A book that captures, in painful detail, the terrors being visited on Gaza.
A blend of journalism and art chronicling the ongoing devastation in Gaza.
Hedges, a reporter who covered Gaza for seven years, and graphic artist Sacco (War on Gaza, 2024, etc.) travel to the region to interview people of all ages and walks of life, finding on their arrival that “all that was familiar to us in Gaza has vanished, transformed into an apocalyptic landscape of shattered concrete and rubble.” One woman tells them that she turned to the internet to determine the cause of the explosions across the line in Israel on October 7, 2023, only to learn that Hamas had attacked several settlements. “We feared Israel’s reaction,” she says—and understandably so. A Palestinian doctor whose travails are recounted in Sacco’s graphic treatment, badly abused by invading Israeli soldiers, calls for an ambulance after an apartment complex is shelled, only to be informed that no ambulances can enter the war zone. He replies, “Okay, then the injured will be dying. All of them. And they died.” Hedges asserts that ambulances were routinely targeted by the Israeli Defense Forces and that 32 Palestinian doctors were deliberately killed, along with 68 nurses, 18 dentists, and even an optometrist. The casualties mount with each passing day, recounted in all their gruesome reality: In a single surprise bombardment on March 18, 2025, “terminating the ceasefire agreement that had been in place since January,” writes Hedges, at least 436 Palestinians were killed, among them 183 children. Following the bombs come the bulldozers, erasing history both modern and ancient, about which Hedges charges, “Those who carry out genocide seek total annihilation.” A line from a Palestinian poem that opens the book summarizes that observation memorably: “I try to remember, but everything has been erased.”
A book that captures, in painful detail, the terrors being visited on Gaza.Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2026
ISBN: 9798875002724
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Fantagraphics
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2026
An accessible, informative journey through complex issues during turbulent times.
Immersion journalism in the form of a graphic narrative following a Syrian family on their immigration to America.
Originally published as a 22-part series in the New York Times that garnered a Pulitzer for editorial cartooning, the story of the Aldabaan family—first in exile in Jordan and then in New Haven, Connecticut—holds together well as a full-length book. Halpern and Sloan, who spent more than three years with the Aldabaans, movingly explore the family’s significant obstacles, paying special attention to teenage son Naji, whose desire for the ideal of the American dream was the strongest. While not minimizing the harshness of the repression that led them to journey to the U.S.—or the challenges they encountered after they arrived—the focus on the day-by-day adjustment of a typical teenager makes the narrative refreshingly tangible and free of political polemic. Still, the family arrived at New York’s JFK airport during extraordinarily political times: Nov. 8, 2016, the day that Donald Trump was elected. The plan had been for the entire extended family to move, but some had traveled while others awaited approval, a process that was hampered by Trump’s travel ban. The Aldabaans encountered the daunting odds that many immigrants face: find shelter and employment, become self-sustaining quickly, learn English, and adjust to a new culture and climate (Naji learned to shovel snow, which he had never seen). They also received anonymous death threats, and Naji wanted to buy a gun for protection. He asked himself, “Was this the great future you were talking about back in Jordan?” Yet with the assistance of selfless volunteers and a community of fellow immigrants, the Aldabaans persevered. The epilogue provides explanatory context and where-are-they-now accounts, and Sloan’s streamlined, uncluttered illustrations nicely complement the text, consistently emphasizing the humanity of each person.
An accessible, informative journey through complex issues during turbulent times.Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-30559-6
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Metropolitan/Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2020
An erudite and artful, though frustratingly restrained, look at Old Testament stories.
The Book of Genesis as imagined by a veteran voice of underground comics.
R. Crumb’s pass at the opening chapters of the Bible isn’t nearly the act of heresy the comic artist’s reputation might suggest. In fact, the creator of Fritz the Cat and Mr. Natural is fastidiously respectful. Crumb took pains to preserve every word of Genesis—drawing from numerous source texts, but mainly Robert Alter’s translation, The Five Books of Moses (2004)—and he clearly did his homework on the clothing, shelter and landscapes that surrounded Noah, Abraham and Isaac. This dedication to faithful representation makes the book, as Crumb writes in his introduction, a “straight illustration job, with no intention to ridicule or make visual jokes.” But his efforts are in their own way irreverent, and Crumb feels no particular need to deify even the most divine characters. God Himself is not much taller than Adam and Eve, and instead of omnisciently imparting orders and judgment He stands beside them in Eden, speaking to them directly. Jacob wrestles not with an angel, as is so often depicted in paintings, but with a man who looks not much different from himself. The women are uniformly Crumbian, voluptuous Earth goddesses who are both sexualized and strong-willed. (The endnotes offer a close study of the kinds of power women wielded in Genesis.) The downside of fitting all the text in is that many pages are packed tight with small panels, and too rarely—as with the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah—does Crumb expand his lens and treat signature events dramatically. Even the Flood is fairly restrained, though the exodus of the animals from the Ark is beautifully detailed. The author’s respect for Genesis is admirable, but it may leave readers wishing he had taken a few more chances with his interpretation, as when he draws the serpent in the Garden of Eden as a provocative half-man/half-lizard. On the whole, though, the book is largely a tribute to Crumb’s immense talents as a draftsman and stubborn adherence to the script.
An erudite and artful, though frustratingly restrained, look at Old Testament stories.Pub Date: Oct. 19, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-393-06102-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2009
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