Rating: 
Summary: It made me understand more than months of media coverage
Review: I'm Italian, I live very close to where all this happened. Yet, as it was happening, tons and tons of media coverage were not able to communicate the scope and the size of this unbelievably tragic war. But after I read this book I felt my stomach wrenching at the mere thought of what happened just a few hours from my home. This book is a great testimoniance of an horrible massacre that happened under our very eyes.While the books deserves 5 stars for its documentaristic merits, as far as its "literary merits" go there are some flaws. Joe Kubert's art is too "heroic", as if the author was not able to "get rid of his ability" of making a war story or a super hero story so powerful and involving. But this is no war fantasy, this is the reality and I feel like Joe Kubert, despite the tremendous work, is not really able to convey all the emotions and his storytelling feels, overall, a little bit cold. What really puts the book on its tracks are the protagonist's numerous faxes (remember! this is a true biographical story) which are enclosed in the book just following or preceding Joe Kubert's renditions of the same fact. The effect of the comic art and the faxes combinated is truly devastating making this book, as a whole, a true emotional experience and a great lesson in modern history (and humanity). An important and enriching read. I'm now anxiously waiting for Joe Sacco's "Safe Area Gorazde: The War in Eastern Bosnia 1992-1995"
Rating: 
Summary: ONE OF THE MOST POWERFUL AND IMPORTANT GRAPHIC NOVELS EVER
Review: In 1945, we told the world, "Never again." In 1992, the promise was broken into bloody shards. That was the year the war broke out in Sarajevo, Bosnia, the year that genocide revisited the planet. It was the year that Ervin Rustemagic - an international businessman whose clients included author Joe Kubert - found himself and his family trapped in a city under siege. Ervin's only means of communication to the outside world was via his fax machine. As Joe began to receive these messages from Ervin, he did what he had done for years - he put the story to paper. Renowned comics creator Joe Kubert has been writing and illustrating comic books since the 1940s, including Batman, Superman, Tarzan, Enemy Ace, and Sgt. Rock. Fax from Sarajevo is by far one of the highest achievements of one of comics' greatest living masters. The hardcover edition of Fax from Sarajevo has won numerous awards including a Harvey Award for Best Graphic Album of Original Work, an Eisner Award for Best Graphic Album, The Don Thompson Award for best Nonfiction Book, The Prix Alph-Art '98 Award for best foreign book published in France, Le Prix France Info Award for the best non-fiction book published in France, and the Parent's Choice Award. "In the tradition of Art Spiegleman's Maus... It's a current-events lesson for anyone with the ability to read." Albuquerque Journal "Joe Kubert's Fax from Sarajevo examines 20th-century genocide with the best comic-book art available in our time." The Village Voice "Kubert creates what may be the most journalistically impressive comic book ever." The Huntsville Times "...Brilliantly documents a family's wartime survival and escape against unbelievable odds." Publishers Weekly
Rating:
Summary: The Power of Image and Text
Review: In the pages of this book are probably the most heart-gripping images ever put to print. Joe Kubert, a 50 year veteran of the comic book industry and one of the finest graphic storytellers alive, has brought to the world the harrowing tale of cartoonist and publisher Ervin Rustemagic and his family, trapped in Sarajevo during the 1992-93 seige. The plight of short supplies, unseen snipers, an impotent worldwide bureaucracy, the ever-present threat of violent death, the deceptively euphemistic horror of "ethnic cleansing", and no means of escape would have brought weaker people to their knees. Rustemagic's true story of survival, in the purest sense, is a nightmarish, but necessary read, to understand what the Sarajevans endured on a daily basis. Told in a combination of painstakingly detailed panels (some of Joe Kubert's finest work ever), segments of fax transmissions (Rustemagic's only means of contact with the outside world), and a collection of photographs taken during the seige. This is a story that must be told, so the world will not dare forget.
Rating:
Summary: Heartrendering truth of man against humanity. A MUST READ.
