Joe Kubert's Latest 2 Efforts --- Must Haves **NO SPOILERS**

[buena_vista]

Yesterday, I decided to go down to Midtown Comics for a signing by Joe Kubert & Brian Azzarello for the new Vertigo graphic novel -- "Sgt. Rock: Between Hell & a Hard Place". While I was there I picked up Kubert's recent book, "Yossel", which tells the story about a young jewish artist trapped in the Warsaw Ghetto during the holocaust of World War II.

 

Today, I read them both and let me tell you that these are the best comic stories I have read an a very long time. Only the recent "Endless Nights" by Gaiman et al comes close to the level of these two books.

 

The Sgt. Rock book will take any silver age reader back in time to when War books were good. Kubert returns to what he did best with the heroes of Easy Company, but this time with the twist of a murder mystery. Azzarello's -script avoids the common cliches so often seen in the genre -- and is smart enough to let Kubert's art tell the story, when needed.

 

Compared to today's artists, Kubert's work might look simple, but his use of lighting and angles show that one of comics' long time innovators still has the touch. Kubert said to me at the signing that this was a dream project for him -- after reading the book, you can tell why. This is simply a great, well paced story with plenty of suspense. The characterization and intensity of the book is so well thought out that reading it is simply a satisfying experience.

 

All that is what made the second book even better. Topping the Sgt. Rock book seemed almost impossible but Kubert's solo book is simply a masterpiece.

 

I am very wary of Holocaust books. Being Jewish myself and knowing the facts of the Nazi's systematic genocide of Jews, makes it very hard for any fictional medium to capture the horror of everything that happened.

 

Kubert somehow pulls it off. First of all, he doesn't ink any of the art. The stark pencils stare at you in the face, with no color, and on a high quality grey background paper. It almost looks like a sketch book with images of utter despair, murder and death that defy any civilized mind.

 

With that there is the total absence of word balloons. All of the dialogue is in captions that are located in different parts of the page each time. The -script is very well written -- with Kubert emersing himself in the lead character. He asks the question --- "What if his parents hadn't escaped from Nazi Europe in time ---and he

himself ended up in the Warsaw Ghetto". The -script is one of the most personal I've ever read in comics and one of the best.

 

I can only tell you that these books are unbelieveable -- but you have to experience them for yourselves. They are a bit pricey -- each cost $25 -- Yossel is 120 pages while Rock is 139, but these are both an example of how good comics can be -- and the kind of story telling that's kept me reading all these years.

 

[DoubleCovaBrotha]

Thanks for the recommendation, this sounds like something I need to definitely pick up.

[awe4one]

I'll also jump aboard and recommend Yossel. Very very good.....

[Bonds25]

Thanks for the recommendations - I'll definitely pick them up!

 

Do any of the dealers on this board have any copies for less than cover price?