jekutree's review
5.0
My first Kubert, what an experience.
A lot of what I’m about to say is going to be in praise of Kubert who’s page designs, composition and story telling I think are all nigh perfect. He never gets too fancy and puts his brilliance for story telling above the plot, everything he does is in service of the story. Every single panel conveys exactly what it’s supposed to, it’s ridiculous how clear everything is. Even panel choices contribute to the storytelling. Kubert knows exactly when to utilize landscape/widescreen panels for important actions, vertical panels for vertical movements, shifting the “camera” back for a row of panels to highlight how empty the West is and using 4 panels in a row the illustrate rapid action or though are only some of the pure comic storytelling goodness in Kubert’s work.
Kubert’s illustration is also incredible. He uses lots of lines for detail and texture. You can totally see his influence on people like Neal Adams. The figure drawing and backgrounds are always dynamic. Each scene is so alive because of the gritty saloons and personality dripping from each cowboy on the page.
The story too I think is pretty great. Sure, it’s pretty standard Western stuff but it’s structured in such a way that you go from A to B to C really fluidly. I could totally see how this was serialized but the way it’s collected in the black and white edition I own has no breaks in it’s presentation but that’s fine. It flows well if you read it non-stop but there are also nice, clear points to take breaks.
This was actually a lot better than I thought it was going to be. I knew Kubert was a renowned cartoonist but I really wasn’t expecting to be as blown away as I was. You can tell he’s so comfortable with telling stories in the comics medium that each page could stand as it’s own comics masterpiece.
A lot of what I’m about to say is going to be in praise of Kubert who’s page designs, composition and story telling I think are all nigh perfect. He never gets too fancy and puts his brilliance for story telling above the plot, everything he does is in service of the story. Every single panel conveys exactly what it’s supposed to, it’s ridiculous how clear everything is. Even panel choices contribute to the storytelling. Kubert knows exactly when to utilize landscape/widescreen panels for important actions, vertical panels for vertical movements, shifting the “camera” back for a row of panels to highlight how empty the West is and using 4 panels in a row the illustrate rapid action or though are only some of the pure comic storytelling goodness in Kubert’s work.
Kubert’s illustration is also incredible. He uses lots of lines for detail and texture. You can totally see his influence on people like Neal Adams. The figure drawing and backgrounds are always dynamic. Each scene is so alive because of the gritty saloons and personality dripping from each cowboy on the page.
The story too I think is pretty great. Sure, it’s pretty standard Western stuff but it’s structured in such a way that you go from A to B to C really fluidly. I could totally see how this was serialized but the way it’s collected in the black and white edition I own has no breaks in it’s presentation but that’s fine. It flows well if you read it non-stop but there are also nice, clear points to take breaks.
This was actually a lot better than I thought it was going to be. I knew Kubert was a renowned cartoonist but I really wasn’t expecting to be as blown away as I was. You can tell he’s so comfortable with telling stories in the comics medium that each page could stand as it’s own comics masterpiece.
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