Joe KubertRezensionen

Impactful story of trying to get out of war-torn Sarajevo back in the 90s.

See my note on it here:

http://gypsylibrarian.blogspot.com/2006/02/booknote-yossel-april-19-1943.html

This memoir deals with how a comics writer dealt with living in Sarajevo, Bosnia, during the war in—and invasion of—former Yugoslavia.

His family is, like the rest of the population of Sarajevo, under constant attacks which are perpetrated by Serbs. Say what you want about the war and invasion, but the Serbs are The Evil.

I've no qualms with somebody recanting their story. I mean, this story is theirs both in what I surmise is their truths and their memory. The main problem I have with this book is that the author has written a story that is so filled with minimalistic constant that it is extremely hard to digest.

An example: a father gets ready to go buy bread for his family. He kisses his wife. He kisses his kids. He says goodbye to a micro utopia. He leaves his family's home for his city square. The city square is bombed to shreds by Serb and the man dies. The family is displayed in tatters, crying, with an outro text saying 'war is Hell'.

Next story: an old man gets ready to leave his home to get food from a UN truck. He envisages freedom, daydreams a Serb-free existence where they are not, for Serbs are Evil. The man walks out and sees the UN truck. Serb-infested arms explode into combat, repelling the UN troops while killing the poor old man. An outro text says 'Beware of Evil Serbs!'.

OK, the examples are made by me, not to invoke pity—I'm of Serbian heritage—but to emphasise that the book should have been edited a lot harder to make it breathe. The entire book is filled with utterly horrible stories but the style is ultimately what ruins this book. I fully accept the contents of the book and absolutely agree that Serbs committed atrocities during the civil war. The style of this book drips of pity-invoking scenes that, early on, invites antipathy; it's a shame, for this story could have been wondrously told.

The illustrations are old-school US-style: sharp imagery of the old biff-boom-bang style abound. No nuance, all contrast.

I wish this book had been tightly edited to highlight tension and make it nuanced; even though war can be one-sided, this book is, simply put, far too simple to engage me and think it's a human experience that's not absolutely lopsided.

PS. The atrocities committed by NATO, the USA, the UN, Croatia, and even Bosnia, aren't in this book.

Bit of an oddity, this one. I picked up a nice, unread hardback cheaply based on the title and author's pedigree. And that's pretty much exactly what the book is trading on. The artwork is crisp and clever, but the story just isn't really there. Respect to Kubert and all that, but meh.

Created by the legendary Joe Kubert, The Unknown Soldier follows a hideously scarred soldier who expertly assumes different identities through various World War II espionage missions in the European and Asian theatres. The never-named Unknown Soldier's earliest missions, while entertaining, are standard military-comics fare. The stories are littered with historical events – including a stint impersonating Adolf Hitler – so much so that you begin to wonder if the Unknown Soldier, like some comics version of Forrest Gump, was involved in every major happening of the war. However, the eighth story in the collection, "Totentanz" (Star Spangled War Stories No. 158, August-September 1971) elevated the series. With the aid of scripter Bob Haney, Kubert produced a powerful story that presaged his acclaimed 2003 graphic novel, Yossel: April 19, 1943. To rescue a woman who smuggled Jews out of Nazi-occupied territory, the Unknown Soldier, posing as a Jew, gets placed in a concentration camp. Ultimately, he completes his mission but not before suffering Nazi tortures. This and every story here reads like a mini-Mission Impossible episode and contains some of the best work of Kubert's career.

(This review originally appeared in The Austin Chronicle, January 19, 2007.)
Link: [http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/review?oid=oid:437320]

Let's admit it: You read Sgt. Rock because you love when a lull in the action leads to a giant splash page of a panzer "sneaking" up on Easy Company. Am I right? How often this group of grizzled veterans is taken by surprise by a tank while seated in the snowy woods or desolate cityscape is a testament to the stealth technology employed by the Nazis during WWII. And in The Prophecy, TWO tanks sneak up on the company--and Sgt. Rock takes one out with a knife and a grenade. Yeah, yo' Rock.

But the "tanks scene" is just window dressing here, a little something-something for the fellas to gush over approvingly. The main plot is more bewildering--Easy Company is shipped in 1943 to the Russian front to pick up an important "package" which will help end the war. It's not technology, it's not war plans, it's...well, read for yourself.

But the package is unrealistic, and while I can easily accept a grizzled Sgt. Rock taking out a tank with a knife and grenade, I cannot suspend disbelief for the heavy-morale of moving the package out. It's not as believable. When the package is picked up by a heliocopter--in 1943--on the Russian front with no American forces for hundreds of miles--I'm puzzled. Doesn't make sense. And Easy Company's decision at the end actually made me laugh out loud. Actually, it reminded me of the cinematic masterpiece The Three Amigos where the three heroes get their enthusiasm and confidence up to tear off into the desert to fight for the heroine; the next scene has them more sober and asking, "How far did we ride before we stopped for directions?" Easy Company is left in limbo at the end of the piece--and it doesn't make sense on so many levels.

