Let's Peel
Kobane Calling
Created by
PERFECT if
Perfect if you want to see what happens when a cartoonist leaves his desk and walks into history — sketchbook in one hand, doubt in the other.
Style / Atmosphere
Nervous line, restless heart. Drawn in rough brush strokes and thick ink, Kobane Calling feels like a travel journal scribbled between checkpoints. Comedy and compassion run side by side; cynicism constantly loses to conscience.
Synopsis
“When you get there, you realise courage isn’t what you thought. It’s just people doing what needs to be done.”
Zerocalcare (real name Michele Rech) travels from Italy to Turkey and into Rojava, the Kurdish region under siege from ISIS. He records what he sees: makeshift hospitals, fighters singing pop songs, fear, and solidarity.
The tone swings from absurd to heart-breaking within panels; self-mockery softens the politics, but never erases it. It’s graphic journalism with a beating heart.
Line Work
Fine ink outlines, cross-hatched restraint, and a cool blue wash give each frame the stillness of archival memory. The geometry comforts and confines — a hand trying to stay steady while remembering trembles.
The pacing
Carefully measured. Each panel holds its breath. Page turns feel like walking through long hallways: you sense the echo before the sound. Time folds in on itself — moments revisited from multiple angles until they align.
The Voice
Bechdel’s narration overlays the images like transparent vellum — analytical, ironic, tender. Text and image never mirror; they negotiate. Where her voice retreats, her drawings lean closer.
From Page
to Screen
Fun Home: A New Broadway Musical (2013, dir. Sam Gold) — a stage adaptation that turns Bechdel’s visual silence into song.
The comic’s symmetrical structure and literary layering influenced how Call Me by Your Name (2017, dir. Luca Guadagnino) and The Father (2020, dir. Florian Zeller) visualise memory as architecture — intimate rooms echoing with withheld truths.
Peel me a Book
Let's Peel
Kobane Calling
Created by
Style / Atmosphere
Nervous line, restless heart. Drawn in rough brush strokes and thick ink, Kobane Calling feels like a travel journal scribbled between checkpoints. Comedy and compassion run side by side; cynicism constantly loses to conscience.
Perfect if
Perfect if you want to see what happens when a cartoonist leaves his desk and walks into history — sketchbook in one hand, doubt in the other.
Synopsis
“When you get there, you realise courage isn’t what you thought. It’s just people doing what needs to be done.”
Zerocalcare (real name Michele Rech) travels from Italy to Turkey and into Rojava, the Kurdish region under siege from ISIS. He records what he sees: makeshift hospitals, fighters singing pop songs, fear, and solidarity.
The tone swings from absurd to heart-breaking within panels; self-mockery softens the politics, but never erases it. It’s graphic journalism with a beating heart.
Line Work
Loose, kinetic, black-grey palette. Faces caricatured yet deeply human; humour drawn into every anxious eyebrow. The energy of a zine, the empathy of a documentary.
The pacing
Quick cuts, diary rhythm. Dense speech bubbles, then sudden silence. The speed of thought rendered visible — it feels like scrolling through conscience itself.
The Voice
Sarcastic, self-questioning, utterly sincere. Zerocalcare talks to himself, to history, to a cartoon armadillo that represents his anxiety. He makes politics personal — fear and laughter sharing the same panel.
From Page
to Screen
Adapted as Kobane Calling on Stage (2018, dir. Arturo Cirillo), a theatrical performance mixing live drawing and reportage.
Its blend of humour and moral urgency resonates with films like Persepolis (2007, dir. Marjane Satrapi & Vincent Paronnaud) ****and The Breadwinner (2017, dir. Nora Twomey)— animation used to tell truth through defiance.