War on Gaza by Joe Sacco Review

Joe Sacco published between a page and four pages at intervals from January to July 2024 on The Comics Journal website about his thoughts on the current Israel-Palestine conflict that kicked off on 7 October 2023 when Hamas attacked Israel. The pages amount to roughly the length of a single issue comic which is published by Fantagraphics this week (or you can read the instalments for free on the TCJ website).

Sacco has previously produced comics of more substantial length on the subject in his two books Palestine (1993) and Footnotes on Gaza (2010) so he’s, if not an authority on the subject, well versed on it. I’ve tried reading both books but never finished either because, frankly, it’s too depressing - what’s been happening in that region for decades is appalling.

Even though I’ve never finished those books, I’m certain they’re enlightening and powerful - in ways that War on Gaza unfortunately isn’t. Sacco is a liberal but he’s by no means supportive of Biden’s administration and their actions in this recent conflict. He sadly notes America’s behaviour of supplying both weapons to Israel and aid to Gaza, as if it can pretend to be benevolent and not complicit in facilitating the genocide.

And to anyone who’s going to object to that term, I don’t see how any other word can be used to describe what’s happening over there. But he also observes that Israel is just mimicking America’s behaviour - one terrorist action on 9/11 led to the full-scale invasion and destruction of a region for decades.

Don’t take my low rating of this comic as any political statement on the subject: I’m just reviewing the comic which happens to be a political one. And I’m just not that impressed with Sacco’s comments in terms of the relative unremarkableness of their content, not because I disagree with him at all - I don’t - I’ve just heard a lot of what he’s saying before by others and I was expecting to get something unique from him, given his knowledge on the subject. But I guess if he has said profound things about the conflict in that region before, he’s said it in either of his two books I mentioned and not in this comic.

He’s an older cartoonist but his art remains top notch. I also haven’t followed the news as closely as he has so it was interesting to read about Biden’s bizarre comments on beheading babies (likely a product of his undeniable dementia but, hey, he’s also the prez - he might have access to videos the rest of us will never see) and Israeli official May Golan’s despicable comments on how proud she is of the ruins of Gaza. Sacco compares Israel’s bombing of Gaza to his 95 year old mother’s memories of surviving the Nazi bombing of Malta in WW2 and how the survivors of this conflict will have to live with it for the rest of their lives.

Mostly though, I felt the comic was quite banal. Criticising America’s use of taxpayer money to fund Israel’s actions instead of helping its homeless citizens, the authoritarian states both America and Israel have become, and the disappointment at seeing democratic nations - so-called progressive and the form of government that other nations should aspire to - committing genocide. Yeah. I agree. But this is Joe Sacco - I thought he’d have more to say than what most anyone would say on the subject if you asked them.

Then again he does mention early in the comic that he attempted to “solve” the issue by suggesting that a peaceful protest would work, and then saw what the Israelis did to such a protest - murdering and maiming the protestors - and decided not to suggest anything of its like again.

Not that I’m expecting Sacco to provide solutions to what seems to be, likely at this point, an unsolvable problem but then I don’t really see what the point of the comic is if he’s just tut-tutting publicly at the sad state of affairs, as most of us have done privately. If it’s to draw more attention to the subject, does it need it - has anyone forgotten this is happening? What kind of impact will a single issue comic make when the medium is so niche?

I didn’t think Joe Sacco’s War on Gaza was all that special a comic, but he is a great cartoonist whose books I have previously enjoyed and I’m sure his other books on Palestine/Gaza are worth checking out over this unimpressive and rather superficial publication.