Notes From A Defeatist - 9780224072700

Part documentary travelogue, part satirical autobiography, part satire pure and simple, NOTES FROM A DEFEATIST collects all the shorter works that launched Joe Sacco on the path to his book- length masterpiece, PALESTINE. Before Joe Sacco crafted his two major works of 'cartoon journalism', PALESTINE and SAFE AREA GORAZDE, he created a number of shorter pieces, ranging from one- page gags to 30- page 'graphic novelettes'. This book finally collects the entirety of Sacco's earlier journalistic and autobiographical work, plus a sizeable serving of his satirical strips, many of them never before collected in book form. The centrepieces in Notes from a Defeatist are a triptych of war stories- 'When Good Bombs Happen to Bad People', a history of aerial bombing that specifically targets civilian populations, 'More Women, More Children, More Quickly', in which Sacco relates his mother's harrowing experiences during World War II in Malta, and, most personally (and closest to Sacco's later work), 'How I Loved the War', Sacco's impassioned but sardonic reflection on the Gulf war, the surrounding propaganda and media circus, and his own ambivalent feelings as both a spectator and commentator. NOTES FROM A DEFEATIST also includes a roadie's- eye view of an American punk band's eventful European tour, a reminiscence of an awful season spent in his native Malta, and much more.