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The Once and Future Riot
From “our greatest living comics journalist” (Minneapolis Star Tribune), a revelatory investigation of deadly sectarian riots in Uttar Pradesh, India, that explores the mechanics, dynamics, mythologies, uses, and abuses of political violence everywhere
Compared to other episodes of lethal Indian communal violence, the clashes in Uttar Pradesh in 2013, the Muzaffarnagar Riot, were a relatively small-scale affair?some scores of people were killed and several tens of thousands displaced. It had happened before and will probably happen Hindus and Muslims, armed with guns and swords, riled up by vitriolic rhetoric and a tangle of accusations, turn on one another. The truth fragments along religious lines, both in the lead-up to the rampage and in its bloody aftermath.
In The Once and Future Riot, Joe Sacco immerses himself in Uttar Pradesh, speaking to government officials, political leaders, village chiefs, and especially the victims, who were mostly landless peasants, in a quest to understand this riot as an archetype of political violence. In the process, he probes the role of savagery in a democracy; the power of crowds, rather than leaders, to influence the course of events; the collision of competing narratives; and the accounts that perpetrators construct to explain away their participation in bloodshed.
Hailed as “the heir to R. Crumb and Art Spiegelman” (Economist), Sacco has chronicled the urgent histories that define the world around us, from the Great War to Gaza. Here, he turns his masterful visual reportage to a story that is specific to India but with implications and resonance for all precarious multiethnic, multiracial societies everywhere.
Compared to other episodes of lethal Indian communal violence, the clashes in Uttar Pradesh in 2013, the Muzaffarnagar Riot, were a relatively small-scale affair?some scores of people were killed and several tens of thousands displaced. It had happened before and will probably happen Hindus and Muslims, armed with guns and swords, riled up by vitriolic rhetoric and a tangle of accusations, turn on one another. The truth fragments along religious lines, both in the lead-up to the rampage and in its bloody aftermath.
In The Once and Future Riot, Joe Sacco immerses himself in Uttar Pradesh, speaking to government officials, political leaders, village chiefs, and especially the victims, who were mostly landless peasants, in a quest to understand this riot as an archetype of political violence. In the process, he probes the role of savagery in a democracy; the power of crowds, rather than leaders, to influence the course of events; the collision of competing narratives; and the accounts that perpetrators construct to explain away their participation in bloodshed.
Hailed as “the heir to R. Crumb and Art Spiegelman” (Economist), Sacco has chronicled the urgent histories that define the world around us, from the Great War to Gaza. Here, he turns his masterful visual reportage to a story that is specific to India but with implications and resonance for all precarious multiethnic, multiracial societies everywhere.
144 pages, Hardcover
First published October 14, 2025
53 people are currently reading
4805 people want to read
About the author
Joe Sacco
68 books1,621 followersJoe Sacco was born in Malta on October 2, 1960. At the age of one, he moved with his family to Australia, where he spent his childhood until 1972, when they moved to Los Angeles. He began his journalism career working on the Sunset High School newspaper in Beaverton, Oregon. While journalism was his primary focus, this was also the period of time in which he developed his penchant for humor and satire. He graduated from Sunset High in 1978.
Sacco earned his B.A. in journalism from the University of Oregon in 1981 in three years. He was greatly frustrated with the journalist work that he found at the time, later saying, "[I couldn't find] a job writing very hard-hitting, interesting pieces that would really make some sort of difference." After being briefly employed by the journal of the National Notary Association, a job which he found "exceedingly, exceedingly boring," and several factories, he returned to Malta, his journalist hopes forgotten. "...I sort of decided to forget it and just go the other route, which was basically take my hobby, which has been cartooning, and see if I could make a living out of that," he later told the BBC.
He began working for a local publisher writing guidebooks. Returning to his fondness for comics, he wrote a Maltese romance comic named Imħabba Vera ("True Love"), one of the first art-comics in the Maltese language. "Because Malta has no history of comics, comics weren't considered something for kids," he told Village Voice. "In one case, for example, the girl got pregnant and she went to Holland for an abortion. Malta is a Catholic country where not even divorce is allowed. It was unusual, but it's not like anyone raised a stink about it, because they had no way of judging whether this was appropriate material for comics or not."
Eventually returning to the United States, by 1985 Sacco had founded a satirical, alternative comics magazine called Portland Permanent Press in Portland, Oregon. When the magazine folded fifteen months later, he took a job at The Comics Journal as the staff news writer. This job provided the opportunity for him to create another satire: the comic Centrifugal Bumble-Puppy, a name he took from an overly-complicated children's toy in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World.
But Sacco was more interested in travelling. In 1988, he left the U.S. again to travel across Europe, a trip which he chronicled in his autobiographical comic Yahoo. The trip lead him towards the ongoing Gulf War (his obsession with which he talks about in Yahoo #2), and in 1991 he found himself nearby to research the work he would eventually publish as Palestine.
The Gulf War segment of Yahoo drew Sacco into a study of Middle Eastern politics, and he traveled to Israel and the Palestinian territories to research his first long work. Palestine was a collection of short and long pieces, some depicting Sacco's travels and encounters with Palestinians (and several Israelis), and some dramatizing the stories he was told. It was serialized as a comic book from 1993 to 2001 and then published in several collections, the first of which won an American Book Award in 1996.
