THE EMOTIONAL TRUTH OF JOE SACCO’S PALESTINE:

HOW THE COMICS MEDIUM FURTHERS

THE NEW JOURNALISM MOVEMENT

A THESIS

Presented to the University Honors Program

California State University, Long Beach

In Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the

University Honors Program Certificate

By Alexander L. Villaneda

B.A., 2016, California State University, Long Beach

May 2016
 ABSTRACT

THE EMOTIONAL TRUTH OF JOE SACCO’S PALESTINE:

HOW THE COMICS MEDIUM FURTHERS

THE NEW JOURNALISM MOVEMENT

By

Alexander L. Villaneda

May 2016

Traditional Journalism is defined with certain criteria: timeliness, objectivity, and brevity.

With the emergence of the New Journalism movement in the ‘60s this changed as writers began

to absorb techniques used in fiction writing to tell true stories. This form of journalism has

become the norm for magazine writers. In this paper, I will argue that the next stage in this

evolution of Journalism will be in the comics form. I will be analyzing Joe Sacco’s Palestine and

looking at his use of New Journalism techniques combined with the comic book medium to

illustrate how he is able to connect with his readers in such a way not possible by words alone.
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

CHAPTER

1. BREAKING WITH TRADITION ..................................................................... 1

The New Journalists................................................................................... 2

Building Better Bridges ............................................................................. 3
Techniques ................................................................................................. 5

2. THE HISTORY OF THE ISRAEL/PALESTINE CONFLICT........................ 8

3. CONNECTION READER AND SUBJECT MATTER THROUGH

THE EMOTIONAL TRUTH ..................................................................... 12

Acknowledging Biases............................................................................... 12
Sacco as the Bridge Between Reader and Subject ..................................... 16
Entering the Story ...................................................................................... 20
Conclusion ................................................................................................. 22

REFERENCE

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 CHAPTER 1

BREAKING WITH TRADITION

Introduction

In Journalism, there are generally a few guidelines that are taught in school to prospective

journalists. These include objectivity, accuracy, and timeliness. The news is supposed to be fair

and balanced and present every side of the story without bias. The story has to be accurate; the

public needs to be able to trust that the journalist did his or her research and that all of the facts

presented are undeniably true. It also has to be timely; it must matter right now so it feels

relevant to the reader’s life. The last of these is especially important in the digital age. We live in

an age where you can receive a tweet about an earthquake faster than you would actually feel the

earthquake beneath your feet. Journalists can update a story on their website as it happens. It no

longer takes a day to print a paper and then bring it to your door.

With the prevalence of bloggers and alternative sources of news, timeliness and speed

have become even more important and the deciding factor in driving traffic to news sites. If that

is the state of journalism today, why should readers choose to get their news through comics over

other mediums?

In this essay, I will be looking at the Comics medium in the context of how it is able to

continue the tradition set forth by the New Journalists in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Although it goes

against traditional journalism ideals such as timeliness, journalistic detachment, and unbiased

reporting, comics journalism provides other benefits such as being able to connect with a large

amount of readers on an emotional level to events they otherwise would not have cared about. To

illustrate these points, I will be looking at the work of Joe Sacco, specifically his graphic novel

Palestine. Sacco is a great example and one of the premier writers of Comics Journalism.

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Palestine is a great representation of his work and therefore is filled with examples of techniques

used by the New Journalists but evolved by Sacco to fit the comics medium.

The New Journalists

When looking at the comics medium itself, there are already major differences in the

production of comics compared to traditional news. An online news story can be reported,

written, photographed and published in a matter of hours. A comic book takes much longer due

to the creative aspects that are required. Because of this, Sacco’s comics journalism foregoes

timeliness and objectivity for impact and emotional accuracy. This violates some of the basic

tenets of journalism, so how can it be considered journalism? The truth is that this style of

reporting is grounded in a journalistic tradition that values the emotional truth over the objective

truth. It doesn’t shy away from subjectivity, but instead embraces it and gives the reader the

chance to observe the inherent biases in the process of reporting the news and make their own

decisions. This form of journalism is known as the New Journalism.

Beginning in the early ‘60s, this style of so-called New Journalism, a term coined by

journalist Tom Wolfe, was popular among newspaper and magazine journalists. According to

Wolfe, the emergence of the New Journalism was a response to the phenomenon of the novel

(Wolfe 5). Being a journalist was not respected and was seen as a stepping stone for writers. As

Wolfe states:

“The idea was to get a job on a newspaper, keep body and soul together, pay the rent, get

to know ‘the world,’ accumulate ‘experience,’ perhaps work some of the fat off your

style—then, at some point, quit cold, say goodbye to journalism, move into a shack

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 somewhere, work night and day for six months, and light up the sky with the final

triumph. The final triumph known as The Novel,” (5).

