Summary

The graphic novel opens with a homage to Joe Sacco by Edward Said. Said discusses how comics have historically been seen as cartoonish and frivolous by mainstream culture. Said reminisces about his childhood and his first encounters with comic books in the colonial Post World War II Middle East. He was enrolled in British Schools after the fall of Palestine in 1948. He was living in a volatile country undergoing turbulent change. The school system culture censored his intake of media, specifically comics because of their often-times lewd subject matter. Comics became exotic for Said, who would read illicit issues passed to him by other students. He smuggled many issues of Marvel comics in his briefcase and enjoyed them in privacy without his parents ever finding out. Said hypothesizes the reason for the ban was because comics “violated conventional norms – norms...