Notes from a Defeatist

By Joe Sacco. Published by Jonathan Cape. 

Softcover, 216 pages, B&W, 2003

Sacco paved the way for Palestine with his powerful triptych on modern war and its innocent victims, originally published in his comic Yahoo and collected here: 'When Good Bombs Happen to Bad People' chronicles the effect of aerial warfare on civilians, from Germany and Japan in World War II to Libya in 1986; 'More Women, More Children, More Quickly' is written from a victim's perspective, as Sacco illustrates his mother's harrowing experiences during Italian and German WWII raids on Malta; and 'How I Loved the War', Defeatist's centrepiece, is Sacco's impassioned but sardonic reflection on the Gulf War, and the surrounding propaganda and media circus. Published during the reign of Bush I, it has since acquired an even sharper relevance.

Defeatist also features Sacco's first (relatively) long-form piece, 'In the Company of Long Hair', a hilarious roadie's-eye view of an American punk band's eventful European tour from Amsterdam to Madrid, as well as 'Cartoon Genius', 'Voyage to the End of the Library', 'A Disgusting Experience', and 'On My Day Off', a cycle of funny and rueful autobiographic comics that display Sacco's graphic verve to its fullest extent.

Defeatist is rounded off with a large section of Sacco's earliest, pointedly satirical strips (none of which has been collected in book form before) and new introductions and notes by the author.

A combination of youthful indiscretions and mature masterworks, Notes from a Defeatist spotlights the work of a brilliant young artist as he defines the capabilities and potential of his chosen medium.

• Sacco is formidably talented. A meticulous reporter... and a gifted artist whose richly nuanced drawings tread a delicate path between cartoonishness and naturalism

• Sacco's greatest achievement is to have so poignantly depicted oppression and horror in a form that manages to be both disarming and disquieting

• One of the most original cartoonists of the past two decades

• It is clear that Sacco is one of the masters of his craft