Another tale from the former Yugoslavia by Joe Sacco. I enjoyed this a lot - a good comic. The book focuses on Neven, a "fixer" for international visitors (mostly journalists) who need someone to show them the ropes of Sarajevo. Through Neven, it tells the story of Sarajevo in the Yugoslavian war - the sieges and the internal struggles. One thing it does really well is show the relationship between the unofficial paramilitary groups and the Bosnian government - naturally, it's a pretty ugly story.

Some of Sacco's writing seemed a little off here - too much talking to the reader as if they were Neven. Felt a bit disorienting, but not in they way that might have worked. Also the jumping around in time seemed a little gratuitous at times. Still, another wonderfully drawn, powerful book by Sacco. ( )

Joe Sacco, for those of you who don’t know his work, is a journalist working with the graphic novel as a form. The result is powerful, a combination of the autenhicity of the news story with the immediability of comics. His massive work ”Safe area Gorazde” taught me more about the coflict in former Yugoslavia than anything i’ve ever read.

This is a story on a much smaller scale. It is the last shaky days of the Bosnian war when Sacco arrives in Sarajevo. Most of the international press is long since gone, and when Sacco meets the ”fixer” Neven in a hotel lobby, he is long out of work. A fixer is a local who takes care of foriegn reporters, arranges meetings and interviews, acts as guide, translator and bodyguard. Sacco and Neven strikes up a friendship, of sorts, and this book is a portrait of a complex person, a complex place and a complex time. Through Neven’s stories we learn about the early days of the siege of Sarajevo, when local gangsters were the quickest to take up arms against the invading sebs. Larger than life, blokes like Juka, Caco and Celo and their militias were crucial for the defence of the city, but very soon became a liability as soon as regular Bosnian forces were formed.

Neven is a very unreliable narrator, and the story we get here is subjective, contradictory, and sometimes likely false. Sacco’s portrait of him is vividly painted, as is his own ambivalence towards him. The concept of documentary graphic novel is very appealing, with the sense of place coming across very strongly. Again, this is a book that make me feel wiser. ( )

Have you ever wondered how journalists get such up close and personal information about foreign affairs? How they get behind enemy lines to get the real scoop? This is the story of Neven, the sketchy Serbian "fixer" who, for a price, can be hired to take war correspondents behind the scenes. Joe Sacco befriends this fixer, Neven. Sacco tells his story in a short graphic "novella," bouncing back and forth between the early 1990s and 2001 to bring to light the Balkan conflict. Neven helps Sacco paint a grim picture of the bloodthirsty warlords who ran the country and how the Bosnia government responded. Even though Neven was a mastermind at manipulating Sacco (and his wallet) they developed a friendship. ( )

I'm overdosing on war stories lately and I'm not sure what it is doing to my mind. I need to read some more Sacco though. This stuff is great. ( )

In today's always-on 24x7 news-cycle world, we've become accustomed to getting the true and gritty details of nearly every major and minor news story that crosses print, monitor or television screen. These are the stories that lead to book deals, prime-time interviews and movie deals. What we don't realize is that behind each of these stories lies a Nevin, a Fixer, the man with the connections and the means to get you access to the true and gritty details that no one else has.

Of course, this is if your fixer can be trusted as far as he can be thrown.

Nevin is Joe Sacco's Fixer who may or may not be an unreliable narrator with tales and access to men who know the various fates of Sarajevo's more infamous warlords. While money is an obvious motivator, Sacco's tale weaves in nostalgia, pride, the ability to confess and even a need to preserve history. So who is to say that the doubters don't have equal reason to cast doubt on the Fixer if they have similar motives? If nothing else, Sacco's deftly tells the story of the already risky proposition behind getting the "true" story that goes much deeper than simply getting that special someone to take you behind the scenes. ( )

This graphic novel doesn't so much cover Sacco's experiences in Sarajevo, as it looks into the life of one of its residents, Neven. Neven is a fixer, a man who connect advises and guides reporters through the war torn city. But when Sarajevo begins to find some stability and peace, this leaves Neven without work.

It's an interesting look at this man's life and how he sees the war and the people involved in it. It has a very news feel to it, which makes sense, because Sacco is a newspaper man. The artwork was gorgeous, with a thin line technique that made it look gritty in all the right ways, but that was also able to accent the cartoonyness of Neven's character at the right moments. However, I didn't really connect with anyone in the book, and maybe that was the point, but it left me cold. ( )

A journalist returns to the Balkans after his time there during the fighting. A little bit too diffuse to be effective - try Safe Area Gorazde instead?

http://nhw.livejournal.com/1141540.html

This is, in a sense, a sequel to Sacco's brilliant Safe Area Gorazde, but following just one person, Neven, a Sarajevo Serb, a former fighter on the Bosnian side in the war who Sacco got to know as his "fixer" when he first visited Sarajevo just after the war ended in 1995. (I first went there myself in early 1997, and the city of Sacco's book is definitely the one I knew.)

Anyone who has worked in that sort of environment knows the essential nature of the fixer. Sacco captures it well: but it's not just about Neven's murky past and dubious present, it's also about the dodgy wartime goings on between the "legitimate" government and its bully-boys (and one of the personalities featured in the book was in the news again recently, having apparently committed suicide earlier this month) and the inevitable resulting questions about who is right and who is wrong; and it's also about the effect that Sacco's observation has, not only on the people and situations he is observing, but on Sacco himself.

If there is a weakness in the book, it is perhaps that the casual reader might take Neven's experiences as in some way typical of the Bosnian (or any) war. Neven is a somewhat unusual character. But then again, we are all of us unusual characters, and perhaps Sacco is right to just take a single personality and follow him through the conflict, in his own words and as others reported him. Anyway, well worth reading. ( )

One of the best Sacco comics, partially because of its strong internal structure. This is an example of a book leaving you with a profound ambivalence, and that being a good thing. ( )

The Fixer is another great entry in Joe Sacco's series of comics reportage from the Balkan wars of the 1990s. Although it is clearly not a major work on the level of Safe Area Gorazde, the present volume is nonetheless an important addendum to the larger narrative that Sacco brought home from his trips to the former Yugoslavia.

This time around, the author focuses on his own frustrations in gathering information in post-combat Sarajevo, and his desparate reliance on the unreliable Neven, a colorful if thoroughly shady figure of considerable mystery. While some of Sacco's renderings of human faces can feel stiff and wooden, his meticulous depiction of physical surroundings is breathtaking, and does a remarkable job of bringing the shattered city of Sarajevo to life.

Safe Area Gorazde is still the place to start if you are new to Sacco's work, but The Fixer is a worthy contender if you hunger for more after reading that cornerstone volume. ( )

I wrote my honours thesis on Women in Black, which included a heap of research on the awful things that happened to women during the Yugoslavion conflict, as well as lots on women's activism. It was odd reading this, then, where women are always in the background.

Good art, a sad story, personal touches. Hopefully I'll get around to checking out more of Sacco's work. ( )