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Joe Sacco




Title Creator Publisher Series Price
The Comics Journal #301 Jim Woodring, Tim Hensley, Joe Sacco, R. Crumb and more ... Fantagraphics The Comics Journal $25.00
($30.00 list)
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Read more and comment... 		Two years in the making, this massive 624 page issue of the foremost periodical on all things comics is finally firmly ensconced here at Copacetic.   The lead off cover feature is an epic 170 page focus on R. Crumb's adaptation of the Book of Genesis that starts off with a 50 page interview with Crumb conducted by Gary Groth which is followed by a 120 page critical roundtable on the book by comics scholars Rick Marschall, Donald Phelps, Robert Stanley Martin, Jeet Heer, Tim Hodler, Alexander Theroux and Kenneth Smith.  Groth then moderates a lively 60 page conversation between Mad Magazine's legendary creator of the Fold-In® and Thrizzling® cartoonist Michael Kupperman, and later completes his trifecta of amazing interviews with an engrossing 50 page interview with Joe Sacco that focuses on his reportorial comics masterpiece, Footnotes in Gaza (which is also reviewed in this issue).  Chris Lanier writes on Brian Chippendale's Maggots, Warren Bernard alerts us to the large body of work created in the early 20th century by Chicago Tribune editorial cartoonist John T. McCutcheon, and Tim Krieder turns in what we will not have to go too far out on a limb to immediately declare to be what is now, surely, the definitive critical appreciation of Dave Sim's 300-issue masterwork, Cerebus.  On the art front, we have the complete Gerald McBoing Boing comics – 70 pages of full color comics lithely illustrated by UPA staffers in the early 1950s – as well as sketchbooks by Jim Woodring, Tim Hensley, and, surprisingly (bizarrely!), Stephen Dixon.  As this is the only issue of TCJ that will be available for all of 2011, we feel quite safe in saying, "If you read only one issue of The Comics Journal this year, this is the one!"
The Fixer (softcover) Joe Sacco Drawn and Quarterly $11.95
($19.95 list)
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Read more and comment... 		For those of you who either missed this the first time around, were waiting for the lower priced softcover, or who just got turned onto Sacco by reading his just released masterwork, Footnotes in Gaza, here's your chance to get yer mitts on this close focus look at the disintegration of former Yugoslavia during the 1990s, from the point of view of post-war Bosnia.   To learn more about this work, we recommend that you read this excellent in-depth review by Michel Faber for The UK Guardian.
Footnotes in Gaza Joe Sacco Henry Holt $26.95
($29.95 list)
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Read more and comment... 		With this new work – over six years in the making – Joe Sacco returns to the people and the land that launched him to the forefront of comics journalism – a position which he has held ever since.  Few indeed are the number of people who can lay claim to being the top in their field for as long as Sacco has his, and with Footnotes in Gaza, he extends his lead even further, to the point where his position as being the single most important founder of the field/genre/school of comics journalism is now well nigh unassailable.  Footnotes in Gaza is the major work of a mature master, fully confident of his abilities and coolly in control of his talents.  Taking a page from the Art Spiegelman playbook and extending it to address his own concerns, Sacco deftly weaves a detailed account of his own personal quest – in the here and now (or at least what was the here and now at the time, 2003, when he carried out his research) – to unearth the details of two specific historical events that took place in Gaza in November of 1956, by interviewing every possible living participant, with his own depiction of the interviewees' recollections.  These events are, as the title baldly states, considered mere footnotes to the wide world outside of Gaza, but to the people who lived through them, they are traumas undimmed by the passage of half a century.  If ever the devil was in the details, it is here, and the details that are dredged up by Sacco's research into this historical "footnote" are certain to engender strong opinions on both sides of the horrific divide that is addressed by the central events of this tale.  To readers not directly involved in these events, however, there is the chance to delve into both how the past is ever present and, crucially, how the present can be and is projected into the past.  In addition, readers are offered the opportunity to contemplate how "seeing" an event recapitulated in visual images differs in both kind and degree from merely reading a description of the same event.  These, and other, interactions of the past and present, brought to light through reportorial diligence and mediated here by both art and memory, form the core of this fascinating and powerful work.
War's End: Profiles from Bosnia 1995-96 Joe Sacco Drawn and Quarterly $12.75
($14.95 list)
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Read more and comment... 		This hardcover follow up volume to 2003's The Fixer is in the same format and collects two long out of print Sacco gems from his years reporting in Bosnia.  The first, Soba, is our personal all-time favorite Sacco piece, an endearing portrait of a Bosnian everyman caught in the thick of it.  The second, Christmas with Karadzic, is a solid piece of traditional reporting done in comics, and done well -- in and of itself offering solid proof to all skeptics that comics are a great reportorial medium.  We heartily recommend this volume.
