tripwire annual 2009 pages lores pt1

8/12/2019 Tripwire Annual 2009 Pages Lores Pt1

1/6

18 TRIPWIRE

King of the STONEAGE

JOE KUBERT on returning

to his creation TOR

after many years away

and much moreWORDS: JOEL MEADOWS


2/6TRIPWIRE 19

Tor gave birth as a caveman Tarzan. Ihad always been very heavily influencedby Fosters handling of the character

TRIPWIRE: This chat is predominantly about Tor

with the hardcover just coming out. How did you

feel returning to the character after quite a long

time away?

JOE KUBERT:Well I find it challenging, I find it

interesting and Im very happy with the opportunity

to be a little bit more innovative, try to build a little bitmore credibility into the character, stretch the story a

little bit. I find it very enjoyable and I appreciate the

fact that I had the opportunity to do it.

TW: How has the character changed? Did you sit

down and make a conscious decision to flesh out

the character? How did you approach returning to

the character?

JK:In my attempt to make the character more cred-

ible and still inject some creativity and imagination

into the story, I tried my best to give some rationale,

some reasonable justification to the events that oc-

curred. Hes coming into a different place that was

completely and totally hidden, its a new land that was

encircled by mountains I felt gave an opportunity to

perhaps give some logical reason for certain animals

to have still been existing at that time, so it was like find-

ing a lost world so to speak and that was the direction I

took it. Again my attempt was since this whole story is

taking place during a time that very few of us actually

know what happened, my attempt was to make it as

logical and as reasonable, therefore as credible and

believable as possible.

TW When you first created the character back in

the Fifties, I presume that Burroughs and Tarzan

were big influences on Tor?

JK:Well actually the character gave birth as a cave-

man Tarzan. I had always been influenced very, veryheavily by Fosters handling of the Tarzan character

which to me always seemed regardless of what he was

doing, always seemed so completely credible and

believable that the story and what happened to the

character had an effect on me. The story communi-

cated to me which is exactly what I tried to do with the

Tor character, that is to give him emotional reactions

that would seem reasonable based on that time. His

connection with the woman. As a matter of fact, there

are stories historically mentioned of children which is

a part of the Tor story, of children who were born that

looked not normal and they were shunted. They were

put aside or left out in the open to die. So by injectingthese kinds of elements into the story, I felt that they

become meaningful, they become reasonable and

therefore credible and believable.

TW: How much historical research did you do in

terms of the flora and fauna?

JK:Ive always been fascinated by as most children

have starting very young with dinosaurs and those

creatures of that sort. Ive always been fascinated

by that and Ive read many, many books and have

practically lived in the Museum of Natural History for

a long time. Ive done preliminary sketches on that.

Ive always admired the illustrations done by Knight,

the wonderful artist who illustrated some of the early

drawings of paintings of the dinosaurs based on the

archaeological findings and thats part of the joy of do-

ing what I do and that is Im able to select those stories

and the type of characters that interest me and put

them down on paper.

TW: Because there was such a huge gap between

the first run of Tor and the more recent series, did

you sit down and think Im now going to do with

the character and the series what I was perhaps

not capable enough as an artist to do in the Fifties

when I first did Tor?

JK:Youre absolutely right, Joel. Hopefully we all grow

and learn as we get older and I certainly thought that

Kubert is a giant of the comic industry. As well

as spending seven decades carving a niche for

himself as the premiere war and adventure artist/

creator on characters like Tarzan, Sgt Rock

and Enemy Ace, he has put plenty back into the

industry with the founding in 1981 of the success-

ful Joe Kubert School of Cartooning. But he hasnt

rested on his laurels: as well as being a regular

face in mainstream comics, he has also produced

hard-hitting, highly regarded graphic novels like

Fax From Sarajevo, Jew Gangster and Yossel. In2008, he returned to his caveman creation, Tor,

in a brand new six chapter series. Recently rep-

resented in a hardcover, we chatted to him about

coming back to a character he first created back in


3/6

was one of the challenges and interesting things that I

faced in doing Tor again. Very thankfully, Paul Levitz

here at DC gave me the go-ahead to do it and I have

pretty much free rein to direct myself at any area that I

feel interests me. Im in a very fortunate position.

