tripwire annual 2009 pages lores pt1
TRANSCRIPT
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8/12/2019 Tripwire Annual 2009 Pages Lores Pt1
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18 TRIPWIRE
King of the STONEAGE
JOE KUBERT on returning
to his creation TOR
after many years away
and much moreWORDS: JOEL MEADOWS
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8/12/2019 Tripwire Annual 2009 Pages Lores Pt1
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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
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8/12/2019 Tripwire Annual 2009 Pages Lores Pt1
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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
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8/12/2019 Tripwire Annual 2009 Pages Lores Pt1
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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
-
8/12/2019 Tripwire Annual 2009 Pages Lores Pt1
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
-
8/12/2019 Tripwire Annual 2009 Pages Lores Pt1
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