Before Joe Sacco crafted his two major works of 'cartoon journalism', "Palestine" and "Safe Area Gorazde", he created a number of shorter pieces, ranging from one-page gags to thirty-page 'graphic novelettes'. This book finally collects the entirety of Sacco's earlier journalistic and autobiographical work, plus a sizeable serving of his satirical strips, many of them never before collected in book form. The centrepieces in "Notes from a Defeatist" are a triptych of war stories: "When Good Bombs Happen to Bad People", a history of aerial bombing that specifically targets civilian populations; "More Women, More Children, More Quickly", in which Sacco relates his mother's harrowing experiences during World War II in Malta; and, most personally (and closest to Sacco's later work), "How I Loved the War", Sacco's impassioned but sardonic reflection on the GulfWar, the surrounding propaganda and media circus, and his own ambivalent feelings as both a spectator and commentator. "Notes from a Defeatist" also includes a roadie's-eye view of an American punk band's eventful European tour, a reminiscence of an awful season spent in his native Malta, and much more.