Journalism was not the outlet for creative writers. How can one be creative when all they were

allowed to do was parrot out facts they collected? There was no room for imagination.

That all changed when writers like Gay Talese writing for Esquire Magazine or Jimmy

Breslin for the Herald Tribune began to innovate and be creative in their articles. They began to

add details and dialogue in their stories in a style that would not be out of place in fiction, but

with the added benefit of it being all true. This was the beginning of the modern day form of

creative non-fiction. It created a form that showed that journalism did not need to be pure

statements of fact, but instead could be written creatively with techniques that would draw the

reader in (Wolfe 11-12). This new form mixed the fully fictional novel read for pleasure on one’s

free time and the purely factual news that most read purely for the information contained within.

Not only could the news be entertaining, but the novel could be informational.

Building Better Bridges

Just as Tom Wolfe and other New Journalism writers bridged the gap between the novel

and newspaper reporting, Joe Sacco’s Palestine blends journalistic practices with graphic novel

techniques. Writers of the New Journalism sought to combine novel techniques with the true

reporting found in journalism. Doing this gave their work a sense of realism and allowed their

readers to truly connect with their subjects. Rather than to just present cold hard facts by

themselves, New Journalists sought to reveal the context, motivations, and deep insight into a

person or an event. “The idea was to give the full objective description, plus something their

readers had always had to go to novels and short stories for: namely, the subjective or emotional

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life of the characters,” Wolfe Says (21). New Journalists sought to give readers something more

than just the facts. Just as a reader can immerse themselves in a good novel, New Journalists

sought to allow readers to immerse themselves in the lives of real people.

We can see this demonstrated in Palestine when Sacco depicts his interviews with his

subjects. By combining his art and the subject matter, readers can connect emotionally with

events rather than reading facts on a page. Rather than read about the destruction of a Palestinian

house, they can see the event on the page recreated by Sacco as accurately as he could. He does

this by spending time with his subjects and getting as many details as possible. This is similar to

how the New Journalists created their works.

To achieve this connection between readers and subject matter, journalists immersed

themselves in the subject and took weeks, months, or even years to get to know their subject

intimately. This process allows the journalist to becomes both observer and participant.

Journalist Ted Conover was made famous when he quit his job as a journalist and got a job in a

prison in order to witness first-hand what guards experience so he could write his story Newjack:

Guarding Sing Sing. “By wearing these two hats [participant and observer] I build bridges to

both my subjects and my readers. First-person narration lets me act as a stand-in for the reader,

expressing surprise at what’s new, discomfort at what’s strange, and delight at what’s cool,”

Conover says (35). Whereas Conover spent his time in a prison, Sacco spent his time traveling

through Palestine collecting stories and relying on those who lived there to take him where he

needed to go. He let them lead him to stories rather than seeking out stories that fit the narrative

he wanted to convey.

By making this connection and becoming part of their subject’s lives they were also able

to somehow remove themselves from the equation. A journalist that intrudes into someone’s life

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for a week is noticed and the subject may act differently than normal, but when a journalist stays

for months, they begin to fade into the background of everyday life and become able to hide in

plain sight and observe the subject without affecting the outcome.

Instead of writing about how the Hells Angels were involved in another bar brawl,

Hunter S. Thompson spent a year with them befriending them. He learned their personalities,

their backstories, and their motivations. Whereas the Angel’s would act more outrageous for

other news outlets and therefore skew their reporting, Thompson could get past that and write

about a world of outcasts that most of the world would have never seen. While his coverage did

take much longer, it revealed much more than just an 800-word article written in an evening

would have.

Techniques

According to Wolfe, these New Journalists relied on, and could be said to be defined by,

four specific techniques: scene-by-scene construction, use of full dialogue, using a third-person

point of view, and using status details. (Wolfe, 31-32).

Scene-by-scene construction is a technique that the New Journalists used to tell a true

story in the same way someone might tell a fictional story. Instead of using a narrative and

giving the reader the facts all at once in the lede, the writer lets the story play out, moving from

scene-to-scene letting the reader become immersed in the story. The comics medium is perfectly

suited for this technique. The role panels play in a comic is the very definition of moving scene-

to-scene. Not only does Sacco use this technique but he improves upon it. While a New

Journalist can describe the scene in detail, it is only in using the comics medium that Sacco can

5
show it. As we will see later, he can also use the panels to slow down or speed up the pace,

emphasize a certain emotion, and get the reader to connect on an even deeper level.

Using full-dialogue is important because it gives a greater context to what someone says.