TW: So you did everything except for the colour-

ing?

JK:Thats an interesting point. The fellow who works

with me is Pete Carlsson. He is in charge of produc-

tion for the army books that were also contracted

for. We do the PS magazine and Pete is a whiz on the

computer. Im a dunce when it comes to working with

the computer but he acts as an extension during the

colouring of Tor I actually did the colouring but I

could never have done it without Petes help. The mo-

ment I touch something on the machine it goes blooey!So Pete is like an extension of my hand.

TW: I noticed that in terms of the colouring, its a

lot more sympathetic with your linework than say

the Sgt Rock book you did with Brian Azzarello.

I presume that the colouring has become a little

more sophisticated?

JK:Thank you. I appreciate that.

TW: Looking at Tor, the palette is a lot more subtle.

JK:I appreciate that very much. Those are my at-

tempts at colouring because Im at that machine work-

ing it. The longer I get into this stuff that Im doing, the

I try to keep my work as simple and as

direct as possible and as spontaneous aspossible.

more I want to control every aspect of it for good or for

bad. The lettering is a font thats actually my lettering

that was supplied to me mechanically through the

computer but thats my original lettering. The drawing,

the story, the colouring, every aspect of whats coming

out as much as I can control it. I do it because I feel

that what Im creating as far as story and drawing is

concerned should be judged on the basis that this is

all my work. Deadlines are a constant that everybody

lives with in this business, so its necessary under those

circumstances very often to get one person to do the

pencilling, another person to do the inking, someone

else to do the colour and so on and so forth. But I feelvery strongly that this dissipates the one direction that

a piece of artwork should be taking.

TW: How has your speed changed over the years

in terms for example of how long it would take you

to draw an issue?

JK:Thats an interesting question because I dont put

a time slot, I dont set a time slot when I sit down to

work. My feeling, my sense is however that I feel a little

bit more secure about what Im doing moreso than

when I was younger and I believe that the work goes

a little faster. I gained a certain amount of sureness,

commitment. I do barrel ahead on my work. I have no

compunctions, I have no fears about what Im doing.

I dont second-guess myself at this stage of the game.

I feel quite certain about what I want to do, for good

or for bad. Im pretty certain about what I want to put

down on the paper, what I want to communicate and

I think because of that, I dont think its a matter of

physically working faster, I think its a matter of being

able to make decisions a little faster that enables me to

get the work done.

TW: But I presume that the Tor pages were hand-

drawn by yourself and then scanned in?

JK:I know what Im trying to do. Im not quite sure

how it communicates to others but nevertheless I know

what Im trying to do.

TW: Why do you think Tarzan, in light of the fact

its the eightieth anniversary of Tarzan in comicstrip, why do you think adventure still resonates?

JK:I dont know. To me I can only gauge my personal

reaction to old characters like Tarzan. As I said before

a man Id never met or even talked to, Hal Foster,

was able to do things in his work that communicated

to me very effectively. So very consciously I tried to

create the same kind of effect in the work that I do. I

think that theres a spontaneity and a simplicity, in his

work that Im constantly trying to inject in mine and

the other part of it is that I try to do enough in terms of

finishing my drawings where the person whos reading

it actually finishes the art in their own mind themselves.

I try to keep my work as simple and as direct as pos-

sible and as spontaneous as possible which is difficult


4/6

because its a lot easier I think to throw a lot of stuff into

the work youre doing, I think its a lot easier to do that

than to try to simplify and bring the work down to some

essence so that it not only communicates effectively

but brings the reader into whats happening, makes

him part of the story. I think thats a positive and a good

thing in film, in books, in writing. Some of the best writ-

ers I think are those who are astute enough to select

the proper words without a lot of extraneous words.

TW: Your work, while it looks simple, is very bold

and you can see the lineage between your work

on Tor and somebody like Foster and some of the

newspaper strips. You can see a direct connection

between you and their sensibilities

JK: I appreciate that.

