Palestine: The Special Edition [Deluxe Edition] [Hardcover]

Joe Sacco (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 21, 2007

The landmark of comics journalism in an expanded and re-designed edition that includes a host of unseen supplemental material, including background notes, sketches, reference photos, a new interview with Sacco, and much more.

Fantagraphics Books is pleased to present, for the first time, the definitive, expanded, hardcover collection of Sacco's landmark of comics journalism. Palestine: The Special Edition is more than a new edition: consider it the "Criterion" Palestine. In addition to the original, 288-page graphic novel and introduction by the late Edward Said, The Special Edition includes a host of unique material never before published, including many of Sacco's original background notes, sketches, photographic reference, and much more. The book also includes a new, introductory interview with Sacco about the making of the book as well as a new cover and design. Palestine: The Special Edition will be a cornerstone of any serious comic collection. With the Middle East's role in contemporary world politics, Sacco's Palestine has never been more relevant or more valuable to a country desperate to understand this long-running conflict. Based on several months of research and an extended visit to the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the early 1990s (where he conducted over 100 interviews with Palestinians and Jews), Palestine was the first major comics work of political and historical nonfiction by Sacco, whose name has since become synonymous with this graphic form of New Journalism. Sacco's insightful reportage takes place at the front lines, where busy marketplaces are spoiled by shootings and tear gas, soldiers beat civilians with reckless abandon, and roadblocks go up before reporters can leave. Sacco interviewed and encountered prisoners, refugees, protesters, wounded children, farmers who had lost their land, and families who had been torn apart by the Palestinian conflict.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“He's not just one of the best cartoonists, but also one of the best journalists. This is a great book to give to someone who maybe doesn't really know what comics are capable of.” (Brian K. Vaughan - Comic Foundry )

“Sacco's book provides lasting testimony against political myopia and one-sided speculation.” (two,one,five Magazine )

About the Author

Joe Sacco lives in Portland, Oregon. He is the author of many acclaimed graphic novels, including Palestine, Safe Area Gorazde, But I Like It, Notes from a Defeatist, The Fixer, War's End, and Footnotes in Gaza.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Fantagraphics Books; Special edition edition (November 21, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560978449
• ISBN-13: 978-1560978442
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 1.2 x 11 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (93 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #425,014 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Joe Sacco, one of the world's greatest cartoonists, is widely hailed as the creator of war reportage comics. He is the author of, among other books, Palestine, which received the American Book Award, and Safe Area: Gora�de, which won the Eisner Award and was named a New York Times notable book and Time magazine's best comic book of 2000. Hisbooks have been translated into fourteen languages and his comics reporting has appeared in Details, The New York Times Magazine, Time, Harper's and the Guardian. He lives in Portland, Oregon.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

94 of 100 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Much more objective than on first impression April 3, 2003

By Chutes

Format:Paperback

You have to read Palestine carefully, especially if you are either strongly sympathetic or hostile to Israel. It would be easy to see the book as condemning Israel. It is not, but since Sacco's intention was to get to know the community that we in the US don't know well, the Palestinians, the book shows mainly their experiences and interpretations of them. (It would have been a good idea to include a timeline of the historical events related to the Israel/Palestine tragedy, so that people who do not know the facts could put into perspective the versions of history that Sacco's Palestinian interviewees have.)

I emphasize that this is not the book to turn to in order to figure out whether to side with the Israelis or the Palestinians. It does not give that kind of information, and there are other books for that (Thomas Friedman's From Beirut to Jerusalem is a good one). For the most part there are no terrorists or major political figures interviewed and there is no survey of the historical background, the mistakes and crimes that have left both peoples in this mess. What I saw in this brilliant piece of comic journalism is an on the ground look at what is going on with people caught in the storm.

Palestine is about the human spirit, often humorous and courageous. It is also about the tragedy that is what happens when people suffer at each other's hands, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, as well as physically, and lose the ability to see the human face.

Victims turn into villains. The scenes of the settlers attacking the Arab villages at night reminded me chillingly of Kristalnacht. A 16 year old Palestinian terrorist-in-training is chilling as he describes his recruitment at 13, his loss of interest in anything but the violence, and the version of history that he believes in. Sixteen year old settlers strutting through town with their Uzis are just as chilling. You are appalled by them all, and by the societies that have turned children into murderers. And you are touched by the crowd scenes, where you see tiny figures of men and women in the background, hurrying their children away, keeping them away from the stone throwing crowds.

