Joe Sacco

While I have not exactly been burning through graphic novels lately with the kind of speed as I had earlier in the summer, I have still managed to make my way through some real gems.

My recent reads have included two numbers by the same author, Joe Sacco. Neither graphic novel comes without its fair share of recent history and horrors, and one could say they ask a lot of the readers. But I think they are well worth it even though they are quite the task to get through. The visuals are incredible-- his drawing style is perhaps the most detailed stylistic depiction I've seen yet, with incredible use of perspective. They're a lot to digest visually, but even moreso in content. To fully understand the extent of Sacco's journalistic investigations you must read the introduction and even, if you're like me and didn't know a lot of the details about Palestine (or the Bosnian War for the Gorazde book), then you'll need to do a bit of internet research to understand. Nothing a good Wikipedia entry can't catch you up on. What Wikipedia doesn't reveal though is the gruesome horrors and humiliations faced by people in Palestine, and also in Gorzade. I'll speak of them separately for a moment so as not to create confusion...

I knew generally of Palestine-- the location, the people, etc., but I didn't realize what terrors happen as a result of internal struggle and also happened around the time of the Gulf War. This book covers some testimonials of people from the Palestine area. It's Arabic people vs. Jewish people, and like always in life there are good and bad on both sides.

As for Gorazde, I had no earthly idea of the location, the people, the culture, or anything else until I read Sacco's book. At one time in a not too distant past, Serb, Croat, and Muslim people coexisted peacefully, but when Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic (who is now on the top of my "Worst Human Beings Ever in Existence" list) came into power, things fell apart under his attempt to consolidate power and extend his influence into other areas.

To say "things fell apart" for either Palestine or Gorazde is to put things quite lightly. The books are graphic and bloody, not shy with war imagery, but seem unreal because they are so laden with the terrible things people saw. Destruction, gore, death, war, backstabbing, lies, rape, murder, poverty, starvation... the worst things you can possibly think of, including to women and children, happened. I can't even begin to fathom what life for survivors would be like, how existence would seem after having seen such horrible things. It really made me wonder why power and greed can sometimes make man so blinded that he would completely destroy the dignity and existence of another human being to gain the means to his own end. How could you be so awful? How can that really exist? I know life isn't all sugarplums and fairies but, my god!

These books further served to remind me what a watered-down view of governments that text books provide in American schools, how those text books can make the Gulf War sound like nothing at all, like lives are cheap. It reminded me how little I think of my own government on a daily basis, and how I would probably hate every government on earth with every fiber of my body if I knew all the things they really did.

Anyway, if you're reading Sacco's books and you don't understand what life must really be like for these people, consider yourself lucky. I can't pretend to know lots on either situation having read two books, but I certainly feel enlightened. I wish people never had to be so wronged... these are some heavy books, but I would suggest them for anyone. Thumbs up to Sacco.