By Wayne Markley

Dong Xoai

Over the last 60 years, Joe Kubert has been one of the steadiest, and arguably greatest, artists of all time.  His work has spanned everything from Hawkman and the Flash in the 1940s to his own caveman creation Tor, (which he still revisits as recently as two years ago) to perhaps the work he is best know for, Sgt. Rock. It also includes almost every other DC war hero ever created to Tarzan in the 1970s to his most recent work, Dong Xoai.  I would highly recommend all of his work and I am going to review a handful of his prodigious output in this column.

Let me start with his new work, Dong Xoai. Dong Xoai tells the story of a special forces team in Vietnam in 1965 that was supposed to play the role of advisers but ended up being anything but. It is a true story, filled with tension and suspense, and, as with anything Kubert does, the art is amazing and detailed. This is not a traditional graphic novel done in nice clean panels, but is more of a hybrid of an old fashioned childrens’ book with text blocks and illustrations to go with it.  That said, this book is by no means for children, but the design and style do work perfectly together to telling this gripping, and amazingly true, story.

Tor #1

Joe Kubert first did Tor in 1953. As a collaboration with Norman Maurer (and originally published by St. John Comics), it only lasted five issues – but the caveman’s adventures were always in the back of Joe’s mind.  Tor was brought back in the short-lived newspaper comic Sojourn in the 1970s and was once again brought back for new adventures in 2008 in a brand new series from DC Comics.  Luckily for Kubert fans, DC has collected all the Tor work prior to the most recent series in three beautiful oversized hardcovers in full color.  These volumes take a little work to find [Editor's Note: for less work, check the link above!], but they are breathtakingly beautiful and are a great read.

Showcase Presents: Sgt. Rock Vol. 01

Over the years, Kubert has been most closely associated with the DC War books:  Sgt. Rock, Haunted Tank, Losers, Unknown Soldier, and so many more. And he has done the covers to almost all the books these characters have ever appeared in. (Note: I am talking about the 1960s/1970s versions of these characters and not the recent Vertigo reexaminations of the Losers and the Unknown Soldier.) The easiest book to find, and arguably his best war book, is Sgt. Rock. There are three Showcase Presents: Sgt. Rock collections reprinting over 500 pages of rip-roaring action, almost all of which are written by Robert Kanigher and drawn by Kubert. Most of the stories are 8-15 pages long and each one is like a little war movie unto itself. As with all of Kubert’s work, his way of telling a story and his meticulous craftsmanship is amazing, making you feel like you are right there, be it 1,000,000 Years BC (which was the title of the first Tor comic) or the Sahara desert with Rock and Easy Company chasing Rommel.

Tarzan: The Joe Kubert Years Vol. 02 HC

Kubert’s craftsmanship and drawing style lead into my final recommendation of his work: Tarzan.  In the early 1970s Joe Kubert did Tarzan for DC Comics, resulting in a mix of adaptations of Edgar Rice Burroughs novels and new stories featuring Tarzan, Jane and the great apes of darkest Africa. I recently went back and re-read all of these stories and I have to say they are just amazing. The art is perhaps the best he has ever done and the stories are sparse and action-packed, proving that you do not have to employ verbose and convoluted twists and turns to tell a good story. Fortunately, Dark Horse has collected all of Joe Kubert’s Tarzan in three full color hardcover Archive editions, all of which I would encourage anyone who likes a good story to get and read (whether you like  Tarzan or not).

As I am sure you can tell from reading this installment of the blog, I am a big fan of Joe Kubert’s work over the years.  A few other pieces he has done over the years that are well worth tracking down if you can find them (which may be a challenge) are as follows: Tex, a western he did many years ago for a European publisher; Yossel, a graphic novel about the holocaust; and Showcase Presents: Hawkman Vol. 1 (in which Hawkman never looked so good and there’s art by Murphy Anderson as well). There are numerous other works by Mr. Kubert whose praises I will sing another time.  As always, any comments, review copies, or attacks can be sent to MFBWAY@AOL.COM. This column represents my opinions and not the opinions of Westfield Comics or its employees.