Rather than using pull quotes, New Journalists gave readers the full conversation. Sacco does the

same in Palestine, including his own dialogue. Rather than erasing himself from the equation and

taking the view of the invisible fly-on-the-wall reporter, Sacco gives the reader the entire

interview in full, so the reader can see the inherent biases present and determine for themselves

what to believe. This goes along with the next technique.

The third-person point-of-view is used to give the reader the perspective in the mind of

one of the subjects. It treats them as characters. Sacco does not do this in the same way that the

New Journalist’s did. Rather than give you the perspective in the mind of his subjects, he injects

himself as a character and gives you the perspective inside of his own mind. Sacco becomes a

stand-in for the reader. He asks the questions that the reader wants to know and lets the reader

feel as if he or she were there themselves. He treats his own first-person account as a third-

person character.

Lastly, status details are using everyday habits, customs, or manners to add life into a

character. The little everyday details that make a person an individual are important to create a

character that the reader can respond to. By using these details when writing about a real person,

it also adds an element of relatability. Sacco does this in his art, depicting all the little details in a

scene.

As we can see, this type of journalism is longer due to the level of involvement needed by

the journalist, and therefore, loses the immediacy so often paired with traditional journalism.

New Journalism forgoes speed in order to present something that is more real than facts are. A

6
fact only presents a single statement, but when a journalist can also present to the reader a scene

or dialogue, a character that feels, then that one statement becomes filled with an emotion that

the reader can connect with. The reader will then not only know the truth, but see and feel the

truth as well. This leaves the reader with a lasting impression, an empathetic connection to the

event, instead of a memorized fact that they will struggle to remember. This kind of journalism is

meant to create lasting influence that will carry on with the reader. This is especially important

when reporting events that are not just a one-time deal but instead an ongoing crisis such as the

Israel-Palestine Conflict.

By looking at this type of journalism as a base, we can then claim that Joe Sacco’s

Palestine is the next step in the evolution of journalism. Some of the techniques present in his

graphic journalism help to reveal the emotional truth of a story. He can use the comics medium

to slow down or speed up moments to create the impact he wants in the reader. Through the use

of panels, word balloons, camera angles, he can attach more of the feeling of a moment to go

along with the words. While a drawn picture may be less accurate than a taken photo, Sacco can

choose to add elements that help the reader connect with that moment emotionally and better

understand the text. The relationship between pictures and words helps convey much more than a

block of text and one or two pictures seen in print journalism. This paper will continue this

argument by using close reading of Palestine and analyzing how these techniques allow the

reader to be immersed in the subject in a way not possible in a word only format.

7
 CHAPTER 2

THE HISTORY OF THE ISRAEL/PALESTINE CONFLICT

Before looking at Sacco’s Graphic Novel itself, it is important to place it in the context of

the events he is covering. Joe Sacco visited Palestine in 1991 and covered what is known as the

1st intifada between the native Palestinians and the Israeli settlers. The conflict is still going on in

the present day but its origins date back to World War I. In his graphic novel Palestine, Sacco is

able to express, not only the history of the conflict, but also the greater context religiously and

politically. He is able to do this in an easy to understand way using only two pages (12-13).

Sacco starts off with an image of himself accompanied by an American Jew visiting the

city of Jerusalem. “’Next year in Jerusalem’—all over the world that’s the Jewish toast at

Passover, and now here he is, a Jew in Zion, a land promised by God to his chosen people,”

Sacco writes (12). Sacco then continues with a panel depicting God. God speaks and quotes a

verse of the bible that declares his promise to the Jewish community. This is important when

looked at in combination with the following panel.

The next panel depicts Lord Balfour signing what is now known as the Balfour

Declaration. In 1917, The British publicly declared their support for the creation of a Jewish

Homeland. The declaration was published in The Times of London and represented a political

promise to the Jewish People that the land would be theirs (Gelvin, 1917). What Sacco leaves out

is a secret agreement that the British made with a different group to give Palestinian land over to

Arab control. In 1915, the British met with Sharif Husayn and asked him to help orchestrate a

rebellion in the Ottoman Empire. In return, the British would give Husayn the right to establish

an Arab state in the Arab territories of the empire (Gelvin, 196).

8
 In the panel, Lord Balfour is surrounded by many symbols of the British Empire and its

strength. There is a huge battleship representing its naval strength, and soldiers waving the Union

Jack representing its army. Also included is a huge roaring lion representing the people of Great

Britain. The way Sacco uses these two panels together displays the two main justifications for

the creation of Israel and how they play into each other.