Sacco next travelled to Sarajevo and Goražde near the end of the Bosnian War, and produced a series of reports in the same style as Palestine: the comics Safe Area Goražde, The Fixer, and the stories collected in War's End; the financing for which was aided by his winning of the Guggenheim Fellowship in April 2001. Safe Area Goražde won the Eisner Award for Best Original Graphic Novel in 2001.
He has also contributed short pieces of graphic reportage to a variety of magazines, on subjects ranging from war crimes to blues, and is a frequent illustrator of Harvey Pekar's American Splendor. Sacco currently lives in Portland.
Sacco earned his B.A. in journalism from the University of Oregon in 1981 in three years. He was greatly frustrated with the journalist work that he found at the time, later saying, "[I couldn't find] a job writing very hard-hitting, interesting pieces that would really make some sort of difference." After being briefly employed by the journal of the National Notary Association, a job which he found "exceedingly, exceedingly boring," and several factories, he returned to Malta, his journalist hopes forgotten. "...I sort of decided to forget it and just go the other route, which was basically take my hobby, which has been cartooning, and see if I could make a living out of that," he later told the BBC.
He began working for a local publisher writing guidebooks. Returning to his fondness for comics, he wrote a Maltese romance comic named Imħabba Vera ("True Love"), one of the first art-comics in the Maltese language. "Because Malta has no history of comics, comics weren't considered something for kids," he told Village Voice. "In one case, for example, the girl got pregnant and she went to Holland for an abortion. Malta is a Catholic country where not even divorce is allowed. It was unusual, but it's not like anyone raised a stink about it, because they had no way of judging whether this was appropriate material for comics or not."
Eventually returning to the United States, by 1985 Sacco had founded a satirical, alternative comics magazine called Portland Permanent Press in Portland, Oregon. When the magazine folded fifteen months later, he took a job at The Comics Journal as the staff news writer. This job provided the opportunity for him to create another satire: the comic Centrifugal Bumble-Puppy, a name he took from an overly-complicated children's toy in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World.
But Sacco was more interested in travelling. In 1988, he left the U.S. again to travel across Europe, a trip which he chronicled in his autobiographical comic Yahoo. The trip lead him towards the ongoing Gulf War (his obsession with which he talks about in Yahoo #2), and in 1991 he found himself nearby to research the work he would eventually publish as Palestine.
The Gulf War segment of Yahoo drew Sacco into a study of Middle Eastern politics, and he traveled to Israel and the Palestinian territories to research his first long work. Palestine was a collection of short and long pieces, some depicting Sacco's travels and encounters with Palestinians (and several Israelis), and some dramatizing the stories he was told. It was serialized as a comic book from 1993 to 2001 and then published in several collections, the first of which won an American Book Award in 1996.
Sacco next travelled to Sarajevo and Goražde near the end of the Bosnian War, and produced a series of reports in the same style as Palestine: the comics Safe Area Goražde, The Fixer, and the stories collected in War's End; the financing for which was aided by his winning of the Guggenheim Fellowship in April 2001. Safe Area Goražde won the Eisner Award for Best Original Graphic Novel in 2001.
He has also contributed short pieces of graphic reportage to a variety of magazines, on subjects ranging from war crimes to blues, and is a frequent illustrator of Harvey Pekar's American Splendor. Sacco currently lives in Portland.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 77 reviews
January 7, 2026
In The Once and Future Riot, awardwinning cartoonist and investigative journalist Joe Sacco heads to Uttar Pradesh in northern India to explore the ways in which political violence informs memory, mechanics and myth-making in the 'World's Largest Democracy'.
The art style here is crucial to the book's investigation of how quickly skirmishes turn into forest fires and neighbours into ferocious lynch mobs: focusing on the currency of India's massive population and its cultural of local self-governance, Sacco's illustrations are attentive to facial expressions when looking at individual stories and testimonies while also visually augmenting the impact of 'crowds' to create a sense of scale when depicting larger gatherings. The visuals and investigative narrative build on each other to show how such clashes, replete with misinformation, half-truths, competing narratives and outright lies (the exasperating workings of which lend to Sacco's meta-narrative as an outsider peeking in) are embedded in every day corruption and discrimination, and to the sole benefit of political parties, who profit from increasing hostilities and clear-cut voter factions.
The larger 'point' of this book may not, at first, seem obvious to readers unfamiliar with South Asian politics, for it isn't quite so clear who the real instigators in Muzaffarnagar might have been. However, for those with an eye for nuance, The Once and Future Riot outlines how such obfuscation of fact is, in fact, strategically engineered for the continuance of politics and for the Hindu nationalists who wield power today, and who will undoubtedly want to 'prove' themselves again come the next election cycle. In fact, the book makes a powerful observation about democracy itself: how it serves the powerful rather than the people, and how they forment violence and civil unrest to come to power, and then rely on it to maintain it.
As with Palestine, Footnotes in Gaza and Safe Area Goražde, Sacco's investigative reportage here highlights systemic failures and attempts to speak truth to power, one panel at a time. While the specifics of this case are particular to India, the dynamics it illuminates pervade all multi-ethnic, multi-racial societies – this book has relevance for all civilian readers, no matter where in the world you are.
Dear Reader, do you believe in The People? Do you applaud the impulse that brings The People together to express a grievance or take a stand?Travelling with a local journalist named Piyush Kumar, Sacco speaks to politicians, civil servants, local chiefs and displaced peoples across Muzaffarnagar's Muslim and Hindu communities to understand how the 2013 communal riots came to pass. Compared to the immense bloodshed of the partition or the various instances of sectarian violence – from the demolition of the Babri mosque (1992) to the riots in Gujarat (2002) and Delhi (2020) – that have quite literally come to define modern Indian history, the Muzaffarnagar riots (which killed 62, injured 730, and displaced over 50,000 people) may seem like a small affair. Yet, as Sacco shows, it was in fact an archetype of the savage, incendiary violence that perpetually looms over the country and has time and again taken hold of it.
