For Zˇ izˇek (Violence: Six Sideways Reflections, 2008) the apparently imperceptible aspects of ‘objective’ violence perpetuate the cycle of visible, subjective violence. The representation of violence – itself a necessary and necessarily brutal process – intimately involves one in ‘invisible’ violence. Therefore, the search for an ethical representation of violence becomes crucial. An ethical representation of violence compels a reconsideration of the ‘invisible’ aspects of violence. Approaching the ‘invisible’ aspects of violence, while still preserving their indiscernible qualities, requires such violence to be represented indirectly. A close reading/viewing of two recent (2009) graphic narratives, Folman and Polonsky’s Waltz with Bashir: A Lebanon War Story and Joe Sacco’s Footnotes in Gaza, demonstrates the indirect representation of some ineffable aspects of violence. This representation differs from either ‘knowing’ or ‘seeing’ violence. In this representation categories such as the ‘visible’ and ‘invisible’ or ‘knowing’ and ‘seeing’ come to co-exist in dynamic tension, inflecting reality with obscurities and uncomfortable occlusions, while remaining a vital part of the quality of the experience of violence. This article argues that graphic narratives are particularly well placed to represent ‘invisible’ violence and thus provide an ideal example of an aesthetic form that is able to approach an ethical representation of violence. ... speech does not simply express/articulate psychic turmoils; at a certain key point, psychic turmoils themselves are a reaction to the trauma of ... the [‘invisible’] torture ... of language [w]hat if ... humans exceed animals in their capacity for violence precisely because they speak? (Zˇ izˇek p.)