In our third episode of the season, we are very pleased to feature celebrated cartoonist, author and pioneer of cartoons journalism, Joe Sacco and his recently released Requiem for Gaza, a profound work of graphic reportage co-authored with journalist Chris Hedges. We discuss the experience of Palestinian families displaced by the ongoing genocide, the imprint of history on the current moment, the killing and chilling of journalism and the obligation to truth in a time of relentless and arrogant power.
On the dedication of Requiem for Gaza to Palestinian journalists, Sacco says:
“I can’t think of journalists with more integrity and more courage. ..Everything that was happening to the people they were reporting on was happening to them. They also had targets on their back, quite literally. Israel was assassinating journalists and often killing the journalists along with their families ..We could not but, dedicate the book to them….A lot of the Western press has not stood behind these journalists that are undergoing things that ..no journalist really could imagine in the West…. So we dedicate this to the journalists of Gaza. They’ve done amazing reporting. I doubt the foreign press coming in is going to do as good a job.”
About today’s guest:
Joe Sacco is a Maltese-born cartoonist and journalist based in Portland. He is a seminal figure in comics journalism, establishing the form’s seriousness and legitimacy in the 1990s with his groundbreaking investigative graphic novel Palestine. He has since become the most prominent figure in the genre he virtually created, and has published numerous investigative works of graphic journalism, including Safe Area Goražde, Footnotes in Gaza, Paying the Land, and The Once and Future Riot. He is also the co-author with Chris Hedges of Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt. His most recent book, also co-co-authored with Hedges, is Requiem for Gaza. Sacco is the recipient of the American Book Award, multiple Eisner and Harvey awards, and in 2023 was awarded a Doctor of Literature degree (Honoris Causa) by the University of Malta.
Transcript of this episode can be accessed at georgebrown.ca/TommyDouglasInstitute or here.
Image: Joe Sacco (Photog. Daniel Mordzinski) / Used with permission.
Music: Ang Kahora. Lynne, Bjorn. Rights Purchased.
Intro Voices: Ashley Booth (Podcast Announcer); Bob Luker (Tommy)
Courage My Friends Podcast Organizing Committee: Chandra Budhu, Ashley Booth, Resh Budhu.
Produced by: Resh Budhu, The Tommy Douglas Institute of Labour and Social Justice and Nick Seebruch, rabble.ca.
Host: Resh Budhu.
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