In the first panel, God declares his promise with outstretched arms, as if to say this is the

land I promise you. What Sacco placed in between his hands represents something else. His

figure breaks the panel, framing Lord Balfour and the British Empire. What Sacco is saying is

that the promised land is actually in the hands of the British. With these two panels Sacco shows

that despite having the religious promise from the all powerful creator, it isn’t until the British

Empire puts ink on paper and gives their own promise that the Jewish people actually have a true

claim to their so-called promised land. There is also an implication that the British themselves

are playing God in the area. Their promise to Husayn, just as it was given is just as easily taken

away. The Israeli state only exists because the Empire allowed it to.

Sacco conveys all this information in just two panels. He covers years of history, but in

such a way that allows the reader to understand the deeper implications in seconds. He gives the

reader the impression of both justifications, religious and political, and their intertwining natures.

He also is able to do this without the use of words. While there is writing that Sacco includes to

give specific details, if the words were removed, the deeper meanings are still present. If you

remove the panels and keep the text, again it still conveys what Sacco’s message but you miss

out on the intertwining relationship between the two events. This is what makes Comic Book

Journalism stand out. The combination of pictures and words gives the reader much more than

what words alone could.

9
 Sacco is also able to represent both sides in the Israeli-Palestine conflict on the same

page. Under Lord Balfour and his British promises is a panel depicting the influx of Jewish

settlers into Palestine. Sacco shows a crowd of settlers walking on the right side of the panel and

on the left behind them, an empty land. The land is empty with trees and mountains going as far

back as the eye can see. The settlers are walking towards the center of the page, towards their

new land. The settlers speak, “A land without people for people without a land (Sacco, 12).” This

phrase is heard often and its origins are disputed, but its historical origins and the political

implications are not the main focus for now. The true focus is Sacco’s interpretation of the

phrase.

Across from this panel on the opposite page, Sacco depicts a group of Palestinian

refugees in despair as they walk towards the right side of the panel, towards the outside of the

page. There is no empty land behind them, the panel is filled with people fleeing. There is

smoking erupting from a city behind them as planes fly overhead.

This double page spread, with these two panels side by side illustrates the Israeli-

Palestinian conflict. On one side you have the Jewish Settlers, a diaspora fleeing religious

persecution spread throughout the world who want a home to call their own. On the other side,

the native Palestinians who have are being pushed out of their homes in favor of these settlers.

The claim of a land without people shown to be vastly exaggerated. The contrast of these two

panels gives us the perspective of both sides simultaneously. If the reader focuses on the left

panel, we can see and empty land just waiting to be filled with settlers. If no one is using it, why

shouldn’t it be given to those who can use it? If the reader focuses on the right page, then we can

see the fully Palestinian view. The Israeli’s are bombing their homes and taking their land by

force. They are killing innocents and destroying their livelihoods and there can never be a
10
justification for that. In Journalism, there is saying that when listening to both sides, the truth is

inevitable found to be somewhere in between. When looking at the two pages as a whole, Sacco

is able to convey this idea as well as letting the reader know that in an issue like this, each side

will have its own biases. Its all in how you look at it.

The Israel-Palestine conflict is such a complex issue that you can’t just look at the Israeli

and Palestinian sides and pick one because those aren’t the only issues at play. The main

argument is between the Palestinians who are being pushed out of their own land and the Israeli

settler’s who are moving in, but consider the Arabs living in Israel who think of themselves as

Israeli but aren’t offered full citizenship? What about the Jewish diaspora without a home spread

across the world who want to claim a land they believe to be their ancestral right? What about

the Arab countries that surround Israel who want to return the land to Arab control? What about

the American Government who allies with the Israel government to make sure that doesn’t

happen? There are too many viewpoints to list.

This is what makes the conflict such a hard thing to cover from a purely traditional

Journalistic point-of-view. The both-sides-of-the-story approach doesn’t work when you have

twenty sides all trying to get their voices heard. Sacco’s approach allows his reader to see this by

consistently acknowledging his own biases and that he represents only part of the story and

anyone who he talks to also only represents a small part of the larger whole.

11
 CHAPTER 3

CONNECTING READER AND SUBJECT MATTER THROUGH

THE EMOTIONAL TRUTH

Sacco’s approach allows his reader to choose for themselves what to believe by

consistently acknowledging his own biases. He represents only one part of the story and anyone

who he talks to can only represent a small part of the larger whole as well. He does this by using

the techniques created by Wolfe and the New Journalists as well as techniques unique to the

comics medium.

Acknowledging Biases

Pure objectivity, the New Journalists would argue, is impossible. No matter how hard a

reporter tries there will always be inherent biases; therefore, one of the techniques being used

involves injecting themselves into the story. Sacco himself applies this technique throughout

Palestine and it provides numerous benefits, even more so when combined with the comics

medium.

