Joe Kubert. If his storytelling prowess didn’t make him an established name in the industry, his school (The Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art [founded in 1976]) would. Then there’s the matter of his two sons—Andy and Adam—who have also made a name for themselves as comic book artists. Here’s just a snippet of Joe’s bio: “Born in 1926, Joe Kubert began his career at the age of eleven as an apprentice for Harry ‘A’ Chesler, a comic book production house. He has worked in the field ever since, and in his more than sixty years with the medium, he has produced countless memorable stories for countless characters, including DC's Hawkman, Tarzan, Enemy Ace, Batman, and The Flash. He also edited, wrote and illustrated the DC title Sgt. Rock, which, beginning under its original title, Our Army At War, Kubert contributed to for thirty years.”
Recently, as documented in Kubert’s introduction to Sgt. Rock: Between Hell and A Hard Place, his just-released 144-page Vertigo hardcover graphic novel collaboration with writer Brian Azzarello: “… one day, I got a call from my friend Karen Berger, editor of Vertigo Books at D.C. Comics. ‘Joe, we're planning to publish a 12 issue series of comic books featuring Sgt. Rock. We'd love for you to do the covers. How about it?’
Well, I was kind of unsure. Maybe this new concept of Sgt. Rock would be different from the one I knew. I asked a lot of questions, and somehow the topic turned to: ‘Joe would you be interested in doing the book?’
‘No, I don't think so, Karen; but—if it was a novel. A real hardcover book…?’
O.K. it'd be at least 140 or 150 pages in length. Who was going to write it? Not me. Illustrating the book would take more than a year, plus the lettering and the color. Then who would be the writer?
‘Brian Azzarello.’"
Well to read the rest of the intro, you’ll have to buy the book. But fortunately, SBC was able to briefly question Kubert about this latest work with Sgt. Rock. For background on the new book itself, here is DC’s description from the work’s preview site: “November, 1944. In and around the Hürtgen Forest, some of the most brutally intense combat of World War II is underway. In the middle of this meat grinder, Sgt. Rock and the men of Easy Company — Ice Cream Soldier, Bulldozer, Wildman, Little Sure Shot, and others — sneak behind enemy lines to capture a group of German Intelligence officers. After a grueling night of battle, with the enemy nowhere to be found, Easy Company finds their prisoners slaughtered…all but one who somehow managed to escape.
In the midst of war, where men are trained to kill without remorse, and with no commanding officer to consult, Sgt. Rock finds himself hunting a killer.”
SBC thanks DC Comics' Adam Philips and Kubert associate Peter Carlsson (and of course Joe Kubert himself) for making this interview possible. Now on to the interview.
Tim O’Shea: Given that Rock is “not someone who enjoyed the war-or the killing”, (as you describe him in the new work’s intro) has your approach to the character been influenced by ongoing military conflicts? More specifically, did the current action in Iraq have any bearing on the story that you and Azzarello wanted to tell?
Joe Kubert: The book we did would apply to any war where soldiers are in battle and might lose their lives. The whole point of the story is how Sgt. Rock and Easy Company act and react under terrible, stressful conditions.
The story didn’t have to be set during World War II. It could’ve occurred during the Peloponnesian War, the Civil War, the Revolutionary War... any war. It’s the story of the men who fight in the war.
We started work on this book in early 2002, predating the war in Iraq.
TO: You credit Azzarello as having "given a new life to all the Easy guys" (from the book’s intro). Of all the Easy guys, who do you think benefited most from Azzarello's treatment, and why?
JK: Brian concentrated pretty heavily on Ice Cream Soldier in the beginning and really fleshed him out. His attention to Bulldozer, Wild Man, Little Sure Shot, and all of the guys in Easy Company made them come across as credible and believable characters. We read that not every one got along all the time. They were at war, under incredible stress. How could they? Even blood brothers can express anger and frustration under certain conditions. We’re all human, after all.
The characters had their own individual reactions to the conditions. Sure Shot, the Indian, was shown to have a very dry sense of humor. His words were few but to the point. Wild Man had a temper but refrained from casual cursing and objected when others did so.
Ice Cream Soldier’s nickname takes on a more effective meaning when he displays an almost laconic coolness under the most stressful conditions. And, yet, he admits that Rock gave him his nickname for a reason we wouldn’t have guessed. Was he being straight with Tinny? Or was he telling the new guy what he needed to hear? We don’t know for certain and we’re left to draw our own conclusions.
Brian’s script gave me an opportunity to attempt to inject into the drawings more of the characteristics that reflect the nicknames given to the characters. I had fun getting deeper inside characters that I had met years before.
TO: In an industry where "fancy page designs with shattered panel borders" seem to be the new standard , were you concerned that planning your pages with a three-tiered grid might be met with some resistance, or was there an understanding from the start that you'd have full artistic control?
JK: The approach to page layout was totally my decision. I felt that the story was so powerful that anything that distracted from a smooth story flow from panel-to-panel would be a negative. Clarity of the storytelling was uppermost in my mind. Both Brian and Will Dennis, the editor, agreed with my decision. I entered into this project, as I would with any project, with the understanding that I would have full artistic control. They agreed and seemed to be pleased with the results.
TO: What creative freedoms/flexibilities did you gain from telling this tale under the Vertigo imprint, instead of in the DC universe?
JK: None. I would’ve done this story the way I did it regardless of which imprint had taken on the publishing.
TO: Would you describe this story as a "morality play" or a "murder mystery"?
JK: I would describe it as a ³war story²Š a good one, I hope.
TO: Is there more Sgt. Rock material on the horizon?
JK: Not that I’m aware of. But, who knows?
TO: How does your work on such projects as preview Fax from Sarajevo and Yossel: April 19, 1943 inform/influence your approach toward the Sgt. Rock landscape (if at all)?
JK: My approach to each book is to do the best job I know how. Yossel is a departure from the other material because the story demanded that. If I were to do another Sgt Rock story, my approach would be dependent on the story. Each work demands my complete and total concentration, but in ways dictated by the subject matter.
TO: Speaking of Yossel: April 19, 1943, it's clearly an extremely personal work, given that the story examines what would have happened to your family had they been in Poland's Warsaw Ghetto (rather than moving to America in the 1920s, as your family did)? Critical response understandably has been strong, but what's been the reaction of contemporaries in your family--has it been a painful work for some of them to read?
JK: No. In fact, they were deeply impressed. They are grateful that my Mother and Father had the foresight and ability to go ahead and make the move to America. The irony is recognized. Not a painful irony, but a sad one. For all those relatives and friends who were lost in the Holocaust. And a grateful one for those who were fortunate enough to have survived.
