Joe Sacco

Joe Sacco (born 1960) is a Maltese comics artist and journalist.

Related Topics:
1960 - Maltese - Comics - Journalist

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Born in Malta, Sacco moved to the United States and studied journalism at the University of Oregon, graduating in 1981. He briefly returned to Malta, where he began working as an artist on romance comics. In 1985, while living in Portland, Oregon, he co-edited a monthly comics newspaper, Portland Permanent Press; he was then hired at Fantagraphics Books, where he edited the short-lived comics anthology Centrifugal Bumble-Puppy.

Related Topics:
United States - University of Oregon - Romance - Portland, Oregon - Fantagraphics Books

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Sacco's first solo series, Yahoo, published from 1988 to 1992, was one of many autobiographical titles appearing in small-press comics at the time, but Sacco's broad range of interests and journalistic instincts were atypical; Yahoo somewhat resembled the free-form ruminations of David Collier and Harvey Pekar, but with a more satirical tone and a less local focus. His subjects included following a rock band's European tour, becoming obsessed with media coverage of the Gulf War, and documenting the daily life of a stripper.

Related Topics:
Autobiographical - David Collier - Harvey Pekar - Rock - Gulf War - Stripper

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The Gulf War segment of Yahoo drew Sacco into a study of Middle Eastern politics, and he traveled to Israel and the Palestinian territories to research his first long work. Palestine was a collection of short and long pieces, some depicting Sacco's travels and encounters with Palestinians (and several Israelis), and some dramatizing the stories he was told. It was serialized as a comic book from 1993 to 2001 and then published in several collections, the first of which won an American Book Award in 1996.

Related Topics:
Israel - Palestinian territories - Palestine - Comic book - American Book Award

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Sacco next travelled to Sarajevo and Gora?de near the end of the Bosnian War, and produced a series of reports in the same style as Palestine: the graphic novels Safe Area Gora?de and The Fixer, and the stories collected in War's End. Safe Area Gora?de won the Eisner Award for Best Original Graphic Novel in 2001.

Related Topics:
Sarajevo - Gora?de - Bosnian War - Graphic novel - Eisner Award

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He has also contributed short pieces of graphic reportage to a variety of magazines, on subjects ranging from war crimes to blues, and is a frequent illustrator of Harvey Pekar's American Splendor. Sacco currently lives in New York City.

Related Topics:
Blues - American Splendor - New York City

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