Joe Sacco discusses Great War at Comica event

By John Freeman on October 11, 2013

The week after his appearance at the Lakes International Comic Art Festival with Guardian cartoonist Steve Bell, Joe Sacco will be in London at the invitation of ComICA, discussing the Great War, and in particular, the events of July 1, 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme, when almost 20,000 British soldiers were killed, and another 40,000 were wounded, as depicted in his Graphic Documentary, The Great War.

The Great War, a 24-foot-long wordless panorama, has just been published by Jonathan Cape.

Joe Sacco is one of the world’s great cartoonist-journalists, widely hailed as the creator of war reportage comics.

He will be making this exclusive London speaking engagement as a feature of the Tenth Comica Festival 2013, to talk in depth about how he achieves his acclaimed comics journalism, covering conflicts in Bosnia, Palestine, Iraq and elsewhere.

His other well-known books are Palestine, which received the American Book Award and Safe Area: Goražde, which won the Eisner Award, and was named a New York Times notable book, and Time magazine’s best comic book of 2000.

• Joe Sacco discusses The Great War: 7.30pm 26th October, the Platform Theatre, Central Saint Martins School of Arts and Design, Handyside Street, King”s Cross, London N1C 4AA

Tickets: £10 from the box office link: http://www.wegottickets.com/event/243271

• Joe Sacco is at the Lakes International Comic Art Festival on 20th October

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “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.