Man of Rock: A Biography of Joe Kubert (review)

Joe Kubert’s life reads at times like the history of American comics. From the impressionable young Kubert’s purchase of Action Comics 1 straight off the newsstands, to his early tutelage under comics luminaries in Harry Chesler’s shop; from the unwitting part he played in the superhero genre’s revival (he inked the Silver Age Flash’s debut), to his conceptualization of the first 3-D comics; from the refinement of the war comics genre, to his creation of the first accredited university for comics artists—Kubert somehow connects with nearly everything, and everyone, of consequence to the industry. But if Kubert is, as his biographer calls him, the “man of rock,” then Bill Schelly is the man of links, weaving the people, places, and projects associated with his subject into an impressive tapestry.

In his introduction, Schelly asks why Joe Kubert achieved the critical attention and financial success that eluded so many of his contemporaries. His biography is an attempt to understand the forces that shaped Kubert’s work ethic, art style, and worldview. Schelly begins with the home Kubert never really knew, the small Ukrainian village (or shetl) of Ozeryany. It was here that Kubert’s father, Jakob, a traveling Jewish scholar, married his mother, Etta. Though Joe Kubert’s parents immigrated to America when he was only a month old, Ozeryany perhaps becomes as much a player in Schelly’s understanding of Kubert as are his parents. When Ozeryany was overrun by Nazis, none of the European Kuberts survived. Schelly speculates that the fate of the European Kuberts and other Nazi atrocities impressed upon the young artist man’s capacity for evil, a realization that would shape his thematic concerns.

There are three recurring strains running through Man of Rock—Kubert’s need to draw, his constant innovation, and his struggle with the problem of evil. While Schelly does not view Kubert’s life and work exclusively through a Jewish lens, he is clearly sensitive to the ways in which the culture and faith might have shaped him. Schelly sees Kubert’s Tor, the story of a caveman with a more developed sense of morality than his contemporaries, as a response to Hitler’s “final solution.” Tor was short-lived, but would remain a personal favorite of Kubert’s, so much so that he would revisit his caveman when the opportunity arose.

Kubert would later explore the problem of evil in two very personal—and very different—projects. Fax from Sarajevo tells the story of family friend Ervin Rustemagic, who was caught in the Serbian military onslaught. Yossel, April 19, 1943 is an alternate history tale which examines what Kubert’s life—and death—might have been if his family had not immigrated to America before the Nazis overran Ozeryany. In his first chapter Schelly compares Joe Kubert, the literally naked immigrant, to a blank piece of paper waiting for a pen. Schelly later takes note that Kubert represents his doppelganger’s death in Yossel with a blank piece of paper.

Schelly’s interpretative lens is rarely intrusive, as he tends to weave ideas into the action seamlessly. Nowhere is this more evident than his treatment of the various players in Kubert’s life. Sometimes he builds characterization while reinforcing an important thematic strain. In the fifth chapter, for instance, Schelly contrasts Joe Kubert’s hyper-realistic art tendencies with his high school friend Norman Mauer’s more comic inclinations. He picks up the comparison again in the eighth chapter when Norman’s wife, Joan, notes that their personalities differed much in the same way as their art.

When Kubert’s friend and fellow artist, Alvin Hollingsworth, Jr., comes onto the scene, Schelly sets his appearance against the context of rising racial tensions, speaks to Kubert’s attitude about race, and ties it all together with Hollingsworth’s cultural impact. He would go on to become a painter, television personality, and key figure in the African American arts movement. When Schelly...