The dude knew how to draw comics covers (and yes, interiors too). From mid-1969 —
I’ll never be a war comics fan but great art is eye candy in any genre.
#SFWApro.
I think Joe Kubert’s reputation is secure without me complimenting him. That said—
Author: frasersherman
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For me there’s nothing more disappointing that picking up a comic with a cover by Kubert and discovering that he hasn’t contributed to the interior art.
The guy was amazing but how can mere mortals compare
You have to read the right war comics; but, many of them had vastly superior writing than the mainstream superhero books, especially when Kubert was involved, as an editor or artist. Plenty of them were cliches; but, then you had something like Enemy Ace or The Unknown Soldier, when it was at its best, or Rock, in the glory years; or, especially, The Lonely War of Captain Willy Schultz, in Charlton’s Fightin’ Army. Much of Charlton’s war line was junk, but not anything done by Will Franz and Sam Glanzman. Shotgun Harker and The Chicken, in Fightin’ Marines, was at least an interesting idea, with varying degrees of success. The Haunted Tank had many good stories and Kirby’s tenure on the Losers is some of his best work. Sgt Fury was mostly action fluff, until gary Friedrich started writing more thoughtful stories, aided by John Severin inking Dick Ayers’ pencils. Not quite up there with Kanigher and Kubert or Franz and Glanzman; but better than Stan Lee or Roy Thomas on Fury and way better than most of the old Atlas war comics.
By contrast, Kanigher also wrote a lot of cliched and run-of-the mill war stuff, for DC, at various times. Once in a while there was an interesting concept, which varied in the execution, like M’lle Marie, the female Maquis fighter or the just plain too goofy not to be fun, like The War That Time Forgot. Then there is his horrible attempt at Vietnam stories, with Captain Hunter, saved only by two issues written by Howard Liss, which used actual battles and incidents from the Vietnam War as the basis for stories and who had a better background in how the war was being conducted, thanks to his time writing the Tales of the Green Berets newspaper comic strip.
For my money, the best from the Big 2 were both from Sam Glanzman: The USS Stevens stories, at DC and his A Sailor’s Story graphic novels, from Marvel (2 volumes, later collected together by Drew Ford, as well as a collection of the USS Stevens stories). Glanzman based the earlier stories on his actual experiences, aboard the destroyer the USS Stevens, in the Pacific. The latter is an actual memoir of that time and one of the best depictions of naval life I have ever seen, in comics.
Then, there are the works of Harvey Kurtzman, at EC, and Archie Goodwin, in Warren’s Blazing Combat, as well as Jacques Tardi’s It Was The War of the Trenches and the UK’s Charlie’s War. Don Lomax’s Vietnam (and desert Storm) Journal is probably the best depiction of Vietnam, surpassing the best issues of Marvel’s The ‘Nam, which was pretty good, until it succumbed to editorial pressure and stuck the Punisher into it and turned it into a Cannon Film. Like Glanzman, Lomax put his own experiences into Vietnam Journal, as did Doug Murray, in The Nam. Lomax was rawer, less constrained than Murray, though and had less of an axe to grind. Murray fell more into the revisionist version of the war, that the US Army won the battles, but were let down by politics and protests. Lomax pretty much calls it a cluster-@#$% at all levels and has a bit more regard for the Vietnamese people than Murray, in my perception. Kubert’s work on Tales of the Green Beret is pretty darn good, despite the propaganda within it and he actually tamed it down from some of what had been written, to cut out even heavier-handed politicking. He tried to focus on the action and plot, making it more of a adventure-espionage thing, in military garb, more akin to Steve Canyon than John Wayne. Never fully succeeded, though.
“Then, there are the works of Harvey Kurtzman, at EC … and the UK’s Charlie’s War.”
I can’t recommend highly enough World War 1 tale Charley’s War, which originated in weekly anthology Battle in 1979, by Pat Mills & Joe Colquhoun.
Mills should be known to most folks on here as 2000AD’s creator/first editor, Nemesis, Slaine, Marshal Law, etc; while Colquhoun’s detail and ink work particularly are stunning, the latter certainly on at least par with prime Brian Bolland, and is probably one of the finest-ever British artists.
Titan has collected their collaboration which went on until about 1986 before Mills left due to research budget disputes. Colquhoun continued briefly with another writer, by which time the strip had entered WW2, but it wasn’t the same and he sadly died the following year.
I have Charley’s War in my list to buy, eventually.
And what do you know, the library has it. Placed on hold!