And what if The People are angry? What if The People aren't YOUR people, and what if their anger appears to be directed at YOU?This is a complex story, and to Sacco's credit, the book tells it incredibly well. Following the various facets of a divide built on exploitation of differences in caste, class, sex, and of course religion, he places Muzaffarnagar amidst the long history of India's march towards the Right.
Then when does their assembly begin to look like an unruly crowd, and when does an unruly crowd begin to seem like an enraged mob?
The art style here is crucial to the book's investigation of how quickly skirmishes turn into forest fires and neighbours into ferocious lynch mobs: focusing on the currency of India's massive population and its cultural of local self-governance, Sacco's illustrations are attentive to facial expressions when looking at individual stories and testimonies while also visually augmenting the impact of 'crowds' to create a sense of scale when depicting larger gatherings. The visuals and investigative narrative build on each other to show how such clashes, replete with misinformation, half-truths, competing narratives and outright lies (the exasperating workings of which lend to Sacco's meta-narrative as an outsider peeking in) are embedded in every day corruption and discrimination, and to the sole benefit of political parties, who profit from increasing hostilities and clear-cut voter factions.
The larger 'point' of this book may not, at first, seem obvious to readers unfamiliar with South Asian politics, for it isn't quite so clear who the real instigators in Muzaffarnagar might have been. However, for those with an eye for nuance, The Once and Future Riot outlines how such obfuscation of fact is, in fact, strategically engineered for the continuance of politics and for the Hindu nationalists who wield power today, and who will undoubtedly want to 'prove' themselves again come the next election cycle. In fact, the book makes a powerful observation about democracy itself: how it serves the powerful rather than the people, and how they forment violence and civil unrest to come to power, and then rely on it to maintain it.
As with Palestine, Footnotes in Gaza and Safe Area Goražde, Sacco's investigative reportage here highlights systemic failures and attempts to speak truth to power, one panel at a time. While the specifics of this case are particular to India, the dynamics it illuminates pervade all multi-ethnic, multi-racial societies – this book has relevance for all civilian readers, no matter where in the world you are.
January 5, 2026
Joe Sacco details a decade-old trip to India to investigate some sectarian violence between Hindus and Muslims and a full-scale riot that had occurred in the Uttar Pradesh region in 2013.
Honestly, the events feel a bit stale given everything that has occurred in the intervening years of Narendra Modi's controversial rule, but Sacco still managed to stir my interest through his portrait of the journalistic nightmare of trying to untangle competing unreliable narrators in a system rife with corruption where justice twists and turns on a whim depending on the most recent bribe and/or the leveraging of favors and influence at different levels of government.
Cynical and depressing.
(Best of 2025 Project: I'm reading all the graphic novels that made it onto one or more of these lists:
• Washington Post 10 Best Graphic Novels of 2025
• Publishers Weekly 2025 Graphic Novel Critics Poll
• NPR's Books We Love 2025: Favorite Comics and Graphic Novels
This book made the WaPo and PW lists.)
Honestly, the events feel a bit stale given everything that has occurred in the intervening years of Narendra Modi's controversial rule, but Sacco still managed to stir my interest through his portrait of the journalistic nightmare of trying to untangle competing unreliable narrators in a system rife with corruption where justice twists and turns on a whim depending on the most recent bribe and/or the leveraging of favors and influence at different levels of government.
Cynical and depressing.
(Best of 2025 Project: I'm reading all the graphic novels that made it onto one or more of these lists:
• Washington Post 10 Best Graphic Novels of 2025
• Publishers Weekly 2025 Graphic Novel Critics Poll
• NPR's Books We Love 2025: Favorite Comics and Graphic Novels
This book made the WaPo and PW lists.)
October 4, 2025
I loved the illustrations in this book but found the storytelling a little hard to follow. I really liked getting the history and political context but didn't think it came across often or clearly enough. I also found the interviews that were contradictory hard to decipher. So while I liked and appreciated much of the book it didn't grip me and was a bit of slower reader (especially considering it is 136 pages and a graphic book).
November 14, 2025
Sacco aporta una perspectiva interesante sobre como crece el fanatismo (y sobre como se esparce el hindutva hasta convertirse en una especie de sharia hindú) pero el libro se me hace bola. La narrativa avanza y retrocede de forma demasiado errática y cuesta mucho hacerse una idea de la situación (Cosa que no sucedía en anteriores libros del autor)
December 1, 2025
Joe Sacco heads to the Subcontinent to untangle the complex history of Hindu-Muslim relations in the region. Choosing to focus on Uttar Pradesh, where the Muzaffarnagar riots killed 60+ people and displaced tens of thousands of Muslims, the state of UP continues to be a hotbed for religious tensions. Ultimately, a microcosm for the problem in the region as a whole, Sacco attempts to corral the lengthy history of unrest in the country. In The Once and Future Riot, we follow Sacco who works alongside a local journalist, Piyush Kumar, to do some ground level interviews of local Jats, Hindus and Muslims. An interesting meta-narrative evolves here where the levels of misinformation spread across different communities result in Sacco's exasperation towards the half-truths and even lies that are peddled. It does also make the story a little challenging for readers less versed in the regional politics of northern India, but in a way, the level of confusion is a necessary hurdle to cross when dealing with the intricate situation of modern India.
