Fixer, and the stories collected in War’s End; the financing for which was aided by his winning of the Guggenheim Fellowship in April 2001.

Safe Area Goražde won the Eisner Award for Best Original Graphic Novel in 2001.

Vanuit een interview met The Guardian uit December ’23:

Sacco returned to Palestine in the early 2000s to research another book, Footnotes in Gaza. He said, “Things had seemed very bad when I was visiting in the early 1990s, at the end of the first intifada, but things were very much worse 10 years later.”

Hij gaat verder:

“Now, obviously, the level of violence is on a scale that – if we’re talking about civilians – dwarfs what we’re seeing in Ukraine. In the first intifada, when I was working on Palestine, maybe 1,200 Palestinians were killed over a few years. Now, in tiny Gaza, that amount of dead is a matter of two days.”

Sacco is pleased the book is in demand and reaching a new audience – but that is tempered with sadness.

“That the book itself still has relevance is a sorry testament to the enduring tragedy of the Palestinians – though, in some ways, it’s also a tribute to their fortitude, their unwillingness to give in.”

“I would go back, if I could get in. Thankfully, many brave Palestinian journalists are doing exemplary work despite the appalling conditions and the very real danger to themselves and their families. But the main reason I would like to go back to Gaza is to see my friends there. I hope they will make it through this.”