You see the mythologies that both sides, though mainly (because of the nature of the book) the Palestinians, have created in order to give themselves pride and explain all the pain. You see that these mythologies are not going to save anyone.

Sacco does not idolize his Palestinian subjects, though he is very sympathetic to most of them. He shows the irrational hatred, the elevation of victimhood to almost divine status, and the self-destructiveness of some of the people he interviewed. He really likes the children, especially inquisitive little girls, but he shows that there are some nasty kids too. I emphasize that he likes these people, despite their human failings. Their errors do not mean they are to be dismissed, just as their suffering does not mean that the lines on which Arab politicians have chosen to explain the situation are right. It was Sacco's irony, actually, that allowed me to trust his observations of life in an occupied region, with all that "occupied" implies.

The most troubling part to the book, therefore, was the portrayal of the Israeli soldiers. I wish that he had interviewed Israeli soldiers, since they (and settlers) are the only Israelis present in the Palestian refugee camps, and the soldiers come off looking brutal much of the time. But in looking through the book a second time, I noticed that many of the soldiers looked terrified. This terror coupled with the brutality throws another light on the tragedy afflicting both Israelis and Palestinians.

I've been left haunted by one particular image, the depressed face of his last guide, an educated, unemployed volunteer with a school for the handicapped. It is not a dramatic, self dramatizing depression. Sacco's skill is impressive here, as he shows the man's face change, subtly, according to what is going on (sad tales, checkpoints, the charming chatter of a 10 year old girl)--he has other feelings, but his hopelessness has smothered the intensity.

38 of 40 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Great Sacco Documentary Comic June 21, 2002

By Bill Corporandy

Format:Paperback

I do not have much to contribute that has not already been stated by other customer reviewers but I would like to add to the overwhelming consensus that this is an excellent book and, since it is done in comic book style, I would recommend it as an effective tool for adolescent readers in our high schools. Saccco's book was written before the most recent wave of Palestinian suicide bombings which has wreaked havoc both to Israel and to outside sympathy for the Palestinian cause. However, this book should give all open-minded readers insight into the despair that has led so many Palestinians to support terrorism. Sacco's disarmingly informal writing style and his powerful artwork convey both the constant systematic and randomly unsystematic injustice that Israel, its soldiers, settlers and other citizens have directed at the Palestinians. Sacco exposes the economic discrimination that gives incentives to West Bank Jewish settlers and imposes taxes and other bureacratic and physical barriers on Palestinian attempts to earn a living: Palestinian agricultural produce left on the docks to spoil before it is shipped to European customers, the denial of adequate water and permits to drill deeper wells, cutting down groves of olive trees, etc. Sacco also takes us inside hospitals where Israeli soldiers intimidate and beat patients, nurses, and doctors, disrupting surgeries, treatments, etc. Individual Palestinians recount their prison experiences: the psychological and physical torture and the inhuman living conditions, abuses of the legal system, etc. There is much more in this new edition--printed in 2001 and again in 2002--at roughly 300 pages, this is nearly double the size of an earlier edition. Everyone with an interest in the Middle East Crisis or terrorism should read this book. This book is pro-Palestinian but it is not anti-Semitic or against the existence of an Israeli state. It is also recommended by Art Spiegelman, the great cartoonist and author of the Jewish Holocaust comic classics, Maus I and II. For more great info on the plight of the Palestinians, I recommend regular reading of Tikkun, an excellent, liberal Jewish-American bi-monthly periodical.

67 of 77 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A poignant account of what the Palestians have had to endure March 22, 2002

By A Customer

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Joe Sacco's "Palestine" provides the western world with a powerful account of the Palestinian perspective of their conflict with Israel. Sacco's path takes him through much of the West Bank, Gaza, Jerusalem and parts of Israel. He tells the stories of the people he meets and through them paints a picture of the brutality and injustice they endure under the apartheid policies of Israel. With the media coverage of the conflict being what it is, the accessibility of the graphic novel format makes "Palestine" a singularly important work. By communicating the truth, perhaps a lasting solution to this conflict can be found.

Although the journalistic content of "Palestine" is its primary value, it also stands on its own aesthetically. Sacco also writes well and the narrative flows smoothly from one part of his journey to another.