An exploration of the events leading up to the 2013 riots is presented here, some of which ties into the history of Partition and the deadly 2002 riots in Gujarat, along with untangling the ugly history of Hindutva and related nationalist movements. The ensuing understanding is that the back and forth clashes between communities is simply the product of politicians benefiting from inflamed hostilities, all of whom do their part to ensure peoples remain divided. It's a challenging book to get through due to the sheer number of groups and factions involved, but that is really by design here. Sacco even mulls the merits of democracy further here (as he brought up in his recent short comic, War on Gaza) whereby the idea that democratically elected politicians can simply rely on violence and civil unrest as tools to maintain power.
An exploration of the events leading up to the 2013 riots is presented here, some of which ties into the history of Partition and the deadly 2002 riots in Gujarat, along with untangling the ugly history of Hindutva and related nationalist movements. The ensuing understanding is that the back and forth clashes between communities is simply the product of politicians benefiting from inflamed hostilities, all of whom do their part to ensure peoples remain divided. It's a challenging book to get through due to the sheer number of groups and factions involved, but that is really by design here. Sacco even mulls the merits of democracy further here (as he brought up in his recent short comic, War on Gaza) whereby the idea that democratically elected politicians can simply rely on violence and civil unrest as tools to maintain power.
Read
December 1, 2025Heel aangrijpend boek over hoe religieuze en etnische concficten maar door blijven etteren in India. De vertaling laat helaas wel af en toe te wensen over.
November 23, 2025
Another excellent bit of journalism from Joe Sacco. This time reporting on the sectarian violence between Muslims and Hindus in Utter Pradesh in India.
February 27, 2026
Ah religion if there’s conflict to be had, then its leaders or most ardent obsessives will mercilessly hunt it down until they find it and then they will bask in it. Add politics to this and you have one incredibly explosive mix.
As ever Sacco’s drawing is gorgeous and it brings the full weight of terror and violence to life with the depth, poignancy and accuracy of his art. Sacco proves to be a sensitive and willing witness. He seems to go to great lengths and make every effort to gather as many accounts from both sides, in order to gain a reasonably balanced insight and provide us with an accurate approximation of these events. Easier said than done.
October 12, 2025
"Dear Reader, do you believe in The People? Do you applaud the impulse that brings The People together to express a grievance or take a stand?
And what if The People are angry? What if The People aren’t YOUR people, and what if their anger appears to be directed at YOU?
Then when does their assembly begin to look like an unruly crowd, and when does an unruly crowd begin to seem like an enraged mob?"
And what if The People are angry? What if The People aren’t YOUR people, and what if their anger appears to be directed at YOU?
Then when does their assembly begin to look like an unruly crowd, and when does an unruly crowd begin to seem like an enraged mob?"
March 20, 2026
relevant to our current political and media moment
November 8, 2025
Joe Sacco's often witty-to-the-point-of-biting writing never fails to deeply inform, and his art never fails to make me feel like I am transported away to wherever he has traveled. And in his latest work, a story of mixed truth and multilayered tensions in Uttar Pradesh, Sacco once again proves himself to be the gold standard for when journalism and the graphic novel style meet.
February 12, 2026
Another classic from Joe Sacco - although much shorter in length, and not as laden with biting wit, he does wear his journalistic hat to dissect all the various testimonies and witnesses that lived the UP riots. He realises quickly that the search for the one true account is futile and instead merely lays bare how the poor and casteless keep suffering
November 29, 2025
Reportaje periodístico sobre los disturbios entra las comunidades musulmana e hindú en una región de la India que, además en desplegar los motivos detrás del enfrentamiento (culturales pero, sobre todo, de clase), indaga en lo complicado que es arrojar luz sobre lo allí vivido. En ese sentido, las idas y venidas de Sacco y su intérprete por los diferentes testimonios para identificar lo sucedido entre lo recordado y lo inventado es fundamental lo que, también, dificulta a ratos seguir el reportaje. El relato de las diferentes entrevistas con sus interlocutores se ofrece embarullado, lo que lo diferencia de otras obras suyas más centradas en desbrozar los relatos y asentarlos en una narración más convencional. En ese sentido, destaca la veracidad que transmite, por encima de esa confusión derivada de las elecciones tomadas por Sacco como contador de historias.
