By Elchanan Poupko
Joe Sacco’s work of graphic journalism The War on Gaza (Fantagraphics), has been awarded the prestigious Eisner Award for Best Single Issue, sparking outrage from Israeli comics. Critics say the one-sided 32-page depiction of the 2023 war in Gaza fails to convey the horrors of October 7th or even give a single mention to the hostages that were taken to Gaza on October 7th. Adding to the outrage is the fact that the Eisner Award is named for the Jewish cartoonist Will Eisner, who dedicated his talent to combating antisemitism, libels, and The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
Presented annually at San Diego’s Comic-Con International, the Eisner Awards are considered the most prestigious honors in the comics industry. The decision to award Sacco with this award has sparked sharp backlash from leading Israeli cartoonists, who say the work veers from journalism into one-sided incitement, bordering on antisemitic caricature.
On Monday, the Israeli Cartoonists Association submitted a letter of protest to the Eisner Award Committee, signed by its current chairman, Uri Fink, and former chairman Michel Kichka. In it, they describe the selection as a “resounding slap in the face” to the award’s namesake, Will Eisner, who devoted his final book, The Plot, to debunking antisemitic conspiracies.
In a public statement following the letter, Fink did not mince words:
“This horrifying booklet that just won the Eisner Prize is simply a hysterical and malicious display of incitement,” he wrote. “October 7 is briefly mentioned on the first page—and the rest is a relentless sequence of disturbing images teetering on the edge of antisemitism. If I had ever won an Eisner, I’d return it.”
Israeli cartoonist Itzik Samuha noted that The War on Gaza “Throughout the comics, the hostages (one of the main objectives of this war) are never mentioned. But it makes sense, because if Sacco were to mention this, the whole narrative of his vile antisemitic fairytale would fall apart.”
“This is not journalism. It’s a weapon,” Fink stated
Kichka, who teaches visual storytelling in Jerusalem, also emphasized the damage to Eisner’s legacy. “Will Eisner fought against antisemitic lies,” he said. “He believed in the power of comics to illuminate truth—not to obscure it.”
In the past, Sacco himself admitted his bias, saying: “I don’t believe in objectivity as it’s practiced in American journalism. I’m not anti-Israeli … It’s just I very much believe in getting across the Palestinian point of view”.
In his formal letter on behalf of The Israeli cartoonists association to The Eisner Award Committee and ComicCon International, Israeli veteran comic Uri Fink wrote:
The Eisner Award, the Oscar of the comic book world, is named after Will Eisner, a pillar of the sequential art medium. Eisner concluded his impressive life’s work with his book “The Plot: the secret history of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.”
This is a challenge to the notorious anti-Semitic conspiracy theory, published in 1905. The book was a bestseller that is still sold to this day, mainly in the Muslim world.
The fact that the 2025 Eisner Award was awarded to Joe Sacco’s book War on Gaza, a thin comic book that crosses the line that separates reporting from pure propaganda and sows anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist hatred, is a resounding slap in the face to Eisner, who is spinning in his grave. This is a fatal blow to the prestige of the award and Eisner’s good name, and a heavy cloud over all past and present recipients of the award.”
Joe Sacco has been heavily criticized in the past for his cartoon depiction of the war in Gaza, using comparisons to the Holocaust with Art Spiegelman’s Mouse.