Best American Comics 2006 Jesse Reklaw, Joe Sacco, Anders Nilsen, Jaime Hernandez and more ... Houghton Mifflin Best American $8.88
($22.00 list)
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Read more and comment... 		edted by Harvey Pekar and Anne Elizabeth Moore This volume marks the first time that comics joins the well established "Best American Series."  It is a surprisingly well produced book -- surprising in that it's from Houghton Mifflin, a major NY publisher, whose eyes are usually more closely set on the bottom line -- that contains a good cross-section of work published in North America in 2004 and 2005 and functions as a fine follow-up -- as a yearbook does to an encyclopedia (for those of you old enough to know what we're talking about) -- to both McSweeney's #13 -- which is clearly its inspiration -- and the just-released Brunetti-edited Yale anthology.  This collection spans the generations, including new work from old-timers Kim Deitch, Gilbert Shelton and Robert Crumb, middle-agers Jaime Hernandez, Lynda Barry and Joe Sacco, and youngins' Anders Nilsen, Rebecca Dart and Jesse Reklaw, whose story, "13 Cats of My Childhood," we singled out for praise in our 2005 SPX report, when it appeared in it's original form as Couch Tag #2, stating at the time, "It is one of the best comics at this year's SPX... and deserving of a much wider audience than it will be able to find in this form."  So, suffice it to say that we're quite happy to see it included here in this anthology.  By far the longest piece included in this 320 page anthology, practically a graphic novella, "La Rubia Loca," by Justin Hall -- another SPX attending self-publisher --  is an engrossing story about a bunch of hippie slackers stuck on a bus tour through Mexico with a crazy woman.  And keep in mind that these are just the highlights, there's plenty more.  2006 • full color • hardcover • 320 pages
Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons, and True Stories: Volume Two David Mazzuchelli, Leif Goldberg, Brian Chippendale, Elinore Norflus and more ... Yale University Press $20.00
($28.00 list)
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Read more and comment... 		edited by Ivan Brunetti It's too early to say for certain, but this follow-up to Brunetti's already classic 2006 anthology, also published by Yale University Press, might just be even better than its precursor.  One thing's for certain:  Brunetti has held onto -- and further refined -- his editorial vision of arranging the work contained in this volume in an organic sequence, deftly managing to map out the similarities between artists so that each piece flows smoothly into into the other, creating an amazing sense of an innate connectivity between all areas of comics here on display.  This book is a powerful ally in the struggle to bring the light of comics to those poor souls still dwelling in the darkness.  It's the perfect choice to turn on a friend or relative to the joy, beauty and pleasures of our favorite medium.  Hold onto your hats, here's the contributor list:  Daniel Clowes, Saul Steinberg, Sammy Harkham, Chris Ware, R. Sikoryak, Michael Kupperman, Drew Friedman, Mark Beyer, Mack White, Jayr Pulga, Renee French, Kim Deitch, Richard Sala, J. Bradley Johnson, Archer Prewit, Anonymous (utility sketchbook), HJ Tuthill, Milt Gross, Bill Holman, Harvey Kurtzman, R.Crumb, Basil Wolverton, Art Spiegelman, Jess, John Hankiewicz, Tim Hensley, Bill Griffith, Richard McGuire, Gilbert Hernandez, Jim Woodring, David Collier, Eugene Teal, Charles Burns, Karl Wirsum, Gary Panter, Paper Rad, Fletcher Hanks, CF, Charles Forbell, Ron Rege, Jr., Winsor McCay, Matthew Thurber, Souther Salazar, Kevin Scalzo, Megan Kelso, James McShane, Laura Park, Vanessa Davis, Onsmith, Joe Matt, Jeffrey Brown, Martin Cendreda, Dave Kiersh, John Porcellino, Carrie Golus/Patrick Welch, Jessica Abel, Cole Johnson, Lynda Barry, Debbie Drechsler, Diane Noomin, Aline Kominsky-Crum, Ariel Bordeaux, Chester Brown, Anders Nilsen, Joe Sacco, Phoebe Gloeckner, Elinore Norflus, Brian Chippendale, Leif Goldberg, David Mazzuchelli, Jerry Moriarty, Ben Katchor, Frank Santoro, Dan Zettwoch, Kevin Huizenga, Harvey Pekar/R.Crumb, Carol Tyler, Maurice Vellekoop, Seth, Adrian Tomine, Jaime Hernandez & David Heatley.  It's simply amazing.  Comics Power!  PLEASE NOTE:  We feel compelled to mention that this volume includes several pieces that contain quite explicit sexual content; and while this content represents only a miniscule fraction of the total, it nevertheless renders this volume fit for ADULTS ONLY.