Sacco draws himself throughout Palestine, at times in the foreground, and at others in the

background. He acknowledges his own presence throughout Palestine as well as openly

declaring his thoughts or opinions on a given situation. This allows the reader to be constantly

reminded that while these events did happen in front of Sacco, they still only represent his view

of them. Sacco himself says this in an interview with Jeff Wilson:

12
 “You’re seeing everything through the gauze filter of an observer who happens to be me.

The good thing about doing things as a comic book […] often every few pages you have

a visual clue that there is a translator talking to you. You can see that relationship so the

reader is visually reminded that things are being filtered, that there are other people in the

room” (Wilson).

He continues on by comparing that to regular prose writing, “In prose [,,,] a writer’s going to tell

you. ‘I had a translator and there were many people in the room and maybe we were interrupted

at this point.’… [In comics] you don’t have to keep shaking the reader and telling them. They

can see it” (Wilson) Sacco even goes so far as to include his disagreements with those around

him. We can see throughout Palestine moments in which Sacco has a different opinion with

either fellow journalists or even the Palestinians or Israelis he is interviewing. This is drastically

different from traditional journalism in which the reporting process is hidden and only the end

result is presented.

Isabel Macdonald, in her article, “Drawing on the Facts: Comics Journalism and the

Critique of Objectivity,” writes:

“By emphasizing the ‘seams and imperfections’ of the reporting process, Sacco’s

approach has particular relevance for casting light on the complex dynamics and practices

of journalism that have long been eclipsed by both objective reporting, and by journalists’

standard language for talking about their work” (Worden, Kindle Version, location 1202).

What this means is that Sacco gives us the story behind the story. He allows the reader to see the

process i.e. where he gets his information, who he is talking to, the biases he has when talking to

them, and the realities about how he gets the information.

13
 We can see this on display repeatedly in Palestine. In chapter one, Sacco is looking into a

case of Jewish settlers moving in and displacing Palestinians in the city of Silwan (Sacco, 18)

Eager to find any information, he lets himself be led off by two children who promise to reveal

information to Sacco (Sacco, 21-24). The two children eventually ask him for money and Sacco

feels cheated. This scene is important because it shows some of the key parts of the reporting

process. First, Sacco is looking for any information and is eager to find it. In the first panel on

page 21, Sacco first meets the children. He is drawn looking relaxed, minding his own business,

whistling even. This shows that he was just wandering the city exploring without a specific goal

in mind. He is approached by the two boys with very minimal dialogue showing the language

barrier between him and his subjects. The dialogue reads, “’Hallo!’, ‘Hello’, ‘Jewish? Jewish?’,

‘Me? No, not Jewish.’ ‘You come? You come?’ (Sacco, 21). That is all it takes for Sacco to

begin following the boys. He expresses his doubts but doesn’t follow through with them. In the

next panel, the reader sees Sacco looking in disbelief while pointing down the bridge he is

standing on saying, “Down there? You gotta be kidding!” (Sacco, 21). But sure enough, in the

next panel, Sacco is shown sliding down the side to follow the boys.

With very minimal information, Sacco is willing to follow them to see what information

they have. By showing this part of the process, the reader can see what Sacco does to get the

information he has. He isn’t speaking with officials and organization heads; he is speaking with

regular Palestinians. This allows the reader to connect with the information. One boy claims to

be from the city of Silwan. Sacco shows the reader a first hand account told straight from the

mouth of someone who experienced it.

Although, the story soon takes a turn. On Page 23, Sacco is getting ready to leave

when the two boys pressure him for money. On the top right panel, Sacco draws himself with his
14
head a blur as it moves from boy to boy. “Ten Shekels?! But I thought we were friends!” Sacco

states (Sacco, 23). He is in disbelief. In the bottom right panel, Sacco shows his feelings of

betrayal. He has a look of someone being bullied and has emanata drawn around his head

indicating stress. “But this isn’t fair…” he says (Sacco, 23). He eventually gives in but on the

next page refers to them as “those little terrorists” (Sacco, 24). This interaction shows another

aspect of what Sacco is doing. He now questions if the information he was given was even valid.

He jumped at the chance to interview them but in the end he is unsure whether or not the

information was truthful or not.

Sacco showing us the entire interaction between him and the children is important

because it allows the reader to place trust in Sacco. He is being open and honest. If he wanted to

he could have left out parts of the engagement and painted the event in two different ways. If he

had left out the second half of the story, he could have painted them as Palestinians who are in

need and want their story to be told. They are two children who have suffered and in need of aid

who are begging a foreign journalist to tell their story. It becomes a humanitarian issue and the

reader would be more inclined to side with the Palestinians. Had he left out the first part of the

story in which he followed them willingly, they then can be drawn as scam artists who cheated a

foreign journalist who just wanted to help. By leaving both parts in, Sacco gives his readers a

chance to decide for themselves. Are they children in need who were driven from their homes

and want money for their help? Or are they liars who exploited an eager foreigner with false

information?