TW: Im going to change the subject now. So

youre doing something for this Wednesday Com-

ics thing for DC? Adam [Kubert] is writing a Sgt

Rock story that youre drawing?

JK:Thats a very pleasurable deed for me because my

son Adam wrote the script and Im illustrating it and its

10 whole pages. I havent quite started it yet. But thats

next on the agenda.

TW: Did it feel strange, almost like the roles were alittle bit reversed?

JK:Yes and Im enjoying it very much. Every opportu-

nity that I get to work with my son whose work I admire

and respect I really enjoy.

TRIPWIRE: This chat is predominantly about Tor

with the hardcover just coming out. How did you

feel returning to the character after quite a long

time away?

JOE KUBERT:Well I find it challenging, I find it in-

teresting and Im very happy with the opportunity to be

a little bit more innovative, try to build a little bit more

credibility into the character, stretch the story a little

bit. I find it very enjoyable and I appreciate the fact that

I had the opportunity to do it.

TW: How has the character changed? Did you sit

down and make a conscious decision to flesh out

the character? How did you approach returning to

the character?

JK:In my attempt to make the character more credible

and still inject some creativity and imagination into

the story, I tried my best to give some rationale, some

reasonable justification to the events that occurred.

Hes coming into a different place that was completely

and totally hidden, its a new land that was encircled

by mountains I felt gave an opportunity to perhaps

give some logical reason for certain animals to have

still been existing at that time, so it was like finding a

lost world so to speak and that was the direction I took

it. Again my attempt was since this whole story is takingplace during a time that very few of us actually know

what happened, my attempt was to make it as logical

and as reasonable, therefore as credible and believ-

able as possible.

TW When you first created the character back in

the Fifties, I presume that Burroughs and Tarzan

were big influences on Tor?

JK:Well actually the character gave birth as a cave-

man Tarzan. I had always been influenced very, very


5/6

heavily by Fosters handling of the Tarzan character

which to me always seemed regardless of what he was

doing, always seemed so completely credible and

believable that the story and what happened to the

character had an effect on me. The story communi-

cated to me which is exactly what I tried to do with the

Tor character, that is to give him emotional reactions

that would seem reasonable based on that time. His

connection with the woman. As a matter of fact, there

are stories historically mentioned of children which is

a part of the Tor story, of children who were born that

looked not normal and they were shunted. They were

put aside or left out in the open to die. So by injecting

these kinds of elements into the story, I felt that theybecome meaningful, they become reasonable and

therefore credible and believable.

TW: How much historical research did you do in

terms of the flora and fauna?

JK:Ive always been fascinated by as most children

have starting very young with dinosaurs and those

creatures of that sort. Ive always been fascinated

by that and Ive read many, many books and have

practically lived in the Museum of Natural History for

a long time. Ive done preliminary sketches on that.

Ive always admired the illustrations done by Knight,

the wonderful artist who illustrated some of the early

drawings of paintings of the dinosaurs based on the

archaeological findings and thats part of the joy of do-

ing what I do and that is Im able to select those stories

and the type of characters that interest me and put

them down on paper.

TW: Because there was such a huge gap between

the first run of Tor and the more recent series, did

you sit down and think Im now going to do with

the character and the series what I was perhaps

not capable enough as an artist to do in the Fifties

when I first did Tor?

JK:Youre absolutely right, Joel. Hopefully we all grow

and learn as we get older and I certainly thought that

was one of the challenges and interesting things that I

faced in doing Tor again. Very thankfully, Paul Levitz

here at DC gave me the go-ahead to do it and I have

pretty much free rein to direct myself at any area that I

feel interests me. Im in a very fortunate position.

TW: So you did everything except the colouring?

JK:Thats an interesting point. The fellow who works

with me is Pete Carlsson. He is in charge of produc-

tion for the army books that were also contracted

for. We do the PS magazine and Pete is a whiz on the

computer. Im a dunce when it comes to working with

the computer but he acts as an extension during the

colouring of Tor I actually did the colouring but I couldnever have done it without Petes help. The moment

I touch something on the machine it goes blooey! So

Pete is like an extension of my hand.

