The volume published by Tunué contains eight stories written by Marco Rizzo and drawn by eight different artists. Each is a piece of life steeped in pain and hope. In collaboration with the health workers of the humanitarian association founded by Gino Strada
Over 70 thousand dead, more than 20 thousand of these children, hundreds of thousands of injured, sick people who are denied care, malnourished, displaced people forced to leave their homes to survive in tent cities abandoned to the worst weather, cities completely destroyed and buildings collapsed, the last of which - with hundreds of people inside - just two days ago, after having been undermined by previous IDF raids. The toll of the Israeli bombings on Gaza which began the day after 7 October is terrifying and constantly updated, daily, even after the signing of a ceasefire agreement sponsored by US President Donald Trump which is constantly violated by new attacks.
The faces behind the numbers
The numbers have been known for some time now, they say a lot but not everything. They do not tell the human stories behind them, stories like that of little Hind Rajab, killed by Israeli soldiers after hours of siege inside a car full of her dead family members, made famous by the film Silver Lion at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival directed by Tunisian director Kawthar ibn Haniyya. But there are tens of thousands of stories to tell and A silent devil, a choral comic published by Tunué in close collaboration with Emergency (hardback, 112 pages, 17.50 euros) tells some of them.
The creative team of A Silent Devil
Marco Rizzo, cartoonist, journalist, scholar of the Ninth Art, scripts all eight, collecting and translating the testimonies of Emergency operators engaged in the field into comics language. He is joined by a team of top-notch designers, starting from Manuele Fior (author of the cover illustration) and continuing with Claudio Stasi, Boban Pesov, Cammamoro, Simona Binni (these two also collaborate on the screenplay of their stories with Rizzo), Lelio Bonaccorso, Sualzo, La Tram, Elena Mistrello, with Maurizio Clausi who collaborates on the colours. A mosaic in which heterogeneous drawing and coloring styles team up to give a face and a name to those numbers to which we risk becoming accustomed.
The stories
The protagonists are often children. There is Mariam, traumatized by the fixator that was placed on her seriously injured arm during an explosion and the subsequent collapse of a building; Amina, who does not feel the physical pain caused by a bandage that is too tight and who therefore risks having a leg amputated; Ahmed's grandchildren, who can no longer fall asleep without the buzz of Israeli drones; Hassan, who fell into a boiling pot while queuing for a plate of rice; Sara, barely saved from the very serious malnutrition she fell into due to the conditions in which she and her family were forced to live. But there are also adults, such as doctors, nurses and patients at the Al Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, targeted several times - with civilian victims among patients, healthcare workers and journalists - by Israeli raids which accused Hamas of using it as a hideout; Youssif, who taught before October 7 and who has returned to doing so among the tents of the refugee camp where he lives; Karim, an Emergency nurse whose life plans have been destroyed as well as Gaza, and who goes around with his camera to remember the faces of Gazans and witness what is happening in the Strip.
Between pain and hope
They are stories of pain, illness, injury and death. But they are also stories of hope, life and resilience. The protagonists of A Mute Devil are the Gazans who resist, despite everything, survive, build projects, imagine a future, alongside those who, with their professionalism and courage, put their lives on the line every day to protect those of others. A Mute Devil is not a work of fiction, it is not a graphic novel, it is not a collection of stories and perhaps not even graphic journalism in the strict sense. It is rather a photographic album of a people, zooming from the aerial view of a devastated land to the most intimate and individual story. A synthesis that is also a profound work of rehumanization of one of the greatest tragedies of our times.
Collaboration with Emergency
The volume is introduced by a preface by Willie Peyote and was created in collaboration with Emergency, as part of the R1PUD1A anti-war campaign. It can be purchased in bookstores, comic shops and on the Tunué and Emergency websites. And it is without a doubt one of the most important comics published this year in Italy.
