The Once and Future Riot

by Joe Sacco

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.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Nonfiction, History, Graphic Novels Comics, Journalism, Comic Book

144 pages, Hardcover

First published October 14, 2025

About the author

Joe 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.

Reviews

[Rod Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.)

[Traci Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

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).

[Alberto Martín de Hijas · Rating 3 out of 5]

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)

[Vartika · Rating 5 out of 5]

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'.

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 may seem like a small affair. Yet, as Sacco shows, it was in fact an archetype of the savage, incendiary violence that has time and again taken hold of the country.

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?

This is a complex story, and to Sacco's credit, the book tells it incredibly well. The art style here builds on the idea of sheer population: it is both attentive to facial expressions when looking at individual testimonies or stories while also visually augmenting the impact of 'crowds' to create a sense of scale when depicting mobs and assemblies. Narravtively, it follows the various facets of a divide built on exploitation of differences in caste, class, sex, and of course religion to place Muzaffarnagar amidst the long history of India's march towards the Right. It shows how such clashes with their misinformation, half-truths, competing narratives and outright lies – the exasperating workings of which lend to the meta-narrative of this book – 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. Indeed, 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 described here afflict all multi-ethnic, multi-racial societies, making this an urgent read for people everywhere.

[Gideon]

Heel 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.

[Rick Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Paul Dembina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another excellent bit of journalism from Joe Sacco. This time reporting on the sectarian violence between Muslims and Hindus in Utter Pradesh in India.

[Noah · Rating 5 out of 5]

"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?"

[Jifu · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Wciągam Książki Nosem · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[David Karlsson · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Ignacio · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love Sacco’s work. This one was a little confusing to a reader not already familiar with the players.

[Reza Shirazi · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Orbikong · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sacco almost never disappoints

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Taylor Waldron · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Grégoire Maillard · Rating 2 out of 5]

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.

[Patrycja · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The Once and Future Riot” is another powerful example of Joe Sacco’s ability to blend journalism and illustration into something uniquely gripping. The artwork is incredibly detailed — at times I found myself stopping just to study a single panel. When you see an entire crowd drawn so intricately on one page, you can’t help but wonder how long it takes Sacco to bring that level of complexity to life.

His visual storytelling is clever, immersive, and sharp, turning heavy social and political issues into something accessible without losing depth. I wasn’t familiar with many of the topics explored in the book, but reading it felt like learning through both narrative and art.

It’s an engaging, thoughtful way to understand difficult histories and perspectives, and the blend of intensity and insight makes the experience unexpectedly enjoyable.

If you appreciate graphic journalism or simply want to read something that teaches while it captivates, this one is absolutely worth picking up.

[Sravan · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I first saw this book on The Washington Post’s best graphic novels list, I assumed it would be a quick read and an easy way to push my 2025 reading count into double digits. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised at how good it turned out to be.

Taking a subject as polarising as the Muzaffarnagar riots, the author refuses to collapse the narrative into moral binaries. It applies strong journalistic discipline: multiple perspectives are presented, contradictions are allowed to stand, and uncomfortable ambiguities are not smoothed over for reader convenience.

To top it off, the book has an unexpected sense of humour, including a visual sequence where the author’s car overtakes trucks, which are overtaking tractor trolleys, which in turn overtake oxcarts.

This was my first experience with non-fiction graphic novels, and I went in without clear expectations. However, in the end, The Once and Future Riot turned out to be one of my best reads of 2025.

[Michelle Tuite · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading 2025
Book 280: The Once and Future Riot by Joe Sacco

It seems that for the last few years #NonfictionNovember has included a Joe Sacco book. His topics are not something I had much knowledge about before reading the book. This topic I had no clue about. This is a graphic novel I purchased.

Synopsis: 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.

Review: Such an interesting journey through Indian politics and religious divide. I have read some on the Partition, and this book continues adding how tensions can flair up now and then between religious groups. My rating 4⭐️. S

[John Mihelic · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read Sacco's Palestine works, and he is an amazing graphic journalist, and that continues here.

The book covers some of the history of the sectarian violence in India, focusing here on one specific incident, the Muzzaffarnagar riots in 2013. He tries to untangle the truth of what happened, and unravel the various power dynamics and history, and it just made me sad and angry that we can't all get along. We find reasons to create differences and hate, both within and between groups and out-groups. I dislike this about our species.

One thing that is interesting is that as Americans, we have our own race and class-based troubles, so reading about very similar ones based on both religion, caste, and class adds a fun, different twist on the injustices we humans can inflict on our own fellow humans.

[Andrew Dittmar · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Once and Future Riot by Joe Sacco


I feel like I msised something with this one. Usually I get a lot out of Sacco's work, but this one may require that I revisit it.


Reading history:
Normally I keep this in my private notes section, but I'm moving it. Yay!

Reading history was not added on Goodreads, but was instead kept on a post-it note with the book.


Started December 13th, 2025.
Finished December 17th, 2025.


December 13th, 2025: read pp. 1-19 in physical form.

December 17th, 2025: read pp. 20-137 + acknowledgments in physical form.

[SP · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joe Sacco is a fantastic journalist with an impressive art style that conveys an essential emotional realism for this style of storytelling. Sacco is particularly intentional with how his art compliments his reportage, and how the two can best work together to get his story across. He is incredibly talented and is one of my favorite authors!! My 2026 goal is to read all of his books.

[Adrián · Rating 5 out of 5]

Primera novela gráfica del año y primera recomendación que tengo claro que haré a mucha gente.
Increíble cómo el autor te lleva a comprender el origen, desarrollo y (posible) futuro de un conflicto que tuvo lugar en 2013.
Creo que una de las claves es la manera que tiene de reflejar las entrevistas y las situaciones o pensamientos propios.

[Kami]

Thank you to the publisher for the gifted copy of this one. Who knew a “graphic novel” could be so educational and enlightening. Sacco takes a deeply heavy subject and presents it in an approachable format. Well done!

[Frank McGirk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sacco once again talks to official and "real" people to give us a peek into a part of the world we might not be familiar with (and human nature in general).

He takes the time to show some of the complexity and avoids taking sides...hey, journalism!

[Colton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sacco does a really well in delving deep into the source of the violence at hold here. I especially appreciated his depiction of the different perspectives held by the factions. This book gives a good sense of how humans are capable of rationalizing irrational violence.

[Snehil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stunning!

[Carla Campo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Otro libro que recomendar a quienes tengan ganas de aprender y curiosidad por el mundo. En ese sentido, este autor nunca decepciona.

En este caso, partiendo de los disturbios ocurridos en el año 2013 en el estado de Uttar Pradesh, nos acerca a los conflictos entre hindúes y musulmanes en la India, desde el fin del dominio británico y la partición de la India británica en India (mayoría hindú) y Pakistán (mayoría musulmana), y con una mirada hacia el futuro y lo que puede pasar.

¿Por qué me gusta Joe Sacco? Porque, como buen periodista de investigación, no se queda con la versión oficial de la historia. Él va a la fuente, habla con personas de un bando y de otro, contrasta, ahonda, y luego cuenta. Y tú disfrutas de todo eso para poder sacar tus propias conclusiones.

Además, sus libros me invitan a investigar más, a querer saber más, despiertan mi curiosidad por hechos que no conocía, y eso me encanta y lo valoro tremendamente.

Así que, siguiendo con ideas para las Navidades que se avecinan, este libro me parece maravilloso para regalar y regalarse. Una joya de la que puede disfrutar, prácticamente, todo el mundo.