In the final panel of this chapter, Sacco gives us the real meaning of the story: without the

full story or context, situations can be read in multiple ways (Sacco, 24). In this panel, Sacco

returns to the city after his run in with the children. He is walking through Jerusalem’s Old city
15
passing by Palestinian shopkeepers. He is drawn with an angry face. He isn’t interacting with

anybody despite their comments towards him. They extend their hands to shake with Sacco but

he refuses saying in his head, “Fat chance, buddy! I know that bullshit from Cairo…” (Sacco,

24). A Palestinian man yells out, “See! He doesn’t want peace!” (Sacco, 24).

Readers can understand Sacco’s point of view. He is coming off an interaction in which

he was potentially scammed and therefore is not in a good mood. He felt taken advantage of and

does not want that to happen again. The reader understands this, but those in the scene do not.

Sacco is scene as being rude, someone who doesn’t want to talk to them and therefore someone

who doesn’t want peace. This is important because it acknowledges the perception each person

has. What is truth and what is perceived can be two different ideas. Sacco’s goal with Palestine is

to reach past the so-called objective truth of journalism and give the reader all the information,

even his mistakes, so they can make the decision on what the truth is themselves.

Sacco as the Bridge Between Reader and Subject

As part of the process, Sacco sets himself as a stand in for the reader. The New

Journalists used a 3rd person point-of-view to get their readers to see through the eyes of their

subjects. Sacco does this but in a different way. He is the character that you are meant to look

through. He is who the reader is meant to connect with because by relating to Sacco, you can

then relate to his subjects. He becomes the bridge to understanding.

As Amy Kiste Nyberg puts it “what the reader sees is the journalist at work. It is a way of

reinforcing the idea that stories have authors…In this sense, the character can serve as a stand-in

for the reader. Readers are invited to imagine themselves in place of the journalist, to become a

part of the ‘here and now’ of the story that is unfolding” (Nyberg, 118). This allows a deeper

16
connection from the reader to the story. To do this Sacco consistently depicts himself in the

comic in key moments meant to give the reader a sense of being in the moment. This isn’t just a

story but rather a specific moment in time that the reader is witnessing and taking part in.

In “Violence in the Age of its Graphic Reproduction: Joe Sacco and the Craft of Comic

Book Journalism,” Isaac Kamola states:

“Sacco has found a way of representing war and conflict as an everyday event, experienced

by real, complicated human beings who live in their own regimes of meaning making.…It

might be argued that this way of representing conflict has everything to do with Sacco’s

choice of medium. Such a conclusion would suggest that the comic book form makes it

possible to represent conflict as an intimate lived experience while non-fiction prose cannot

capture” (Kamola).

The comic book form allows Sacco to tell a story, show his biases, draw in the reader and give

them deeper understanding through empathy all at the same time.

We can see this in chapter four of Palestine, in a story titled “Moderate Pressure Part One.”

In this section, Sacco is visiting a source in Balata refugee camp named Jabril. He is there to

interview him about his time in Nablus Prison, specifically the ways in which the Israelis

interrogated him. As he is speaking to Jabril, another man walks in, Abu Akram. Sacco begins to

ask Akram similar questions. “Has he ever been interrogated? Sure, he says. Beaten? He looks at

me like, are you being serious? How were you beaten? Can you describe it? You know, he says,

beaten…don’t I understand beaten?” (Sacco, 93). This dialogue accompanies a panel that depicts

the three men, Sacco, Jabril, and Abu Akram in close quarters. In the panel Sacco is drawn

mouth open, mid drink from a class. Abu Akram is drawn standing up leaning on the back of a

17
chair with a light behind him encircling his head. This draws the readers focus to Abu Akram.

Sacco taking a drink implies casualness in the way he asks the questions, while Abu Akram’s

stance shows his serious response. The dialogue also shows this in the back and forth between

the chracters. Sacco’s questions seem childish when Akram responds with answers that imply

Sacco should have known already. “Don’t I understand beaten?”, implies that this is something

that Abu Akram believes all people should understand. By showing his ignorance or at least

innocence in the subject, Sacco can play the part of the reader who needs to the situation to be

explained fully. He isn’t asking hard hitting questions. He is asking questions that the readers

themselves would ask.