December 15, 2025
Źle się dzieje w państwie indyjskim", chciałoby się rzec po przeczytaniu tego najnowszego komiksu reporterskiego mistrza gatunku Joe Sacco. Sacco tym razem na warsztat wziął serię brutalnych starć między muzułmanami a hindusami, które wybuchły w trzech dystryktach stanu Uttar Pradeś w 2013 roku. Jak zwykle przeprowadził drobiazgowe śledztwo, jeździł po miejscach zdarzeń, rozmawiał z ludźmi z obu stron konfliktu, drążył i poddawał w wątpliwość, kiedy nie wszystko mu się zgrywało, szukał naocznych świadków. I choć te zamieszki nie były pierwszymi w historii trudnych relacji hindusko-muzułmańskich, ani najbardziej krwawymi (zginęło kilkadziesiąt osób, dziesiątki tysięcy musiało uciekać), to jak sam przyznaje, te najbardziej nim wstrząsnęły. Dotyczyły małych społeczności, które żyły ze sobą od lat. Głównie hinduskiej kasty Dżatów i ich muzułmańskich pracowników rolnych. Ci pierwsi posiadali władzę, wpływy i ziemię, ci drudzy, najczęściej najbiedniejsi chłopi pozbawieni ziemi, wykonywali dla nich prace na roli za niskie stawki. A więc zarzewie konfliktu miało kilka ognisk, które gdzieś tam tliły się powoli i powiększały miarowo na przestrzeni wielu lat (autor prześledza źródła tych wzajemnych hindusko-muzułmańskich animozji, przywołując skomplikowaną sytuację po powstaniu państwa indyjskiego w 1947 roku, a także następnie inne kluczowe wydarzenia). Różnice religijne i kulturowe, ale także opozycja biedni-bogaci, uprzywilejowani-pozbawieni przywilejów. Dodatkowo na obraz tych stosunków wpływała lokalna polityka, podsycając i tak już powoli narastające napięcie.
Rekonstruując krok po kroku przyczyny, jak i przebieg tego konfliktu, Sacco pozwala nam stawiać bardziej filozoficzne i uniwersalne pytania. O samą naturę i dynamikę takiego konfliktu, kwestie odpowiedzialności rządzących, lokalnych przywódców a emocje tłumu (zauważa, że tego typu wydarzenia są cyniczne wykorzystywane przez polityków, którzy manipulując nastrojami społecznymi, chcą ugrać coś dla siebie; nieprzypadkowo do walk i pogromów doszło na kilka miesięcy przed wyborami). Interesuje go: "Kiedy zgromadzenie zaczyna przypominać niesforny tłum, a niesforny tłum - wściekły motłoch?", jakby chciał uchwycić moment eskalacji i zaślepienia prowadzącego do popełniania rozlicznych zbrodni i dzięki temu go zrozumieć. "Psychika" tłumu jest tu jakby osobnym zbiorowym bohaterem. Pokazuje również mechanizm wypierania prawdy i fałszowania zbiorowej pamięci, dopasowywania do dominującej narracji. I tu mocne są te "milczące" sceny, gdy Sacco pokazuje lokalnych liderów, zarówno muzułmańskich, jak i hinduskich, wmawiającym mu kłamstwa, a w tle widzimy kamienne twarze uczestników wydarzeń. Bohaterką tego komiksu jest również demokracja. I ta indyjska ulegająca przyspieszonej erozji, i ta rozumiana jako uniwersalna zasada, która miała być tarczą chroniącą ludzką różnorodność, ale jak widać obserwując sytuację polityczną w dzisiejszym świecie chwieje się i pęka.
Czytając ten komiks przed oczami stają sceny z Gazy, Srebrenicy, Rwandy, Jedwabnego czy Wołynia... "Zamieszki przeszłe i przyszłe", nieważne czy mowa o Indiach z 2013 roku, Palestynie z 2025, jedno jest pewne: TBC... Nie jest to może mój ulubiony Sacco, komiks jest trudny, wymaga dużego skupienia i kilkukrotnego czytania niektórych scen, żeby sobie wszystko uporządkować, ale to nadal... Sacco. On zawsze trzyma wysoki poziom. Tak jest i tym razem.
Gdy czytałam "Zamieszki przeszłe i przyszłe", przypomniał mi się wywiad z pisarką Arundhati Roy sprzed kilku lat, która mogłaby być matką chrzestną tego komiksu. "Indie to kontynent, nie kraj. Kontynent, który szuka sposobu na przeżycie. To ponad 1,3 miliarda ludzi, którzy mówią w kilkuset językach. To kilka tysięcy kast i kilkanaście wyznań. Za każdym razem, kiedy ograniczamy swoją wyobraźnię do państwa narodowego, zadajemy przemoc tej ziemi". Niestety nacjonalizm wygrywa obecnie w tym kraju. Nacjonalizm, który wyklucza wszystkich poza hindusami. I który również jest też demonicznym, pociągającym za sznurki bohaterem tego komiksu.
Dziękuję za egzemplarz do recenzji, który otrzymałam w ramach współpracy barterowej od wydawnictwa Timof Comics.
Rekonstruując krok po kroku przyczyny, jak i przebieg tego konfliktu, Sacco pozwala nam stawiać bardziej filozoficzne i uniwersalne pytania. O samą naturę i dynamikę takiego konfliktu, kwestie odpowiedzialności rządzących, lokalnych przywódców a emocje tłumu (zauważa, że tego typu wydarzenia są cyniczne wykorzystywane przez polityków, którzy manipulując nastrojami społecznymi, chcą ugrać coś dla siebie; nieprzypadkowo do walk i pogromów doszło na kilka miesięcy przed wyborami). Interesuje go: "Kiedy zgromadzenie zaczyna przypominać niesforny tłum, a niesforny tłum - wściekły motłoch?", jakby chciał uchwycić moment eskalacji i zaślepienia prowadzącego do popełniania rozlicznych zbrodni i dzięki temu go zrozumieć. "Psychika" tłumu jest tu jakby osobnym zbiorowym bohaterem. Pokazuje również mechanizm wypierania prawdy i fałszowania zbiorowej pamięci, dopasowywania do dominującej narracji. I tu mocne są te "milczące" sceny, gdy Sacco pokazuje lokalnych liderów, zarówno muzułmańskich, jak i hinduskich, wmawiającym mu kłamstwa, a w tle widzimy kamienne twarze uczestników wydarzeń. Bohaterką tego komiksu jest również demokracja. I ta indyjska ulegająca przyspieszonej erozji, i ta rozumiana jako uniwersalna zasada, która miała być tarczą chroniącą ludzką różnorodność, ale jak widać obserwując sytuację polityczną w dzisiejszym świecie chwieje się i pęka.
