Joe Sacco's art journalism

The graphic novelist reflects on the evolving legacy of his work on Palestine and his need to respond to the violence there

- Sumeet Keswani

Joe Sacco has been called the heir to Art Spiegelman (Maus) and his award shelf creaks under the weight of trophies (Eisner Award for Best Original Graphic Novel, Ridenhour Book Prize, American Book Award, etc.). But the scale of achievements casts no shadow on the man himself. When hordes of fans turned up at his brief appearances in two Delhi bookstores last month, the response surprised the 64-year-old Maltese-American graphic novelist. Wearing an unfaltering smile under a black fedora, he gracefully shook hands, signed copies and obliged selfie requests. Sacco is known around the world for his comics journalism, a genre unique enough even without his choice of subjects—the Bosnian War, indigenous North America, Israel-Palestine relations. For many Indians, his two graphic novels on Palestine—released in the 1990s and the aughts—were the first accessible and immersive reports from the region that did not conform to the existing media narrative. In the wake of the current violence, Palestine and Footnotes in Gaza have acquired another lease of life, informing a whole new generation about the history of a besieged people. Sacco speaks to Lounge about the current situation. Edited excerpts:

Amnesty International recently concluded that Israel is committing a genocide in Palestine. You spent a lot of time in Gaza to report your stories. Did you ever think that violence would take such a shape against the Palestinians?

I can't say I thought there'd be a genocide. I thought what they (Israel) euphemistically call a "population transfer" might take place at some point. I thought the long-term goals of Israel might be to remove the Palestinians from various areas—whether it was Gaza or parts of the West Bank…. Though if you look back, you see the impunity with which Israel has behaved over decades, the people they have killed in their various assaults in Gaza, even my own research into the massacres of Palestinians in 1956, the logic of it was there.