Palestine The Special Edition Author:Joe Sacco An expanded edition of one of the all-time classic graphic novels. — Joe Sacco's breakthrough novel of graphic journalism is widely hailed as one of the great graphic novels of all-time. Since its original publication in the mid-1990s, it has won an American Book Award (1996), sold over 50,000 copies, been added to university curriculu... more »ms worldwide, led to a Guggenheim Fellowship for Sacco, and firmly ensconced Sacco in the pantheon of great cartoonists. Despite this, the book has never been published in hardcover. Until now.
Fantagraphics Books is pleased to present, for the first time, the definitive, expanded, hardcover collection of Sacco's landmark of comics journalism. Palestine: The Special Edition is more than a new edition: consider it the "Criterion" Palestine. In addition to the original, 288-page graphic novel and introduction by the late Edward Said, The Special Edition includes a host of unique supplemental material never-before-published, including many of Sacco's original background notes, sketches, photographic reference, and much more. The book also includes a new, introductory interview with Sacco about the making of the book as well as a new cover and design. Palestine: The Special Edition will be a cornerstone of any serious comic collection.
With the Middle East's role in contemporary world politics, Sacco's Palestine has never been more relevant or more valuable to a country desperate to understand this long-running conflict. Based on several months of research and an extended visit to the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the early 1990s (where he conducted over 100 interviews with Palestinians and Jews), Palestine was the first major comics work of political and historical nonfiction by Sacco, whose name has since become synonymous with this graphic form of New Journalism.
Sacco's insightful reportage takes place at the front lines, where busy marketplaces are spoiled by shootings and tear gas, soldiers beat civilians with reckless abandon, and roadblocks go up before reporters can leave. Sacco interviewed and encountered prisoners, refugees, protesters, wounded children, farmers who had lost their land, and families who had been torn apart by the Palestinian conflict.« less