Joe Sacco
Joe Sacco
Joe Saccois a Maltese-American cartoonist and journalist. He is best known for his comics journalism, in particular in the books Palestineand Footnotes in Gaza, on Israeli–Palestinian relations; and Safe Area Goraždeand The Fixeron the Bosnian War...
ProfessionJournalist
Date of Birth2 October 1960
admired george hunter michael orwell others people whose work
The people whose work I've admired are people like George Orwell and others like Michael Herr and, of course, some of Hunter S. Thompson's work.
journalist kinds lots people primary spends stories time
I think any journalist who spends time in a place realizes that there are lots of stories around beyond their primary story. You meet so many interesting people and have all kinds of experiences.
matter robert subject
Robert Crumb is an influence on how I draw, but not on the subject matter I take or my approach. One thing I do like about Crumb is that he's chronicled his age, his times, and I think that is what artists should do.
generally good
I think I'm generally a good listener anyway.
became clear push toward
It became clear to me that I had to push it toward a more representational way of drawing.
comics format information solid
With comics you can put interesting and solid information in a format that's pretty palatable.
advantage comic depict hard journalism
For me, one advantage of comic journalism is that I can depict the past, which is hard to do if you're a photographer or filmmaker.
advantage asking learned people talk
What I've learned is that people like to talk about themselves. And that's kind of the advantage you have when you're asking people questions.
became clicked later searching
When I was there, something clicked in my head; I found myself interviewing people, searching out facts and figures. Later on I became much more self-conscious of what I was doing.
last palestine people trip trying
My guide had a copy of Palestine on my last trip to Gaza. He'd bring it out and show people what I was trying to do. That usually went over pretty well.
drawn
Of course, I'm drawn to a place like Iraq because It's the biggest story of our generation.
case people
In this case I just wanted to be in one place, much like the Gorazde book, I feel it was a better way of doing it, get to know some people well.
good
I'm not a good tourist, I don't like tourism.
enjoy listener listening
I like listening to people, it's not even out of - I'm not like a professional listener or anything like that, but I enjoy people's stories.