On the next page, Sacco is shown just what Abu Akram means by beaten. The first panel

shows Sacco’s body being manipulated by Abu Akram so that Sacco can truly understand

(Sacco, 94). Although it is only one panel, Sacco adds movement and passage of time by

depicting both subjects twice. The panel is divided in half by the placement of Abu Akram. The

first half of the panel shows Abu Akram making Sacco sit down on a chair sideways so that the

back rest isn’t supporting him. In the second half, He has Sacco lean back with his hands behind

him. During this interaction Sacco shows us his feeling through his facial expressions. The first

half of the panel, Sacco seems reluctant but willing to participate. He asked the question and

wants to know the answer. In the second half, this turns into nervousness. Sacco tries to mask

this nervousness by making a joke. “Ha Ha Ha This is highly irregular” (Sacco, 94). He doesn’t

know what is coming next. Emanata flies from his head helps indicates his nervousness.

The next panel shows a close up of Abu Akram swinging his hand down towards Sacco’s

crotch with an angry expression on his face. Sacco screams. “Don’t worry…He stops short…He

doesn’t do it…He spares me…” Sacco writes (Sacco, 94).

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 This story allows the reader to connect to the story in two different ways. First, it allows

the reader to connect with Sacco through this experience. Second, it allows them to connect to

Abu Akram and his experience.

It is a conscious choice by Sacco to include himself in this story. He could have used his

experience to then explain how Abu Akram was beaten and left himself and how he found out

the information out of the story. The problem with this is that it would not allow the reader to

connect to the story as deeply.

Sacco’s questions are question the reader might ask. When trying to learn about someone’s

tragedy it is easy to default to these simple straight forward questions. Were you beaten? What

was it like? What did they do? Sacco asks those questions and instead of just telling the reader

the answer, he shows us. He gives a demonstration of it.

By Abu Akram demonstrating on Sacco, Sacco now becomes a part of the story. The

reader can see his apprehension and nervousness as Abu Akram places his hand on his knee in

the first panel. The reader can feel Sacco’s awkward nervousness as Abu Akram begins to push

on his chest and force Sacco to lean backward. By placing these two situations in the same panel,

Sacco builds anticipation for what is going to happen next.

Abu Akram swings his fist down towards Sacco. Sacco screams. The reader fills in the

gaps and can imagine what it feels like to be Sacco in that moment. It isn’t until the next panel

when Sacco explains that he wasn’t really hit that the reader can relax.

By doing this Sacco is able to place the reader in not only his own shoes but in Abu

Akram’s as well. In this panels, the reader empathizes with Sacco. The reader can feel what he

feels and imagine his pain.

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 Sacco takes this a step further because he becomes the bridge to understanding between the

reader and Abu Akram. Sacco can now understand what Abu Akram went through and the reader

can understand what Sacco just went through, therefore the reader can know empathize with Abu

Akram. The build up of tension and feeling of Abu Akram swinging his fist down towards Sacco

disappears when the reader finds out that Abu Akram didn’t actually hit Sacco, but these feelings

are then transferred onto Abu Akram’s real experience.

After Sacco’s ordeal, he begins to cover the stories of others who were interrogated by

the Israeli internal security force. Now these stories seem more real because of the lead in by

Sacco. The reader was able to experience it through Sacco and this makes the other stories more

understandable as a result.

Entering the Story

Another way Sacco can immerse the reader in the story is by using scene-by-scene

construction. As noted earlier, Scene-by-Scene construction is one of the four key techniques

used by the New Journalists. Sacco is able to use the technique combined with his art in order to

paint a picture that draws its reader in and allows them to not only see what is happening but feel

it as well. An example of this occurs in Chapter five of Palestine. Sacco recounts his experiences

in the city of Ramallah.

Its starts with a depiction of Israeli soldiers on patrol on a splash page. Sacco draws a

group of six soldiers with intense expressions on their faces. “Israelis on patrol… Ramallah’s not

their idea of fun…They move slowly… twirling every which way… pivoting…pirouetting…It’s

the West Bank ‘Swan Lake’” Sacco describes (Sacco, 119). He combines his art and his words to

create something that neither could do alone. With the picture alone, the reader loses movement.

Sacco describes them as ballet dancers moving and spinning in a hyper-aware-of-their-

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surroundings way. A picture alone cannot complete the thought and describe their movements in

that way. If you read his words alone, you lose out of context and the feel of the situation. You

get the facts but lose the emotional truth. The idea of the “West Bank Swan Lake” (Sacco, 119)

gives you grace and deliberate movement but when we combine both picture a words we can a

clearer feel for the situation. The soldiers are not moving with the grace of ballet dancers, they

are moving with fear and caution. They are invaders moving through hostile territory.