Czytając ten komiks przed oczami stają sceny z Gazy, Srebrenicy, Rwandy, Jedwabnego czy Wołynia... "Zamieszki przeszłe i przyszłe", nieważne czy mowa o Indiach z 2013 roku, Palestynie z 2025, jedno jest pewne: TBC... Nie jest to może mój ulubiony Sacco, komiks jest trudny, wymaga dużego skupienia i kilkukrotnego czytania niektórych scen, żeby sobie wszystko uporządkować, ale to nadal... Sacco. On zawsze trzyma wysoki poziom. Tak jest i tym razem.
Gdy czytałam "Zamieszki przeszłe i przyszłe", przypomniał mi się wywiad z pisarką Arundhati Roy sprzed kilku lat, która mogłaby być matką chrzestną tego komiksu. "Indie to kontynent, nie kraj. Kontynent, który szuka sposobu na przeżycie. To ponad 1,3 miliarda ludzi, którzy mówią w kilkuset językach. To kilka tysięcy kast i kilkanaście wyznań. Za każdym razem, kiedy ograniczamy swoją wyobraźnię do państwa narodowego, zadajemy przemoc tej ziemi". Niestety nacjonalizm wygrywa obecnie w tym kraju. Nacjonalizm, który wyklucza wszystkich poza hindusami. I który również jest też demonicznym, pociągającym za sznurki bohaterem tego komiksu.
Dziękuję za egzemplarz do recenzji, który otrzymałam w ramach współpracy barterowej od wydawnictwa Timof Comics.
January 1, 2026
Första gången jag på riktigt förstod konflikten i det forna Jugoslavien och mer specifikt Bosnien var genom Joe Saccos journalistiska mästerverk ”Safe Area Goražde”. Berättelsen om hur forna grannar nästan över en natt kunde bli bittra fiender och döda varandra baserat på religion och etnicitet var fruktansvärt att läsa om, och något som annan media vid den tiden inte hade lyckats förklara lika tydligt för mig.
I Saccos nya bok är temat liknande, men i en annan del av världen. Den här gången reser han till Uttar Pradesh i norra Indien för att gräva i konflikten mellan hinduer och muslimer, mer specifikt ett enskilt upplopp som ägde rum 2013 och som blir en slags fallstudie som belyser större frågor och skeenden.
I vanlig ordning tecknar Sacco med fantastisk detaljrikedom i svartvitt, men hans reportage är på intet sätt svartvitt. Han låter alla sidor komma till tals, pekar på de uppenbara lögner som flera kommer med men är annars försiktig med att dra slutsatser som inte kan beläggas.
Han visar också med all tydlighet att det förvisso finns en religiös aspekt här men att det även går att anlägga ett klassperspektiv liksom att peka på hur de styrande många gånger utnyttjar och underblåser den här typen av konflikter för sina egna intressen.
Jag har älskat Saccos serier i över tjugo år och min beundran för honom blev bara större när han häromåret besökte Littfest och jag fick möjligheten att prata med honom. Han är ett lysande exempel på hur journalistik kan och bör bedrivas, och även på hur seriemediet i många fall kan göra reportage både starkare och tydligare.
Jag kan inte rekommendera hans böcker nog mycket, oavsett om de handlar om Bosnien, Palestina, ursprungsbefolkning i Kanada eller norra Indien. Det är bara att välja den största kunskapsluckan man känner att man har och låta sig upplysas.
I Saccos nya bok är temat liknande, men i en annan del av världen. Den här gången reser han till Uttar Pradesh i norra Indien för att gräva i konflikten mellan hinduer och muslimer, mer specifikt ett enskilt upplopp som ägde rum 2013 och som blir en slags fallstudie som belyser större frågor och skeenden.
I vanlig ordning tecknar Sacco med fantastisk detaljrikedom i svartvitt, men hans reportage är på intet sätt svartvitt. Han låter alla sidor komma till tals, pekar på de uppenbara lögner som flera kommer med men är annars försiktig med att dra slutsatser som inte kan beläggas.
Han visar också med all tydlighet att det förvisso finns en religiös aspekt här men att det även går att anlägga ett klassperspektiv liksom att peka på hur de styrande många gånger utnyttjar och underblåser den här typen av konflikter för sina egna intressen.
Jag har älskat Saccos serier i över tjugo år och min beundran för honom blev bara större när han häromåret besökte Littfest och jag fick möjligheten att prata med honom. Han är ett lysande exempel på hur journalistik kan och bör bedrivas, och även på hur seriemediet i många fall kan göra reportage både starkare och tydligare.
Jag kan inte rekommendera hans böcker nog mycket, oavsett om de handlar om Bosnien, Palestina, ursprungsbefolkning i Kanada eller norra Indien. Det är bara att välja den största kunskapsluckan man känner att man har och låta sig upplysas.
February 27, 2026
Joe Sacco back on the beat! Similar to Palestine and Bosnia, Sacco digs deep into a non-Western culture and their issues. In this case, the pressing concerns are related to Hindu/Muslim and caste animosity in rural India.
