In October his new project, Fax from Sarajevo, is being released from Dark Horse Comics. Michael Gilman got the opportunity to speak with him about this, possibly the most important work he's done to date.
Michael Gilman: In October you're releasing a new project through Dark Horse, Fax from Sarajevo. How did this come about?
Joe Kubert: First, I just want to make it clear that this is something I started over 2 years before any publisher knew of its existence; it wasn't initiated by Dark Horse, although they've been absolutely terrific every step of the way since they've been involved. The book was precipitated by the experiences of a good friend of mine, Ervin Rustemagic, who was born, raised and lived in Sarajevo most of his life. He also has his own company, Strip Art Features or SAF, which he started in Sarajevo. The last time I visited him, about a year before the war broke out, he and his family were visiting in Holland where SAF also had an office. He knew a war was brewing in Sarajevo, but his wife and two children were very homesick and wanted desperately to go home. When it seemed like things were calming down in 1991, despite Ervin's feelings about the situation, they went back. Almost immediately the war got really hot -- to the degree that none of them could get out. They were stuck in Sarajevo between 1992 and 1994. That's when the height of all the killing and carnage the U.N. told us would never happen again was going on. During that time, the only way that he could get messages out was by fax. Fax from Sarajevo is that story... what he experienced in those two years, what had been happening in Sarajevo, his frustrations in trying to get out, what we, his friends, had been doing to try and get him out... and so forth.
Gilman: What made you decide to turn Ervin's faxes into a story?
Kubert: Despite the fact that there was some news in papers, very few people were cognizant of what the heck was going on in Sarajevo, and I felt this was something people should know about. I really didn't know where it was going to go or what might be done with it, I just wanted to put this down on paper in the best way that I knew how: using a combination of graphics and text, which most people refer to as a comic book... although there's nothing comical about this. I did it without any real thought as to whether it would sell or not. To my surprise, a number of publishers expressed interest, and I decided to go with Dark Horse.
Gilman: You were surprised other publishers were interested in it?
Kubert: I was. Since it was coming out as a comic book, the fact that it might be looked at with any sort of seriousness I doubted very much. I'm sure that one of the things that allowed for its acceptance was what Art Spiegelman did with Maus. He paved the way. The other factor is that the publishers perhaps saw an opportunity to spread the interest of comic books beyond the comic-book audience and into adult readers.
Gilman: How often did Ervin send you a fax?
Kubert: Every day, and very often more than once a day. I can't tell you the number of faxes that had gone between us... hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands of faxes.
Gilman: In the first chapter, Ervin mentions it was hard to get an outside phone line. I assume this problem got worse as the war escalated. How did he get around this?
Kubert: The only way he was able to do this was by sending the fax via satellite so it wasn't dependent on the phone lines. Of course he had to get to a place where they were capable of doing that -- for him that was usually the Ministry Building in which he had friends.
Gilman: This book covers from March of 1992 to late 1994. How did Ervin and his family get out?
Kubert: Ervin was able to get out first -- he was accredited as a reporter for a German TV station -- but couldn't take his wife and children with him. This was awful for him... to the point that after he was out a couple of weeks he wanted -- and intended -- to go back. He eventually got his family out a few months later; you can imagine what he went through during that time. Just prior to this he was able to get citizenship in the country of Slovenia -- where they're living now.
Gilman: How did you come to know Ervin?
Kubert: I first met Ervin at a comic-book convention in Lucca, Italy, about 25 years ago. I'd been invited as a guest from the United States to attend this convention and he had just started SAF.
Gilman: That's a long time. Because of your personal relationship to him was it hard to draw Fax from Sarajevo?
Kubert: It sure as hell was. I could not have done it while he was stuck in there, but once I started I realized how sensitive this thing was going to be. In fact, story-wise and picture-wise, the finished product goes beyond credibility -- but it's all true. As I was doing the book, Ervin would be telling me to stick to factual details. My approach to the book was to make it as interesting as I possibly could in addition to adhering to fact. If I was going to cover every nuance and every detail of what happened, it would have taken me 4,000 pages.
Gilman: I was amazed that you got the length down to 144 pages, 12 chapters of 12 pages each.
Kubert: And they include, incidentally, many of the actual faxes that I received from Ervin. It's also supplemented with an epilogue of text -- and that still isn't the entire story.
Gilman: What sort of topics are covered in the text-only epilogue?
Kubert: There are certain things that lent themselves to graphic illustration, but it would have been boring to have had talking heads for 10 pages when you can describe the same situation in two or three sentences. When I did the graphic part of the book I tried to pace the story and dramatize it the best way I knew how from a graphic standpoint. I supplemented that with the text pages so I could perhaps go into certain nuances and detail that I didn't feel worked quite as well graphically and therefore would have disrupted the pacing if included with the graphics.
Gilman: Why did you choose to release this as a 250-plus page hardcover book?
Kubert: I felt that Fax from Sarajevo should be a legitimate book. I didn't feel that it should be available only in the comic-book market, and Dark Horse has been terrific about this. They've already contracted with a book distributor that will be distributing it to all the major bookstores.
Gilman: This is in full color, right?
Kubert: Yes. It will be colored by an artist in Slovenia whose name is Zeljko Pahek. He has colored my work before under the supervision of Ervin. Everything that's colored comes to me, and I check that for details and quality. Then it goes back for corrections. There's nothing in the book that won't have been approved by me.
Gilman: Was Ervin aware of this project all along?
Kubert: Yes. I wanted him to know what I was doing. Not so much to ask permission because I would have done it anyway, but simply because I wanted him to know that I was doing it.
Gilman: Don't take this the wrong way, but does it feel good that it's almost over?
Kubert: I know what you mean. It was a sizable project, and it's taken most of two years for me to complete it. Each step that's been taken has been the most exciting thing that's happened to me, and although it's been something that I've wanted to do, that I was compelled to do, I am glad that it is finished and completed.