Malta-born, American resident cartoonist Joe Sacco’s war reportage graphic novel Safe Area Gorazde (Jonathan Cape £14.99), originally published in 2000, and now in its first UK printing, confirms comics have without a doubt long since grown up.

During the 1995–1996 Bosnian War, Sacco ensconced himself in the UN-designated safe city of Gorazde, which was actually under siege and being bombarded by Serb forces, in order to write about and illustrate life under the threat of ethnic cleansing.

Unlike much of the news coverage at the time, Sacco’s reportage is not just an understanding of the political and historical contexts, but also a savvy and at times black humour attitude to the brutality of war as well as an authentic portrayal of the plight of common folk caught up in conflict.