Joe Kubert's TOR - Volume One!

Some say that Joe Kubert was the finest comic book artist of all time. I'm not willing to give him that status myself as I regard both Jack Kirby and Will Eisner as more significant to the form, but Kubert was an artist I greatly admired and considered him akin to master draftsman John Buscema. Both Kubert and Buscema were able to bring grace and power to their comic book pages, and both held the human form as noble. Kubert was perhaps more gutteral in his expression with more pure energy erupting from his best pages, but always the story was essential and telling that story was always key. The greatest story Kubert ever told arguably was one he dreamed up himself while sailing to Europe as  a soldier, for it was there in the cramped quarters beneath the decks of a warship that Joe Kubert first thought of Tor. 

Tor was inspired by Tarzan and Kubert makes no bones about that. But by setting the brutal and wild adventures of Tor in the fanciful days of mankind's prehistory the connection to the more modern wild man created by Burroughs was shaded over a bit. Tor was a caveman, but not a real caveman, he was one who confronted dinosaurs and other monsters. It was not realism but passionate romance that Kubert was after with Tor, a primitive man who fought constantly in a dangerous world to stay alive, but who had quite literally an evolved sense of justice and a profound empathy for his fellow human beings. He was compelled to help others and that made him a mystery to his tribe who banished him and even to others who he helped along his travels. 

In the early 50's after over a decade in comics Kubert teamed up his longtime friend Norman Maurer to launch some comic books of their own. They entered into an arrangement with St. Johns Publishing and Tor hit the stands under the title 1,000,000 Years Ago. Maurer for his part had happened to marry the daughter of one of the Three Stooges and comic adventures of that hapless trio was the team's other project. But then 3-D happened. Actually Kubert and Maurer were key in developing their own approach to 3-D comics and the second and third issues of Tor were actually 3-D comics. Both are weirdly numbered issue two which is no end of confusing. 

In the first volume of DC's Joe Kubert Library which reprints these adventures of Tor, the 3-D effects have been eliminated for the sake of clarity. But in these tales we see Tor and his companion Chee-Chee roam the rocky landscapes of those prehistorical days seeking food and shelter and safety from the monsters that roam that impossible land with them. Also included in these comics are two other features, one by Maurer titled 'The Wizard of Ugghh" in which a prehistory version of W.C.Fields is an incompetent magician and "Danny Dreams" by Kubert which tells the whimsical advenures of a young boy who slips off into slumber in class and is transported to the days of dinosaurs and cavemen. Add in some stunning poster shots of dinsoaurs and you have a powerful package which made an incredible impression on the readers of the time. 

While the Joe Kubert Library volumes only have a page or two of the 3-D effect, the first Tor story in 3-D is included in the Yoe book Amazing 3-D Comics. While the ravages of time have meddled a bit with my vision, by careful manipulation of the 3-D glasses beneath my prescriptions I was able to behold fully the wonder of the 3-D effects. Quite impressive. For the record there is quite a bit of wonderful material in the back of the DC volume which discusses Kubert's plans for Tor in television and as a children's book even. As we'll see, he never was quite finished with this powerful figure. 

More next week when we take a gander at the second volume.

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