TW: I noticed that in terms of the colouring, its a

lot more sympathetic with your linework than say

the Sgt Rock book you did with Brian Azzarello.

I presume that the colouring has become a little

more sophisticated?

JK:Thank you. I appreciate that.

TW: Looking at Tor, the palette is a lot more subtle.

JK:I appreciate that very much. Those are my at-

tempts at colouring because Im at that machine work-

ing it. The longer I get into this stuff that Im doing, the

more I want to control every aspect of it for good or for

bad. The lettering is a font thats actually my lettering

that was supplied to me mechanically through the

computer but thats my original lettering. The drawing,

the story, the colouring, every aspect of whats coming

out as much as I can control it. I do it because I feel

that what Im creating as far as story and drawing is

concerned should be judged on the basis that this is

all my work. Deadlines are a constant that everybody

lives with in this business, so its necessary under those

circumstances very often to get one person to do the

pencilling, another person to do the inking, someone

else to do the colour and so on and so forth. But I feel

very strongly that this dissipates the one direction that

a piece of artwork should be taking.

TW: How has your speed changed over the years

in terms for example of how long it would take you

to draw an issue?

JK:Thats an interesting question because I dont put

a time slot, I dont set a time slot when I sit down to

work. My feeling, my sense is however that I feel a little

bit more secure about what Im doing moreso than

when I was younger and I believe that the work goes

a little faster. I gained a certain amount of sureness,

commitment. I do barrel ahead on my work. I have nocompunctions, I have no fears about what Im doing.

I dont second-guess myself at this stage of the game.

I feel quite certain about what I want to do, for good

or for bad. Im pretty certain about what I want to put

down on the paper, what I want to communicate and

I think because of that, I dont think its a matter of

physically working faster, I think its a matter of being

able to make decisions a little faster that enables me to

get the work done.

TW: But I presume that the Tor pages were hand-

drawn by yourself and then scanned in?

JK:I know what Im trying to do. Im not quite sure

how it communicates to others but nevertheless I know

what Im trying to do.

TW: Why do you think Tarzan, in light of the fact

its the eightieth anniversary of Tarzan in comic

strip, why do you think adventure still resonates?

JK:I dont know. To me I can only gauge personally

on these things the old characters like Tarzan as I said

before a man Id never met or even talked to Hal Foster

was able to do things in his work that communicated

to me so effectively that I lived with that and very

consciously tried to gain the same kind of effect in

the work that I do. I think that theres a spontaneity, a

simplicity, a credibility in his work that Im constantly

trying to inject in my work and the other part of it is that


6/6

I try to do enough in terms of finishing my drawings

where the person whos reading it actually finishes the

art in their own mind themselves. I try to keep my work

as simple and as direct as possible and as spontaneous

as possible which is difficult because its a lot easier I

think to throw a lot of stuff into the work youre doing.

I think its a lot easier to do that than to try to bring

the work down to some essence so that it not only

communicates effectively but brings the reader into

whats happening, makes him part of the story. I think

thats a positive and a good thing in film, in books, in

writing. Some of the best writers I think are those who

are astute enough to select the proper words without a

lot of extraneous words.

TW: Your work, while it looks simple, is very bold

and you can see the lineage between your work

on Tor and somebody like Foster and some of the

newspaper strips. You can see a direct connection

between you and their sensibilities

JK: I appreciate that.

TW: Im going to change the subject now. So

youre doing something for this Wednesday Com-

ics thing for DC? Adam [Kubert] is writing a Sgt

Rock story that youre drawing?

JK:Thats a very pleasurable deed for me because my

son Adam wrote the script and Im illustrating it. Its 10

whole pages. I havent quite started it yet.

TW: Did it feel strange, almost like the roles were a

little bit reversed?

JK:Im enjoying it very much. Every opportunity I get

to work with my son whose work I respect I enjoy.

TW: So youve also got another original graphic

novel coming out. Who is publishing that?

