Books
Palestine, as the name might suggest, is unlike any comic we've brought to you before. However, you can expect to be stimulated by this book. Just not in the way you might usually expect. For one thing, Palestine isn't fiction. It's true-life. It's current affairs. It's journalism. The book recounts Joe Sacco's tour of the West Bank and Gaza Strip - you know, the bits you hear about on the news every day, if you're listening - between 1991 and 1992. Sacco moves between shantytowns and refugee camps with his colleagues and guides, just listening to people telling their stories. As you might expect, most of the stories are of people being hurt by the occupation, or by Israeli settlers and soldiers. It's not the most balanced book in the world. But that's not really the point. When you see Palestine on the telly - when you see the refugee camps, or even when you hear the word "Palestine" - it's usually to do with people being blown up or shot, or with peace processes breaking down. What you don't see is what happens next. You don't see the people. You don't see the families. You don't see the rest of the story. And that's what 'Palestine' is all about.
Sacco is equal parts draughtsman and cartoonist. Although it's clear that a lot of the art in Palestine is drawn from photographs Sacco and his colleagues took along the way, the greater part of the book is drawn from memory. And nothing seems to have escaped his notice. The minutest detail is meticulously rendered, whether it's the mud that passes for a road through a refugee camp or the lifetime's worth of wrinkles on an old man's face. Sacco's greatest gift, as an artist, is his ability to capture the soul of his subject. He doesn't just draw expressions on his "characters'" faces: he brings out their emotions. The effect is to see Palestine and the Palestinians (and by extension, many Israelis) entirely through Sacco's eyes. To be immersed as fully as you can be in their world. To learn a little of what it means to have been there, at that time. Some of the people Sacco meets are tired and beaten. Some can barely contain their fury, which sits behind their eyes, cold and hard. But some take what little hope they can, and cling onto it like a life preserver. By the end of the book, the point is driven home hard: these people aren't just words and pictures on a page: these people are real.
'Palestine' stakes a claim as a prime example of the inherent power of comics.
Raza Said
22nd May 2003