Fax from Sarajevo

In March 1992 Ervin Rustemagic, a well-regarded European comics agent, faxed a message from his Dutch office to the New Jersey home of his American friend and client, distinguished comics artist Kubert (Sgt. Rock; The Green Berets), detailing his plans to return to his home in the Sarajevo suburb of Dobrinja. Once back, relentless Serb bombardment trapped Rustemagic and his family, destroying their home and possessions. The family took shelter in a ruined building. For the next two and a half years Rustemagic communicated with Kubert and supporters in Europe via sporadically functioning fax machines, recounting the city's destruction, the Serb brutality inadequate multinational peacekeeping force and the physical and spiritual deprivations of life in a war zone. Kubert has used Rustemagic's faxed messages to recreate the family's experiences--a heartstopping nighttime dash across Sarajevo airport under fire; the deadly gauntlet of Serb snipers on the route between Dobrinja and Sarajevo--in a black-and-white, book-length comics work that brilliantly documents a family's wartime survival and escape against unbelievable odds. Kubert's mainstream comics narrative style can at times be heavyhanded, but his signature graphic style--brisk, precisely rendered, emotionally charged linework in dramatically composed panels--marks him as one of mainstream comics' most talented and celebrated interpreters of the horrors of war. (Oct.)