Joe Sacco is a Maltese-American cartoonist and writer. He has written several comic books and comic book collections. The author was born in Malta in 1960. When he was one, his family left Malta and moved to Australia. In 1972, Sacco and his family immigrated to the United States and settled in Los Angeles, California. He received his Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from the University of Oregon in 1981 and shortly after, he began working as a journalist. Unsatisfied with a career in journalism, two years later, the author moved to Malta to focus on his cartooning.

Palestine was first published in 1993 as a collection of nine stories. The author was nominated for the comic book industry’s esteemed Harvey Award for Best New Series in 1994 and won the American Book Award in 1996. The single volume edition of Palestine was published in 2001. Palestine has been well-received by critics. His most recent publication is Footnotes in Gaza (2010), for which he received the 2010 Ridenhour Book Prize in March 2010. In addition, Footnotes in Gaza was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize Graphic Novel award.

I hope you are enjoying Palestine. Discussion questions will be posted next week and I look forward to seeing your comments.