So: Should you read it? If you're a fan of Sgt. Rock, you already have. If you're not a fan of Sgt. Rock, shame on you and, no, don't start here. This is not Sgt Rock at his height.

It is still very rare, even in an era of instant communication, to get updates and reports from someone living in a war zone; someone trying to survive as an ordinary person. Not a soldier, not a war correspondent, but an average person caught up in events as horrifying as can be imagined. A snail's eye view of the Bosnian conflict, trying to endure and escape hostile combatants and uncaring bureaucracies.

some of the art is lovely, but the story is crap.

a touching, distressing chronicle of the Bosnian war--but I really didn't care for the artist's style.

Komiks został napisany i narysowany przez znakomitego amerykańskiego komiksiarza, Joe Kuberta, który ma żydowsko-polskie korzenie. Kubert nadał mu formę fikcyjnego, rysowanego pamiętnika. Opowiada, co stałoby się z nim i jego rodziną, gdyby w końcu lat 20. nie udało się im wyemigrować do Ameryki.

To niewątpliwe arcydzieło powstało na podstawie opowieści rodziców autora, przeczytanych książek, listów ocalałych krewnych, a także dostępnych danych historycznych. To opowieść o triumfie człowieczeństwa – o tym, jak ludzie pozbawieni wszystkiego wznoszą się ponad upodlenie i w ostatecznym akcie oporu zwracają się przeciwko swym ciemiężycielom, wzniecając powstanie w warszawskim getcie.

Little text mars the brilliant photography of Jonathan Elliott as page after page of idyllic and natural, woodsy, Woodstock-like homes are shown!

From the all natural built of natures bounty and natural materials, to that of recycled items.

Earth, stone, timber, and even canvas are highlighted with interior and exterior shots.

A great coffee-table book. Or one to dream through on a wintry afternoon while curled up next to the fire.

Each page will make you "wish you were there!"

I give this book five stars and my thumbs up!

DISCLOSURE: This book was a private purchase and under no obligation for review.

Reading this graphic novel from 1996, about the 1992-93 Siege of Sarajevo, brought back a lot of memories. The Bosnian conflict was terrible, but it's over now and we've seen worse since: Rwanda, War on Terror, Iraq War. The outrage inherit in the novel feels distant, and the black and white politics slightly suspicious; the graphic art is GI Joe and the dialogue equally simple. The best part though are the faxes, which are real, the actual written words of someone who was experiencing the events day to day, communicating via fax what was happening. The artwork is a supplement to help bring it alive. This use of multimedia is effective and the true story a reminder of how terrible it was.½

When Yugoslavia's brutal civil war erupted in 1992, Ervin Rustemagic and his family were trapped. Hunted by militant Serbs, their home destroyed, they camped in empty apartments and expensive hotels, relying on a fax machine to communicate with the outside world. Dozens of friends overseas were riveted, praying daily for news that the Rustemagics were alive and doing everything in their power to help them escape.

Their story is undeniably worth telling, but Joe Kubert wasn't the one to do it. I gave the book 3 stars because the suspense of the story kept me reading, but I felt that Kubert did it an injustice. Rather than using the graphic novel format to add dimension to the narrative, he falls back on comic book cliches that prevent real emotional resonance. Rather than showing us the characters' feelings, he uses worn-out phrases like, "whatever shall I do!" when a character faces a dilemma. As a result, the family feels more like cardboard cut-outs than real people living through an atrocity. Ervin Rustemagic is drawn like a superhero and behaves like one, and I questioned whether this was completely realistic -- surely during such a long war, he faced a morally ambigious decision or struggled with less-than-heroic emotions.

I was also frustrated by the way Kubert portrays depicts women, particularly the lead character's wife. While I am aware that Bosnian gender relationships may be different than American ones, I cannot believe that her sole act of bravery or ingenuity during the war was to make a birthday cake without eggs. She kept her children safe during her husband's many long absences, yet she and her fellow females are constantly drawn cowering behind their husbands, crying and begging for a man's help. Maybe this was the way the story was told to Kubert, but it's not an excuse for not doing a little investigation of his own. While I did learn a bit from this book, I don't think it was enough to justify its many flaws.

Simply put - outstanding. I often find myself in conversations where I am debating the values of the comic book medium as a true and legitimate art form and the first book that I pull out of my repertoire to prove my point is Joe Kubert's Fax from Sarajevo. This is an important book on many levels. It isn't just a comic. It's an important, compelling and true story about the strength of the human spirit in the face of the darkest, most vile parts of humankind.

Fifteen year Yossel, lives in Nazi-occupied Poland, and must move with his family to the Warsaw Ghetto. Yossel is an artist, and draws vivid descriptions of what happens in the ghetto. His family is taken out of the ghetto to the labor camps, and Yossel gets involved with the Jewish resistance in the ghetto.

Very interesting houses from the Woodstock era! Some of the exteriors are a little on the odd side but the interiors are great escape or vacation house dream homes!

Kubert keeps his sketches in this graphic novel very rough. They are right off the sketch pad in order to maintain the emotion of the moment; no color, no refinement. Simply flipping through the pages brings on the emotion of the tragedy, but including the story makes “Yossel” a strong book indeed.