The Joe Sacco interview: ‘If my work is going to be journalistic, it needs to be representational’

Cartoonist and journalist Joe Sacco’s next book is set in India, though it won’t be out for some time. He was in Delhi-NCR for a few quiet weeks, teaching and conducting workshops, but found himself overwhelmed by how keenly the city and its readers responded to his presence by the end of his visit. After a long trek to Sonepat, I found him in the off-hours early in November, while most of the signings, talks, discussions, and interviews celebrating and asking questions about his body of work were still being planned.

Beyond being an occasion to celebrate and learn from his journalistic integrity, this also provided a chance to explore how his draughtsmanship is underpinned by a strong relationship with the arts. Most striking was his admiration for Pieter Bruegel, the Elder, infamous for infiltrating peasant gatherings in disguise to observe and depict their lives faithfully. The Renaissance painter’s antics echo how Sacco himself doggedly pursues the truth in conflict zones around the world. His concern for how best to represent these stories may often seem to clash with his ambivalence towards the excesses of the underground comix tradition he emerged from. Yet, he insists on their necessity for pushing boundaries, risking discomfort and backlash to test...

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