Potrzebie
Tuesday, January 03, 2012
Above: Jean Giraud (Moebius) draws Blueberry.
Below: Giraud, Joe Kubert and Neal Adams jam in 1972 on the French television series Tac au Tac. Click labels at bottom for more art by all three.
Labels: kubert, moebius, neal adams
¶ 12:56 PM 0 comments
Friday, July 16, 2010
When I worked at DC Comics during the 1990s I used to walk down a hall where the framed cover of that comic book was displayed. I would stop and study the faces in the crowd scene. Some people, such as Flo Steinberg (#5), Archie Goodwin (#15), Vince Colletta (#113), Ralph Reese (#137) and Larry Hama (#138), I had met before I began at DC. Others, such as colorist Bob LeRose (#77), Julie Schwartz (#81), production head Bob Rozakis (#121) and Trevor Von Eeden (#139), I met while working at DC. One day I turned over my stapler and was surprised to see a typewritten name taped to the underside. The stapler had once belonged to DC editor Murray Boltinoff (#119).
The code with numbers was a fascinating device, and it gave me the idea of doing something similar when I edited the DC/Skybox Cosmic Teams trading cards (1993). To identify the individual characters in the various teams, I designed the card backs to show outline drawings with a match-up of identifying names and numbers. Further, these cards employed a triptych effect in which three cards could be butted together to frame one image. Of all the triptych cards, the best was the Justice Society of America. With remarkable atmospheric perspective, Joe Kubert drew the Justice Society winning World War II with what appears to be the entire Allied invasion of Normandy in the background.
The Potrzebie restoration of the Galaxy Science Fiction wraparound cover with the outline names/numbers map brought some favorable reactions, so I thought I would try this again. This time the problem is not only the huge size necessary to see all the names, numbers and faces but how to see faces/names/numbers simultaneously. It's awkward. One solution would be to open multiple windows. Another would be to print out the sheet with the names and numbers. At any rate, keep clicking. A series of three clicks will eventually expand these images so they are very large and legible.
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Labels: cosmic teams, dc comics, galaxy, ident maps, kubert, larry hama, neal adams, ralph reese, skybox
¶ 3:08 PM 1 comments
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
More Kubert
Due May 11 as a Vertigo hardcover, Kubert's Dong Xoai graphic novel follows a detachment of Special Forces soldiers on a simple recon mission into the village of Dong Xoai. Kubert based the story, set in the early days of the Vietnam War, on extensive information gathered from the surviving members of Special Forces Detachment A-342, 5th Special Forces Group. It details the deployment and build-up that led to a horrific encounter. Dong Xoai was a strategically critical position due to its proximity to intersecting roads where men and materials were vulnerable to attack as they moved between war zones. Detachment A-342 served as advisors, training the Montagnards to defend against the Viet Cong, but the American soldiers were underequipped and outmanned by the enemy.
In November 1967, Kubert illustrated a series of Veterans Day articles for the Chicago Tribune and New York News Syndicate. Colonel Bill Stokes, one of the Dong Xoai suvivors, contacted Kubert decades later in hopes of acquiring the drawing showing two of his fellow Special Forces operatives carrying him to safety during a Viet Cong attack.
Because the original art was lost, Kubert decided to redraw the scene. After reading a comprehensive 35-page document compiled by the surviving members of Detachment A-342 (included in the book), Kubert wanted to recreate the incident as a graphic novel and went to visit Stokes, who supplied him with photographic reference.
Kubert recalled, “When I learned of this occurrence from one of the principles involved, I could not keep my mind (or my pencil) from putting it into a graphic form. An incredible story of bravery and camaraderie that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. What I heard from Col. Stokes and read in that document moved me to drive down to North Carolina to see him and tell him I intended to do a graphic novel based on his experiences. I told him that this was something I just had to do. I worked in pencil because the story lent itself to a more spontaneous look, and with the dialogue, the stuff Stokes related was so real to me that I tried to adhere to whatever he told me. Overall, I tried best to convey the credibility and reality of what happened. These things that seemed totally impossible actually happened, and it all deserves to be remembered."
For Kubert slide show of art, plus Librado Romero photos like one below, go here.
Due May 11 as a Vertigo hardcover, Kubert's Dong Xoai graphic novel follows a detachment of Special Forces soldiers on a simple recon mission into the village of Dong Xoai. Kubert based the story, set in the early days of the Vietnam War, on extensive information gathered from the surviving members of Special Forces Detachment A-342, 5th Special Forces Group. It details the deployment and build-up that led to a horrific encounter. Dong Xoai was a strategically critical position due to its proximity to intersecting roads where men and materials were vulnerable to attack as they moved between war zones. Detachment A-342 served as advisors, training the Montagnards to defend against the Viet Cong, but the American soldiers were underequipped and outmanned by the enemy.
In November 1967, Kubert illustrated a series of Veterans Day articles for the Chicago Tribune and New York News Syndicate. Colonel Bill Stokes, one of the Dong Xoai suvivors, contacted Kubert decades later in hopes of acquiring the drawing showing two of his fellow Special Forces operatives carrying him to safety during a Viet Cong attack.
Because the original art was lost, Kubert decided to redraw the scene. After reading a comprehensive 35-page document compiled by the surviving members of Detachment A-342 (included in the book), Kubert wanted to recreate the incident as a graphic novel and went to visit Stokes, who supplied him with photographic reference.
Kubert recalled, “When I learned of this occurrence from one of the principles involved, I could not keep my mind (or my pencil) from putting it into a graphic form. An incredible story of bravery and camaraderie that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. What I heard from Col. Stokes and read in that document moved me to drive down to North Carolina to see him and tell him I intended to do a graphic novel based on his experiences. I told him that this was something I just had to do. I worked in pencil because the story lent itself to a more spontaneous look, and with the dialogue, the stuff Stokes related was so real to me that I tried to adhere to whatever he told me. Overall, I tried best to convey the credibility and reality of what happened. These things that seemed totally impossible actually happened, and it all deserves to be remembered."
For Kubert slide show of art, plus Librado Romero photos like one below, go here.
©2010 The New York Times Company
Labels: bill stokes, kubert, librado romero, vietnam
¶ 6:49 PM 0 comments
Saturday, April 03, 2010
