Maltese-American journalist Joe Sacco’s most recent work is not a comprehensive article or a thousand pages long graphic novel; it is a panoramic illustration 24 feet in length.
The illustration’s subject? its accordion-like pages when unfolded in their whole length tells the story of one of history’s bloodiest battles – the first day of the battle of the Somme, July 1, 1916.
The said work is aptly named, The Great War.
Joe Sacco is very much known for his works in comics journalism; his most well-known works include Palestine and Safe Area Goražde.
In an interview with The New Yorker, he explains that as he was growing up learning about WWI through countless of books, he had made a personal decision to take up his own “historical voyeurism” only in his drawings. After years of working with words, he is ready to unleash his artistic side to the world more.
“On a visceral level, it was just a pleasure to think only in terms of drawing. It was a relief not to think about words,” Joe Sacco added.