JK:Its a war graphic novel and the publisher is DC. Its

a story about the Vietnamese War, a story that occurred

in 1965. I was fortunate enough to meet some of theprinciples who were involved in a particular battle in

which the American Special Forces and other Ameri-

can soldiers and thousands of the South Vietnamese

were routed. I met the people who were involved in it. I

thought it was something that I really wanted to do and

its in the process of being finished.

TW: So how many pages is that?

JK:The book will probably contain anywhere between

a minimum of 200 and 220 pages. The actual story

that I did is 155 pages and in addition to that, there are

photographs. Its all based on true events and there are

very few variations from the truth.

TW: So theyll be the photos taken by the soldiers

who were actually there?

JK:Yes.

TW: It sounds like an incredibly ambitious project.

Its incredible that you still have this passion to

produce something that creators a quarter of your

age would balk at the length.

JK:As I said before, Im a very fortunate person

because I can pretty much pick and choose what it is

that I want to do and what I get into. Ive got several

other projects that I may decide to do later but I wanted

to get on this particular book. It wont be out in the

bookstores until probably the first or second month of

2010 but it is being put together now.

TW: How is it that you still have the passion? Is itjust that youre striving to improve your work or

youre constantly finding subjects that youre still

interested in that youve not been able to express?

JK:I really dont know what the answer is except that

Im very grateful to the gods to still retain the sort of

passion that pushes me to do these things. I still have

the means by which Im still asked to do a lot of work

which Im extremely grateful for and because of that

situation, Im able to be very selective of the work that

Im doing. And I must admit I guess it is that passion.

Im driven to do it and its not real work. Ive told many

people that, since I was twelve or thirteen years old,

Ive never worked a day in my life.

TW: Do you think that the comics industry is still a

good vehicle for people to tell stories in a way that

they cant do in any other medium?

JK:Absolutely and when those books are done right,

when there is a good marriage between art and story,

theres nothing like holding these things in ones hands,

being able to turn the pages back and forth. Im fully

aware of the advantages of the computer and being

able to pull information up at will and all of those things.

But I dont think that thats a substitute for actually hold-

ing something in your hand.

TW: Do you think the continued interest in things

like Tarzan and Tor is that people still enjoy that

sense of wonder that they get from being able tovisit places that existed millions of years ago or

never existed?

JK:I hope thats the reason people are interested and

want to see the things that Im doing. I dont hide the fact

that Tor is just a caveman Tarzan. I just finished a seven

page insert that will be part of a Conan book that Im not

sure when its coming out. I was asked by the editor, a

very good fellow Phil Simon, to do it. I did a seven page

Conan insert. I just sent it in last week as a matter of fact.

It still has to be coloured. In addition to that Tim Truman

who is the writer of the Conan series is doing the rest of

the book so Ive done seven pages, Tim is doing fifteen

pages and Tim is a graduate of my school, which was

the biggest kick.

NO ORDINARY JOE

With a man whose careerhas spanned seven decades,we couldnt possibly giveyou a checklist of everythinghes ever done, so heres afew selected highlights ofthe Joe Kubert library

Jew Gangster (iBooks)

ISBN-10: 1596878274

ISBN-13: 978-1596878273

Sgt Rock Archives Vo1. 1-3 (DC Comics)

Vol.1: ISBN-10: 1563898411

ISBN-13: 978-1563898419

Vol.2: ISBN-10: 1401201466

ISBN-13: 978-1401201463Vol.3: ISBN-10: 1401204104

ISBN-13: 978-1401204105

Sgt Rock: The Prophecy (DC

Comics)

ISBN-10: 1401212484

ISBN-13: 978-1401212483

Tarzan The Joe Kubert Years Volumes

1-3 (Dark Horse)

Vol. 1: ISBN-10: 1593074042

ISBN-13: 978-1593074043

Vol. 2: ISBN-10: 1593074166ISBN-13: 978-1593074166

Vol. 3: ISBN-10: 1593074174

ISBN-13: 978-1593074173

Tor Volume 1: Joe Kubert Library

(DC Comics)

ISBN-10: 1563897814

ISBN-13: 978-1563897818

Tor A Prehistoric Odyssey (DC Comics)

ISBN-13: 978-1-4012-2148-5

pic:JOELMEADOWS

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