McSweeney's #13 Mark Beyer, Ivan Brunetti, Kaz, Art Spiegelman and more ... McSweeney's McSweeney's $20.00
($24.00 list)
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Read more and comment... 		Finally, it's here:  the most anticipated release of 2004 (so far).  Striving for objet d'art status, McSweeney's 13 comes as close as any comics release to attaining it.  Starting with a dust jacket that folds out into a two sided comics poster: the outer side featuring a dense full color, 360º narrative by editor and comics fiend, Chris Ware; the inner side featuring a vaguely ceremonial (think Mayan) worshipping of the idols of comics by Gary Panter.  But there's more:  tucked into the folds of this dust-jacket-cum-suitable-for-framing-wall-art are two mini-comics commissioned especially for this issue; one -- in full color -- by Ron Rege, Jr., and the other in B & W (as it should be) by long time mini-master, John Porcellino.  And that's just the dust jacket!  Moving on to the front and back binding plates (the hard covers beneath the dust jacket), we have a hundred or so images culled from a 1936 guide to cartooning separated by a lavishly embossed spine. The end papers are by Ivan Brunetti, and feature a wallpaper of minimalistic renditions of his personal comics and cartoon hall of fame.  And, finally, there is the contents of the book itself.  The subject of much speculation as to whether it would be reprints or newly commissioned work, the answer is... Both!  About half and half, depending on how you look at it.  Here's how it breaks down:  Some of the work has appeared in non-comics periodicals, but is collected herein for the first time.  Under this category are Mark Beyer, Ivan Brunetti, Kaz, Art Spiegelman (although his pieces are being reprinted everywhere at this point) and some of the pieces by Chris Ware.  Straight out reprints are the inclusions by Charles Burns (although the frontispiece is new), Chester Brown, Debbie Drechsler, Jaime and Gilberto Hernandez, Mark Newgarden, Archer Prewitt, Joe Sacco, Richard Sala (newly colored, however), Seth, and Adrian Tomine.  New to us -- and therefore, we imagine, new to you as well --  are the works by Lynda Barry, Jeffrey Brown, Dan Clowes, David Collier, R. Crumb, Kim Deitch, Julie Doucet, David Heatley, Ben Katchor, Joe Matt, Richard McGuire, Gary Panter, some of the Chris Ware, and of course the aforementioned dust-jacket and minis.  In addition to all this contemporary work, there are selections of classic and archival work sprinkled throughout: First and foremost among these is a 15-page spread on "the inventor of comics," Rodolphe Töpfler, and his first appearance in America, introduced by Chris Ware; an 80% reproduction of an original 1922 Mutt and Jeff daily strip by Bud Fisher that takes four pages to display (which gives you an idea of how big they drew comics back then!); and a nine page spread on George Herriman, introduced by Tim Samuelson and featuring Herriman's last Krazy Kat dailies, also reproduced from the originals.  And, as if this weren't enough, there are two appreciations by Chris Ware, one of the abstract-expressionist-turned-representational-painter-with-a-personal-affinity-for-comics-iconography, Philip Guston, and the other of Peanuts creator, Charles Schulz.  In addition there is a critical appreciation of comics from John Updike, and nostalgiac/elegiac remembrances of comics related experiences by Glen David Gold, Malachi Cohen, and Chip Kidd.  The volume opens with a preface from Ira Glass, followed by an introduction by Chris Ware, who, when all is said and done, is clearly more than simply the editor of this work.  This is a great piece, especially when you consider it's primary purpose:  preaching to the unconverted, those countless, teeming millions out there in America and beyond who don't locate the foundation of their identity in comics.  With this volume, McSweeney's begins a new ambitious distribution arrangement with Publisher's Group West in the USA and Penguin Books in the UK; thereby bringing their publications before a great many more potential readers.  They couldn't have chosen a better volume to initiate this venture.  Let's wish them luck.
But I Like It Joe Sacco $21.25
($24.95 list)
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Read more and comment... 		Here it is, a hardcover collection of the early years of bacchanalian debauchery in the wide wild world of underground rock followed by some later somewhat more sedate years of Rolling Stones stadium rock and Fat Possum blues.  While this work stands -- at least superficially -- in fairly stark contrast to the political reportage for which Sacco is now most well known, it provides  perhaps the best look at his inner self and serves to reveal -- to anyone paying attention -- some of the sources of the motivating forces for this later politcal work upon which his reputation rests.  Also included in this volume are 20 one-pagers originally done for the Swiss magazine Agenda, appearing here for the first time in English!  Any Sacco fan should at least give this the once over.   Comes with a live Miracle Workers  ep-length CD.