Joe Sacco's comics finally debut on digital devices

Joe Sacco
(Image credit: Michael Tierney)

Five of writer/artist Joe Sacco's riveting non-fiction graphic novels are finally debuting digitally today - a first for the 60-year old award-winning cartoonist.

(Image credit: Joe Sacco (Fantagraphics Books))

Palestine, Safe Area Goražde: The War in Eastern Bosnia 1992-1995, But I Like It, Notes from a Defeatist, and Bumf Vol. 1: Buggered the Kaiser are all now available on both Comixology and Kindle, as part of a deal with Amazon and Sacco's publisher for these books, Fantagraphics.

Safe Area Goražde is a standout for Sacco's perspective as effectively an embedded journalist during the Bosnian War. This OGN was named 'Best Comic of 2000' by Time Magazine, and won both an Eisner Award and an Eagle Award for 'Best Graphic Novel.'

(Image credit: Joe Sacco (Fantagraphics Books))

These are the first of Sacco's graphic novels to be made available officially for digital reading. While day-and-date digital and print release of comics are standard for most serialized comic book publishers, Fantagraphics and other booktrade-oriented publishers usually debut books in print first, with a digital release being secondary.

While these five digital releases of Sacco's work are a welcome sight, other notable books by the author such as Footnotes in Gaza (Henry Holt and Company), The Fixer: A Story from Sarajevo (Drawn & Quarterly), and Journalism (Metropolitan Books) remain unavailable for digital readers.

In 2020 Sacco released the OGN Paying the Land, and is currently working on a new project about the Rolling Stones - similar to his previous music journalism book, But I Like It.

For the best digital reading experience, check out our list of the best digital comics readers for Android and iOS devices. 

Chris Arrant

Chris Arrant covered comic book news for Newsarama from 2003 to 2022 (and as editor/senior editor from 2015 to 2022) and has also written for USA Today, Life, Entertainment Weekly, Publisher's Weekly, Marvel Entertainment, TOKYOPOP, AdHouse Books, Cartoon Brew, Bleeding Cool, Comic Shop News, and CBR. He is the author of the book Modern: Masters Cliff Chiang, co-authored Art of Spider-Man Classic, and contributed to Dark Horse/Bedside Press' anthology Pros and (Comic) Cons. He has acted as a judge for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, the Harvey Awards, and the Stan Lee Awards. Chris is a member of the American Library Association's Graphic Novel & Comics Round Table. (He/him)

Read more
Characters from Kingdom.
The Kingdom manga is finally getting an English translation almost 20 years after it first launched – and now anything is possible
ODB looks out over New York.
Wu-Tang Clan's ODB is your guide to the multiverse in the new Lyrical Ruckus in the City graphic novel
A Nintendo Switch displaying the Shogakukan Manga reader app
The Nintendo Switch is getting a manga reader app, but only in Japan
The Ice Cream Man on a seesaw with a skeleton.
Grant Morrison, Matt Fraction, and Zoe Thorogood's tales chill in Ice Cream Man's One-Page Horror Stories special
Marcos Martin's cover for Marvel: Unforgettable Stories
Patton Oswalt and Jordan Blum explain why comics are still the perfect medium for superhero stories - "Visuals that will never be achieved in TV or movies can be achieved in comics"
Magda and friends.
New graphic novel Magda, Intergalactic Chef puts a sci-fi twist on The Great British Bake Off
Latest in Comics
The New Thunderbolts leaping into action
Marvel's New Thunderbolts* comic steals the MCU's asterisk, and the reason why is just as big of a mystery
Web of Venomverse: Fresh Brains #1
Meet the Venomouse, an all new Eddie Brock, and more in Web of Venomverse: Fresh Brains #1
Superman surrounded by the exploding Krypton.
Absolute Superman #5 puts a devastating new spin on the Man of Steel's origin story
Ms. Marvel alongside the mutants of Age of Apocalypse
30 years after the original Age of Apocalypse, Ms. Marvel Kamala Khan will travel to the alt-reality to save X-Men history
Superman and the rest of the Super family at Pride.
DC Pride 2025: A revamped special issue starring Green Lantern Alan Scott, new books, and a host of variant covers
The Punisher holding two machine guns in the rain
Daredevil: Born Again - Learn the bullet-riddled comic book history of the Punisher before he officially joins the MCU
Latest in News
Overwatch 2
My hopes for an Overwatch anime or Diablo horror movie are going strong as Blizzard president points out "we are Blizzard Entertainment, and not simply Blizzard Games"
The New Thunderbolts leaping into action
Marvel's New Thunderbolts* comic steals the MCU's asterisk, and the reason why is just as big of a mystery
Pokemon Go players brace for the worst as Niantic is sold off for $3.5 billion: "This game is entering its death knell"
Stamp PSP
A 16-year-old pitch for a newly discovered first-party PSP game has me mourning the death of PlayStation's Japan Studio all over again
Astarion from Baldur's Gate 3
Baldur's Gate 3 Astarion actor Neil Newbon says he "got rid of" agents who deliberately kept him away from video game gigs: "They just didn't want me to do it"
Mass Effect
Jennifer Hale says she didn't see a single line as Mass Effect's Commander Shepard until it was time to record: "It was all cold reading on the spot"