“Comics and Journalism”
Joe Sacco is an extraordinary comic artist and journalist, who has traveled to many parts of the world to do his research. In the early 1990s, he went to the Middle East to do research for his award-winning ‘Palestine’ (1993-1995). He also traveled to former Yugoslavia to find material for his ‘Stories from Bosnia’ and ‘Safe Area: Gorazde.’ Sacco’s comics are partly autobiographical, as he appears as a character in most of his comics, and it is this combination of journalism, autobiography and comics that makes Joe Sacco an artist who is difficult to imitate. Sacco has received several awards for his work, including the prestigious American Book Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Eisner Award for Best Original Graphic Novel.
He has contributed short pieces of graphic reportage to a variety of magazines, on subjects ranging from war crimes to blues, and is a frequent illustrator of Harvey Pekar’s American Splendor. In 2005 he wrote and drew two eight-page comics depicting events in Iraq published in The Guardian. He also contributed a 16-page piece in April 2007’s issue of Harper’s Magazine, entitled ‘Down! Up! You’re in the Iraqi Army Now.’ His most recent major journalistic work is ‘Footnotes in Gaza’, which was nominated for the 2009 Los Angeles Times Book Prize Graphic Novel award.
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