Sacco does a wonderful job of immersing you in the setting. That said, the immersion all happens at a full sprint. The book opens with Sacco's taxi driver racing into oncoming traffic, which definitely sets the tone. There's not a race against time element here, but it sure feels like it (race against return plane tickets?).
Much of the book is Sacco and his local journalist companion interviewing the many parties involved in a large-scale riot that left many dead. Hindus blame Muslims, Muslims blame Hindus, each side has a different story, and ultimately, they all need each other for the economy to function. It's a lot to take in (particularly at breakneck speed) and the few pages of pulled-back scene-setting aren't really enough to explain the lengthy history of religious/caste conflict.
Still, it's deeply absorbing in a way that only Joe Sacco can provide. Moreso than other books, Sacco seems to be presenting the historiography version of events, a study of how people recall and explain what happened. You get both the thrilling you-are-there moments as well as Sacco contemplating how each side twists affairs to its own benefit. The Once and Future Riot is classic Sacco in that it's a book you come out of feeling smarter - and eager to read more.
Sacco does a wonderful job of immersing you in the setting. That said, the immersion all happens at a full sprint. The book opens with Sacco's taxi driver racing into oncoming traffic, which definitely sets the tone. There's not a race against time element here, but it sure feels like it (race against return plane tickets?).
Much of the book is Sacco and his local journalist companion interviewing the many parties involved in a large-scale riot that left many dead. Hindus blame Muslims, Muslims blame Hindus, each side has a different story, and ultimately, they all need each other for the economy to function. It's a lot to take in (particularly at breakneck speed) and the few pages of pulled-back scene-setting aren't really enough to explain the lengthy history of religious/caste conflict.
Still, it's deeply absorbing in a way that only Joe Sacco can provide. Moreso than other books, Sacco seems to be presenting the historiography version of events, a study of how people recall and explain what happened. You get both the thrilling you-are-there moments as well as Sacco contemplating how each side twists affairs to its own benefit. The Once and Future Riot is classic Sacco in that it's a book you come out of feeling smarter - and eager to read more.
January 31, 2026
Sacco is an outstanding journalist. His research is fascinating. What he uncovers is hard to read about, but a real incident India in 2013 - a conflict between Muslems and a faction of Hindu’s, the Jats. The brutal antagonism and acts seem to be smoldering between these groups, but tragically will most likely burst into flames again.
Sacco has a unique ability to bring his stories to life through his visuals.
A difficult read due to the heartbreaking situation, but well worth the effort.
Sacco has a unique ability to bring his stories to life through his visuals.
A difficult read due to the heartbreaking situation, but well worth the effort.
March 17, 2026
Really shows how impossible it is to get the truth out of a bunch of Indians when talking about hindu-muslim relations. Saying that - I felt there was more to the story that could have been told (e.g. how the BJP, modi and their predecessors are responsible for the violence)
December 29, 2025
Love Sacco’s work. This one was a little confusing to a reader not already familiar with the players.
January 20, 2026
Gorgeous drawings of an investigation into a horrific incident whose cinders still burn.
January 28, 2026
Mayoritariamente por el dibujo más que por la historia.
November 13, 2025
Incredibly in-depth and nuanced reporting on Hindu Muslim sectarianism in India. In it you will see the result of right wing nationalism and how it can tear communities apart. I have experienced sectarian riots in Mumbai and it was terrifying. But I was fortunate to be more privileged and thus safe from the worst.
This book reminded me of the relentless hate a mob can work itself into and the abject fear for its victims.
Joe Sacco is a master of visual journalism and this book is a visceral view of the worst of humanity.
This book reminded me of the relentless hate a mob can work itself into and the abject fear for its victims.
Joe Sacco is a master of visual journalism and this book is a visceral view of the worst of humanity.
October 28, 2025
Sacco almost never disappoints
June 26, 2025
Portrait des tensions entre musulmans et hindous dans l' Uttar Pradesh. Sacco présente la version des 2 groupes. On voit à quel point il peut être difficile pour un journaliste d'obtenir la vérité. Démontre qu'une démocratie peut soutenir la violence dans un but purement électoral. Difficile d'imaginer le règlement d'une telle situation.Terrifiant.
October 3, 2025
Un autre excellent travail journalistique signé Joe Sacco. Malgré le sujet très dur, la lecture de cette BD est fort intéressante et instructive. Il est très intéressant de voir les deux côtés d'un même conflit.
Read
January 5, 2025DNF
Assurément une très bonne BD mais la BD reportage ce n'est vraiment pas pour moi. J'en ai quand même lu 60% alors que c'était pas gagné !
Assurément une très bonne BD mais la BD reportage ce n'est vraiment pas pour moi. J'en ai quand même lu 60% alors que c'était pas gagné !
