The renowned Maltese-American cartoonist and journalist Joe Sacco will be in Malta to receive an honorary degree of Doctor of Literature this week.

The honoris causa will be conferred by the Faculty of Arts of the University of Malta with a ceremony taking place on November 17 at the Church of the Jesuits in Valletta at 4pm.

A number of events preceding the event will be taking place which the public is encouraged to attend.

On November 15 at 6pm, the Aula Magna of the Valletta Campus will host the public talk In Conversation with Joe Sacco, which will be moderated by Gloria Lauri-Lucente and Fabrizio Foni. The talk is being organised by HUMS, the Humanities, Medicine and Science Platform of the University of Malta.

GLL, FF: You deploy the intriguing world of comics as an expression of political ontology, and as a form of representation of conflict-ridden zones around the world, both past and present. At the same time, you have openly defined comics as “an inherently interpretive medium.” How do you calibrate the tension between objectivity and subjectivity in your work?

JS: You’re right, there’s definitely a tension inherent in my work between its journalistic aspect, which must adhere to a standard of accuracy as far as quotes and facts are concerned, and the drawings, which inherently are a subjective form.

These days, with AI technology, one can convincingly create “photos” or “video” of something that didn’t happen. The drawings I do, on the other hand, are clearly an interpretation of events, whether something historical or something I saw with my own eyes. The reader can accept them for what they are.

GLL, FF: Your sequential art stems from 1960s and 1970s counterculture, which made very few compromises with mainstream culture. Over the years, you also remained an independent comic artist. What do you think about the current comic-book trade in general?

JS: These days, there are many comic-book artists working at a high level, and I cannot keep up. But I’m glad I was an heir to the great underground cartoonists of the counterculture.

Their brazen and outrageous attitude helped shape my own aesthetic. When I started out, most comic books were 24- or 32-page “floppy” pamphlets. Then comic books became long-form “graphic novels” and ended up in bookstores. That made it possible to earn some money, but in some sense the process turned a low art form (and I don’t mean that in a derogatory way) into something a bit genteel and self-conscious.

The drawings I do are clearly an interpretation of events, whether something historical or something I saw with my own eyes- Joe Sacco

Now comic books can be found in university curricula, and that’s been great for someone like me, but once academics are involved, their voices begin to influence the medium, and that concerns the artistic barbarian lurking in my heart.

GLL, FF: You draw on film terms when you describe a cartoonist as “a set designer, a costume designer, and a casting director” because of the amount of research that is required in the imaginative recreation of any given situation within a specific time and place. Can you elaborate on this intriguing parallel?

JS: The film world created a language for itself that the comics world has completely borrowed. Comics can be very much like film – in fact, cartoonists are often employed to do storyboards for movies – but comics can also be something else entirely. For one thing, I don’t need a budget of millions to create a “scene” with hundreds of people in it. I just need time. And the nature of the way these two forms are consumed is distinct.

A panel from Sacco’s 2020 work Paying the Land.

A two-hour film starts, continues, then stops. But one can read a comic at one’s own pace, skip back a few pages, dwell on a panel, and, if one wanted, turn the whole book upside down. The reader’s relationship to the medium is not as passive.

Of course, I know a number of cartoonists who’ve crossed over into film and prefer it. Film certainly has more cultural cache at cocktail parties.

GLL, FF: Edward Said praises your “uncanny ability to catch the telling detail” of your “wondrously varied” cast of characters through your distinctive pen strokes. How do your characters take shape?

JS: Well, since I work in non-fiction, my characters are actual people, and we all know what a varied lot humanity is. The trick is to be attentive to the basic attributes of a person and then to infuse that person’s spirit into a drawing. It’s not really creative magic. It’s more about paying attention and an empathetic outlook.

In Conversation with Joe Sacco is taking place on November 15 at the Valletta Campus at 6pm, followed by refreshments. To reserve a seat, send an email to karen.pace@um.edu.mt.

Gloria Lauri-Lucente is Head of the Department of Italian and coordinator of the M.A. in Film Studies. Fabrizio Foni is senior lecturer in Italian and Coordinator of the study-unit Celluloid Balloons.