Joe Kubert Presents #6 – Review

By: Too many to list—check out the review.

The Story: Sit back, relax—Joe Kubert’s got a whale of a tale to tell.

The Review: Some of you may have read about a week or so earlier a much-discussed blog post from Jerry Ordway, longtime DC artist.  In the post he mused on the trajectory of his career, about how, in contrast to his lauded and prolific days during the Death of Superman era of DC, he’s finding it harder and harder to get work.  It’s an honest and sincere bit of personal writing, and there are no easy responses to it, but his post does offer some good food for thought.

The sad fact is that commercial art, more than any other kind of art, is subject to the whims of the audience and thus vulnerable to ever-changing popular trends.  It’s not that the artist lost his skill or touch; it’s just that people’s tastes change.  Whether for good or ill, everyone has a right to prefer what they prefer and seek out the new over the old.  Unless an artist can reinvent himself to keep up, he is unfortunately doomed to be marginalized within his niche, and I’m afraid that’s what happened to artists like Ordway.*

Joe Kubert Presents #5 – Review

By: Joe Kubert, Sam Glanzman, Brian Buniak (story & art), Paul Levitz (story)

The Story: If you need a reminder that war is bad, keep reading.

The Review: We all admittedly have things we can learn from those older and wiser than us.  Still, I think we can agree that we’d be more inclined to learn them if the old and the wise didn’t use pontificating lectures as their mode of teaching so much of the time.  It’s enough that they tell their stories and experiences; most of us are smart enough to understand the lessons ourselves.  When they start pushing the lesson on you, that’s when you get a little more ornery.

Thus far, this mini has been pretty good about simply telling the story instead of shoving a moral into your face.  Levitz reverses that trend immediately by giving us an actual history lesson, one delivered by an honest-to-goodness history teacher to his son.  While the young Garret takes his dad’s points in stride, us readers feel more like the bored kids in the back of the classroom.  “Farewell” may claim to feature Sgt. Rock, but you never get an actual story out of it.  Even worse, the constant adulation over the war hero distracts from Garret and his dad’s appreciation for the war hero in their own family.  While Kubert draws figures of war with great dignity, I can’t say he does much to enliven this rambling feature.

Joe Kubert Presents #4 – Review

By: Joe Kubert, Brian Buniak, Sam Glanzman (story & art)

The Story: A Confederate savior and a talking ape, but it’s the “Asiatic” who’s crazy—figures.

The Review: When I said that I choose to evaluate stories for what they’re intended to be, not for what I want them to be, I think I had titles like this one in mind.  Against all the flashy and splashy superhero books out there, the tales presented by Joe Kubert probably don’t offer much competition in the pure excitement department.  But I’d plead with readers to give this series a chance on its own merits: as a piece of living history with eager ambitions of its own.

Joe Kubert Presents #3 – Review

By: Joe Kubert, Sam Glanzman, Brian Buniak (story & art)

The Story: Rebel mutant aliens, dead chickens in drawers, animatronic apes, and more.

The Review: Back in my high school English teaching days—funny, how three years later you can look on such times with actual fondness*–I used to give a lesson on how stories do more than just entertain; they also reveal something about the storyteller.  Reading this series, you get a sense not only of the creators’ artistic styles, but you also get a glimpse into the values they grew up with and the beliefs they hold dear.

Joe Kubert Presents #2 – Review

By: Joe Kubert, Sam Glanzman, Brian Buniak (story & art)

The Story: Ethics in space, jokes on the sea, and a mystery for a blonde and a gorilla.

The Review: Retro definitely seems to be in with comics these days.  Making the rounds of internet reviewers, I hear a lot of gushing comparisons to the Golden Age and Silver Age, and it’s no wonder.  As downright nonsensical as most of those stories were (pretty much ever Jimmy Olsen story ever told comes to mind), they represented an enthusiasm and fearlessness to be different that a lot of current titles, even the ever-precious indie ones, have little of.

But even the most retro of tales are mere homages to those bygone ages.  What we get in Joe Kubert Presents is the real thing, material generated from the same minds that produced the Golden and Silver Ages.  Imagine if someone just unveiled a brand new piece by Norman Rockwell, the paint still fresh on it, or if Charlie Parker rose from his grave and improvised one last swan song.  Even if they didn’t compare to works past, it’d still be a thrill.

Joe Kubert Presents #1 – Review

By: Joe Kubert, Brian Buniak, Sam Glanzman (story & art)

The Story: Flying men, private eye apes, starving children, and burning ships—enter the world of Joe Kubert.

The Review: Even though I didn’t really know Kubert’s work all that well (being much more familiar with his sons’ project), I was grieved to hear of his death.  Old-timers in the comics biz, the ones who were there in the early days, who really brought forth the building blocks of storytelling in that medium, are rare figures.  And Kubert stood among the greats of his time.  His experience and wisdom will certainly be missed.

Even to the end of his life, Kubert seemed to hold on to that wonderful optimism and sense of wonder that made DC Comics (and America) of the olden days so great.  All this modern learning has made us slightly cynical with any kind of fantasy or sci-fi story, and Kubert asks us to cut through that and just embrace a tale that has the essence of a dream: “Suspend doubts and give me your hand and mind.  Take a giant step from supposition to acceptance.  From imagination to reality.  You laugh?  Is this a joke?  Or—just “kid stuff”?  Come, let’s see…”