Sacco depicts the soldiers back to back making sure to cover each other. They have

assault rifles ready to react to any situation that would threaten them. It is a situation that is calm

for the moment but at any moment that can change. Individual soldiers have different

expressions on their faces. The two towards the bottom of the page and closer to the reader have

expressions of intimidation, while those toward the back have expressions of fear. Sacco

includes himself in the background of the page. He is just watching waiting for something to

happen. “In their shoes I’d do likewise… You gotta stay on your toes… A stone outta nowhere

can smash in your face…” Sacco writes (Sacco, 119). In only one panel Sacco is able to express

all the emotions of the situation in a way that allows the reader to feel all that is going on.

Sacco further demonstrates the ability of panels to set a tone a few pages later when he

depicts a conflict between Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli soldiers (Sacco, 122-123). The

demonstrators have been walking through the streets chanting and throwing stones and bottles.

Civilians not involved are trying to get away from the area. Sacco himself is drawn hiding in a

storefront. The situation escalates when the demonstrators hear gun fire. “The kids are running

hurling stones over the bus. Rat-tat-tat-tat. Now they’re running back. Away. Jesus, that was

quick” Sacco writes (Sacco, 123). This text is accompanied by many small, misaligned, skewed

and misshapen panels. The panels depict the demonstrators running and throwing stones and then
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retreating. By using this small skewed panels, Sacco is allowing the reader to experience the

chaos of the scene. Rather than using neat lines and panels, Sacco gives the reader panels that

overlap. This gives the reader a sense of speed. Its as if the panels couldn’t wait for the previous

scene to end to jump in and depict their own scene. The reader has to focus on reading this

panels because their misalignment makes it hard to know which one follows which. The only

clue is the direction of the text which follows from the top of the page to the bottom. The text

itself does not contain itself to one panel but rather overlaps multiple. Each individual panel is

filled with speed lines showing movement and direction, something that cannot be done in text.

Conclusion

While the New Journalism techniques were ground breaking in the ‘60s, these days most

magazines use these techniques as a requirement. As argued by Rocco Versaci:

“Exhaustion results when the limits of a medium—in this case, prose journalism—are

reached, and writers can no longer ‘break the rules’ in a fresh manner; familiarity results

when a once-radical genre or style is absorbed into the mainstream and its ‘radical’

elements proliferate and lose their power to surprise. Such has been the case with New

Journalism” (111).

He goes on to say that Comic Book Journalism is the answer to that fatigue (111). By looking at

Joe Sacco’s Palestine, I can confidently say that while it may not be the answer it is definitely a

step in the right direction. In the world we live in, American Journalism specifically has become

a fight between polar opposites. People choose their news based on their beliefs. The news

presenters then give their viewers/readers exactly what they want to hear all the while claiming

22
the mantle of objectivity. They hide their biases while pretending they don’t exist. Joe Sacco’s

Palestine does the opposite.

The reader is presented with the subjective truth and allowed to immerse themselves in

all sides of the subject. They can see where information comes from, the filter it is passing

through and the overall context. This is only possible through the comic medium and the fusion

of its techniques with that of the New Journalists. Just as the New Journalism became

commonplace in the modern day, maybe in the future Comic Journalism will as well.

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 REFERENCES

Conover, Ted. "Participatory Reporting: Sending Myself to Prison." Telling True Stories. Eds.

Mark Kramer and Wendy Call. Penguin Books Ltd., 2007. 35-36. Print.

Gelvin, James L. "World War I and the Middle East State System." The Modern Middle East: A

History. 4th ed. Oxford University Press, June 1, 2015. 189. Print.

Macdonald, Isabel. "Drawing on the Facts: Comics Journalism and the Critique of Objectivity."

The Comics of Joe Sacco: Journalism in a Visual World (Critical Approaches to Comics

Artists Series). Ed. Daniel Worden. University Press of Mississippi, July 29, 2015. Print.

Nyberg, Amy Kiste. “Drawing on words to Picture the Past in Safe Area Gorazde” Critical

Approaches to Comics: Theories and Methods. Routledge Publishing (2012): 116-128. Print

Sacco, Joe. Journalism. Metropolitan Books, May 14, 2013. Print.

Sacco, Joe. Palestine. Random House, 2003. Print.

Wilson, Jeff. "Fieldwork and Graphic Narratives." Geographical Review 103.2 (2013): 143-52.

Print.

Wolfe, Tom. "The Emotional Core of the Story." Telling True Stories. Penguin Books Ltd.,

2007. 151-156. Print.

Wolfe, Tom. "The Feature Game, Like A Novel." The New Journalism. Eds. Tom Wolfe and E.

W. Johnson., 1973. 5-7-9,11,15,17-18,21,28,31-32. Print.

Versaci, Rocco. “The ‘New Journalism’ Revisited: Comic Books Vs. Reportage” This Book

Contains Graphic Language: Comics as Literature. The Continuum International

Publishing Group Inc. 2008. 109-135

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