December 27, 2025
What can be said about Joe Sacco that doesn’t come across as trite praise? He is simply the best. There is nobody in his field who can match his work. It’s not just the eloquent cynicism and direct language, not just the clever narrative structures that support and hold up the truth behind his words and images, not just that his imagery is at once grotesque and emotional and real, nor the fact that he plays a live role in the creation of his work, drawing himself as the caricature journalism on the hunt for the next story. It’s a combination of those things that makes The Once and Future Riot so immediately recognisable and accessible as a work of powerful, disturbing journalism. Like the very best, and maddest, journalists of the world’s corruption and conflict, Sacco puts himself on the line and you feel the threat inherent in his work. Here he takes us to Northern Indian and the border region where conflicts between Jats, Hindus and Moslems boils over into violent riots. Sacco cleverly investigates the intricacies of the situation, as always never giving in to simple explanations. On the way, he discovers suspicions of more terrifying, subversive violence. In all his work, Sacco uses what he discovers to open proverbial cans of worms on the world’s problems. The Once and Future Riot looks at the violence of men. It is a book populated with angry male faces. It is a book full of male excuses and lies, of men protesting their innocence and blaming somebody else. It is a book about how those who do not practice violence are victims of a targeted, intentional violence that aims to benefit the rich, the powerful, the male population. Just writing a few words about it makes you realise the depths mined in a couple of hundred pages, a depth that many non-fiction writers can only dream of. It’s clear I’m a fan. If you were being critical, The Once and Future Riot isn’t quite as impressive as his better known work but it is a reminder that here is a writer and a journalist who demands to be read, who reads to be read by a wider audience, who understands the horrible hypocrisies of our world and attempts to reveal them.
March 11, 2026
I really appreciate all of Joe Sacco's work ever since I first began reading his books about Palestine. It is phenomenally detailed and intricate and he immerses himself so fully into each of the cultures he studies and the lives he chronicles and each of the phenomena he attempts to unpack. However, I did think this book, which attempts to examine the causes and consequences of a series of riots between Jats (Muslims whose practices syncretize elements of Hinduism and Islam due to a history of cultural proximity), Hindus, and Muslims and the political resentment that underscored them. The portrait Sacco paints is complex, ranging from victims to community leaders to political representatives, and I am always impressed by both the visual nuance he affords all of his subjects and the care he takes in seeking out so many voices and perspectives to interview and record. I did feel that, because so many factors were at play here, the narrative was a bit harder to follow than his previous works, which hone in so fully on the trauma of living under occupation or in a warzone. The narrative threads its way from farmer suicides and riots against government power and escalating Hindutva/anti-Muslim sentiment to the two (I believe) primary riots and the way they fracture the tentative harmony that had existed between various cultural groups, and how all of that is the effect of growing radicalization in India, fostered and fomented by the right-wing. But I think sometimes, there is so much going on that it's hard to focus on the riots themselves . . . but maybe that's the point. No one thing can be isolated from anything else because the effects of policy on the national level trickle down to communities and villages and manifest in the loss of innocent life.
This book proves, in a microcosm, the reality that peace can only exist under plurality, not supremacy.
This book proves, in a microcosm, the reality that peace can only exist under plurality, not supremacy.
November 23, 2025
This is the first book I have read by Joe Sacco, so I don't have a strong baseline to compare it to. That said I thoroughly enjoyed his illustrations and the investigation that is narrated throughout. I felt he did a great job of touching on some of the underlying structural conditions of the riot, particularly the perceptions of Muslims, love Jihad, and the BJP's Anti-Muslim stance. That said, I would have to agree with some of the other reviews regarding its readability. I found the narrative slightly difficult to follow, and lacking concrete signposting. For such a short book, with so little text, it took me longer than usual to finish. In addition, I would have liked to see some more comparisons with the Gujarat riot of 2002, which seems to be driven by many of the same structural conditions. This I believe, would have really strengthened his title: the once and future riot, for what we are see in Uttar Pradesh is not an isolated phenomenon, but rather something far more recurrent in India's current socio-political sphere. There will be more riots, I believe, and for that reason, Joe Sacco's book is one of the first, in my opinion,to open the doors to this line of inquiry, although it is slightly underdeveloped in his own portrayal throughout the book. A great book, by a great author, do give it a read.
January 2, 2026
In his latest work, Joe Sacco explores a region still uncovered by him previously: India. More specifically, he covers the violent communal riots between Hindus towards Muslim which occurred in 2013.
This specific example was so interesting to me as I have little knowledge on the matter, but it was double interesting to notice how similar it was from other violent event coming from different multi-ethnical/religious societies across the world. I feel the author did a great job overall at explaining a specific example of communal violences, how the same schema occurred at other occasions, and what’s really at stake with politics in India, meaning that nothing is done to prevent the future riots that will eventually come again and again.
It’s fun how Sacco really created over the decades a visual and narrative style very proper to himself. And it’s enjoyable to see it applied far away from what I’m I used to. Sacco makes the reader feel the capharnaüm that it is to navigate between the car, the honks, and the constant chaos, although it wasn’t as chaotic as what I experience.
Sadly, despite all the good words I put above, I mostly found this piece boring, it got repetitive after some point and the whole investigation could have been conveyed in a shorter piece. As well, the interesting part about the future riots was at the same time, not explained enough and not clear.
This specific example was so interesting to me as I have little knowledge on the matter, but it was double interesting to notice how similar it was from other violent event coming from different multi-ethnical/religious societies across the world. I feel the author did a great job overall at explaining a specific example of communal violences, how the same schema occurred at other occasions, and what’s really at stake with politics in India, meaning that nothing is done to prevent the future riots that will eventually come again and again.
It’s fun how Sacco really created over the decades a visual and narrative style very proper to himself. And it’s enjoyable to see it applied far away from what I’m I used to. Sacco makes the reader feel the capharnaüm that it is to navigate between the car, the honks, and the constant chaos, although it wasn’t as chaotic as what I experience.
Sadly, despite all the good words I put above, I mostly found this piece boring, it got repetitive after some point and the whole investigation could have been conveyed in a shorter piece. As well, the interesting part about the future riots was at the same time, not explained enough and not clear.
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