Non-Fiction  > History, Science, Religion & Politics

Palestine

Palestine back

Joe Sacco

Price: 
£16.98

Page 45 Review by Mark

Before SAFE AREA GORAZDE, Sacco's comic journalism took him to Palestine and this is his account of the people that he talked to. Solid portrayal, with a hint of the old American undergrounds in his penmanship. Quite an undertaking.

[Editor's note: this was written in the days when we were briefer, and I even suspect this may not have been its first printing. Regardless, as I trawl backwards through the Mailshots and printed Recommended Reading Lists I may either find an older, more in-depth review from Mark because we both love Sacco with a passion, or be forced to write a new one myself! In the meantime, on seeing some of Joe's original pages for this collection in an art exhibition running alongside some Fine Art pieces, I wrote:

"It's absolutely fascinating, not least because original comicbook art, unlike 'Fine' Art, is a means to an end rather than the end itself. What matters in comics is how it looks on the printed page, so there's a huge amount of insight to be gleaned from the working process behind it.

"White-out is a common occurrence, existing on almost every original page of comic art I own, either as a correction or an enhancement. At the museum, for example, you can see it used to slash rain across a page, although Joe Sacco's PALESTINE pieces there show him meticulously cross-hatching up to and between each individual streak instead."

Insane, really. But very, very impressive, as is this book. For a more expansive review of similar Sacco subject matter, please see his extraordinary FOOTNOTES IN GAZA.]

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