Palestinian cartoonist Mohammad Sabaaneh guest-edits the new issue of comics anthology World War 3 Illustrated, an annual comic book and graphics magazine, to be released next week (16th September 2025), alongside Seth Tobocman and Ethan Heitner.
Founded in 1979 by Seth Tobocman and Peter Kuper, along with painter Christof Kohlhofer, World War 3 Illustrated was among the first American magazines to treat comics as a medium for serious social commentary and journalism.
Based in New York City, it provides a home for comics from around the world. A collection of early material from the title, published in 2014, is still available, as are back issues (available here from AK Press, US site).
“WW3 isn’t about a war that might happen,” the team explain. “It’s about wars ongoing – wars across the globe and in our own neighbourhood, the wars we wage against each other and with ourselves.”
The magazine has been a labour of love for over 40 years,, run by a volunteer collective of political activists and artists, both first-timers and established professionals.
As Ian Thomas, a contributor to Comics Journal noted last year, World War 3 Illustrated aspires to be both mirror and guidepost to global social justice movements. “To borrow a phrase from the Zapatistas, World War 3 Illustrated seeks to create ‘A World where many worlds fit.’ In this way, it is an anathema to the sterile, false binary on offer in American politics and a rebuke to the pervasive, willful misconception that casting a vote is the outer limit to personal responsibility and political participation. Voting may win elections, but organizing wins power. World War 3 Illustrated is waiting with a road map for anyone who is ready to begin.”
The Right to Live in Peace
Entitled The Right to Live in Peace, the new edition of World War 3 Illustrated, published by AK Press, will feature contributions from Seth Tobocman, Joe Sacco, Art Spiegelman, and Eric Drooker, as well as cartoonists from Gaza City such as Safaa Odah, author of the powerful collection of cartoons, Safaa and the Tent, and Sohail Salem.
“How do we organise and build social movements in the heart of empire, to face the US war machine and rising fascism?” the editors ask. “These comics serve as a beacon of hope and resistance, for liberation for all people from Palestine to Puerto Rico, Sudan, Congo, Haiti, and beyond.”
This collection debuts a number of Palestinian artists whose work has not yet been published in the US, some available in English for the first time.
“These comics, including luminous pieces like drawings of tents by Safaa and other artists in Gaza, speak to the role of art in movements for justice,” say the publishers.
It also features the work of many artists from around the world creating art in solidarity with the Palestinian people. Like Victor Jara’s iconic resistance anthem, these comics are a “fire of pure love,” a “universal song” to the “right to live in peace” (fuego de puro amor” . . . “el canto universal / El derecho de vivir en paz”).
The World War 3 Illustrated collective first published an interview with famed Palestinian political cartoonist Naji Al-Ali in 1988. They make that interview available in print again for the first time in decades, along with a portfolio of his cartoons.
Mohammad Sabaaneh, a guest at this year’s Lakes International Comic Art Festival, is an award-winning cartoonist and a former political prisoner in Palestine. He is the author of White and Black and Power Born of Dreams and is a Middle East representative for the Cartoonists Rights Network International. His work has been published in the Middle East Monitor, Al-Quds Al-Arabi, Al-Hayat al-Jadida and many others. He teaches art at the Arab American University of Palestine.
An English language translation of his new graphic novel, 30 Seconds from Gaza, was published by Olive Branch Press last month. This powerful graphic novel archives often-censored digital footage of the realities in Gaza into enduring works of art.
• World War 3 Illustrated The Right to Live in Peace published by AK Press, is available to order from all good bookshops | ISBN: 9781849356329 | AmazonUK Affiliate Link | In the US, it’s available here from Talking Leaves books
Contributors include: Joe Sacco and Art Spiegelman, Annabelle Heckler, Barrack Rima, Dania Omari, Ethan Heitner, Floyd Tangeman, Fuad, Jordan Worley, Larimar Lora, Naji-Al-Ali, Nicole Schulman, Maisara Bahroud, Mohammad Sabaaneh, Mohammad Zenia, Safaa, Seth Tobocman, Shahd Alshamaly, Sue Simensky Bietila, Tenaya Nasser, Tom Keough, and many others.
• World War 3 Illustrated: 1979-2014 (AmazonUK Affiliate Link)
This full-colour retrospective exhibition is arranged thematically, including housing rights, feminism, environmental issues, religion, police brutality, globalisation and depictions of conflicts from the Middle East to the Midwest.
Contributors include Sue Coe, Scott Cunningham, Eric Drooker, Fly, Sandy Jimenez, Sabrina Jones, Peter Kuper, Mac McGill, Kevin Pyle, Spain Rodriguez, James Romberger, Nicole Schulman, Chuck Sperry, Art Spiegelman, Seth Tobocman, Tom Tomorrow, Susan Willmarth, and many more.
• World War Three Illustrated is online at www.ww3.nyc | Facebook | Tumblr | X | (Do note the official site and social channels are not up to date)
• Comics Journal: “We worry about everything”
A World War 3 Illustrated Roundtable By Ian Thomas, published 4th November 2024
- About the Author
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, US Comics
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