War's End Profiles From Bosnia 1995-1996

by Sacco, Joe

• ISBN13: 9781896597928
• ISBN10: 1896597920
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-06-15
• Publisher: Drawn and Quarterly

Summary

War cartoonist Joe Sacco visits the Bosnian conflict to uncover the stories that are often ignored or uncovered by traditional media. How does an artist reconcile being forced to go to the front line of a brutal conflict that will change his life and homeland forever? What happens when a reporter finally comes face-to-face with an evil war criminal? Before his groundbreaking graphic novelsSafe Area GorazdeandThe Fixer, Palestinian author Joe Sacco created two short stories with characters from each side of the crossfire. Collected for the first time inWar's End: Profiles from Bosnia 19951996are the acclaimedSobaandChristmas with Karadzic. InSoba, Sacco captures the internal torment of the romanticized Sarajevo artist-warrior who captivated the Western media with his guitar and hard-partying ways. InChristmas with Karadzic, Sacco gives the reader an inside peek at the darkly humorous news process that doesn't make the headlines back home as he chases after one of the most hated and sought-after Bosnian Serb leaders and war criminals. Joe Saccowas born in Malta in 1960. Raised in the United States, he graduated with a degree in journalism from the University of Oregon in 1981. For almost twenty years Joe has been a journalist/cartoonist/editor. His books includePalestine,The Fixer, andWar's End. How does an artist reconcile being forced to go to the front line of a brutal conflict that will change his life and homeland forever? What happens when a reporter finally comes face to face with a war criminal? Before his groundbreaking graphic novelsSafe Area GorazdeandThe Fixer, author Joe Sacco created two short comix-form stories about characters from each side of the crossfire. Collected together for the first time inWar's End: Profiles from Bosnia 1995-96are the acclaimed "Soba!" and "Christmas with Karadzic." In the former, Sacco captures the internal torment of a romanticized Sarajevo artist-warrior who captivated the western media with his guitar and hard partying ways. In "Christmas with Karadzic," the author gives us an inside peek at the darkly humorous news process that doesn't make the headlines back home as he chases one of the most sought-after Bosnian Serb war criminals. "['Christmas with Karadzic' is] a searing and amusing look at the motley collection of reporters, war profiteers, criminals, soldiers, and hapless civilians trapped in a war zone."--The New York Times "['Christmas with Karadzic' is] a searing and amusing look at the motley collection of reporters, war profiteers, criminals, soldiers, and hapless civilians trapped in a war zone."--The New York Times "These two stories by Sacco bookend his definitive works of comics journalism on the Bosnian War,The FixerandSafe Area Gorazde. Like those books, these stories take readers with Sacco as he searches for some truth in all the conjecture and confronts his own fears and suspicions about the war. In the first story, 'Christmas with Karadzic,' Sacco goes to great, often uproarious lengths to get an interview with the notorious Bosnian war criminal Radovan Karadzic as the leader attends Christmas services. The story climaxes with Sacco observing Karadzic, noting, 'I feel nothing intimidating about his presence, nothing extraordinary about this man indicted by the International War Crimes Tribunal . . . a man I have despised with all my heart for years.' Rather than reporting the usual facts about Karadzic, Sacco shows him at his most mundane and, consequently, most revealing. In all of his work, Sacco displays a similar knack for seeing a subject from an entirely unexpected view, as he does with the second story, 'Soba!' The titular character is a

Author Biography

Award-winning graphic novelist Joe Sacco was born in Malta in 1960 and now lives in Portland, Oregon. He is the cartoonist/war correspondent behind The Fixer, Safe Area Gorazde, and Palestine.

Table of Contents

“[Christmas with Karadzic is] a searing and amusing look at the motley collection of reporters, war profiteers, criminals, soldiers, and hapless civilians trapped in a war zone.” —The New York Times

“Sacco is one of the most astute war-zone correspondents working today.” —Rolling Stone