Notes From A Defeatist

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 massive book finally collects the entirety of Sacco's earlier journalistic and autobiographical work plus a sizable serving of his satirical strips many of them never before collected in book form. The centerpieces 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: The book derives its title from this sequence which has acquired a painful new relevance in the past half-year. 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. Notes from a Defeatist is a fantastic primer to Sacco's work.