Review: The first line of the fly-leaf says it all. "In 1945, we told the world, NEVER AGAIN. In 1992, we forgot our promise."This illustrated, hard-cover book by Joe Kubert, transports the reader to the battle grounds of Sarajevo during its most perilous times. It serves as a reminder to those of us who remember 1945, yet is important to the youth of the world as a warning. Graphic yet not gory, it is a true story of survival. Mr. Kubert's ability to portray such a historical event in comic book form is ingenious. It's a book you won't be able to put down, but you'll have to, if only to regain your composure. "FAX FROM SARAJEVO" has less pages than "War and Peace," but is a book of epic proportion
Rating:
Summary: Heartrendering truth of man against humanity. A MUST READ.
Review: The first line of the fly-leaf says it all. "In 1945, we told the world, NEVER AGAIN. In 1992, we forgot our promise."
This illustrated, hard-cover book by Joe Kubert, transports the reader to the battle grounds of Sarajevo during its most perilous times. It serves as a reminder to those of us who remember 1945, yet is important to the youth of the world as a warning. Graphic yet not gory, it is a true story of survival. Mr. Kubert's ability to portray such a historical event in comic book form is ingenious. It's a book you won't be able to put down, but you'll have to, if only to regain your composure. "FAX FROM SARAJEVO" has less pages than "War and Peace," but is a book of epic proportion
Rating: 
Summary: lacks something
Review: This is a sad story and I applaud Kubert for putting the effort into making this and trying to relay what happened in Sarajevo to people. However the style doesn't suit the story. The drawing and thought bubbles are just too reminiscent of a super her comic. If you compare the book to Sacco's "Safe Area", the stories are very similiar and equally heart breaking, but the presentation lends to the horror in Sacco's book. That being said, Sacco was there, while Kubert is basically translating from communications. He does a good job of relating from the faxes, but you come away feeling that this could have been so much better. I think you should read it if interested, but Sacco's I think should be taught in schools. So make sure to get that one.
Rating:
Summary: lacks something
Review: This is a sad story and I applaud Kubert for putting the effort into making this and trying to relay what happened in Sarajevo to people. However the style doesn't suit the story. The drawing and thought bubbles are just too reminiscent of a super her comic. If you compare the book to Sacco's "Safe Area", the stories are very similiar and equally heart breaking, but the presentation lends to the horror in Sacco's book. That being said, Sacco was there, while Kubert is basically translating from communications. He does a good job of relating from the faxes, but you come away feeling that this could have been so much better. I think you should read it if interested, but Sacco's I think should be taught in schools. So make sure to get that one.
Rating:
Summary: Kubert's most relevant (anti-)war book yet.
Review: Unlike Safe Area Goradze, this story isn't drawn by someone who was there. This book is Kubert's gift to a friend and colleague - yes it's done in the same artistic style as Kubert used in his superhero and war books, but this isn't Sgt Rock, or even Enemy Ace.
Unlike some of the others who have reviewed this book, I found that the story works well as told in an American comic style. This is the story of the Rustemagic family, but it's also the story of the horror felt by their friends around the world once they realized what was happening.
This is a book about Americans awakening to a horror happening halfway around the world, as well as a book about the horrors of ethnic cleansing and civil war.
Rating:
Summary: Kubert's most relevant (anti-)war book yet.
Review: Unlike Safe Area Goradze, this story isn't drawn by someone who was there. This book is Kubert's gift to a friend and colleague - yes it's done in the same artistic style as Kubert used in his superhero and war books, but this isn't Sgt Rock, or even Enemy Ace.
Unlike some of the others who have reviewed this book, I found that the story works well as told in an American comic style. This is the story of the Rustemagic family, but it's also the story of the horror felt by their friends around the world once they realized what was happening.
This is a book about Americans awakening to a horror happening halfway around the world, as well as a book about the horrors of ethnic cleansing and civil war.
Rating:
Summary: A powerful tale, but not well executed
Review: While reading this graphic novel, I continually found myself wishing it existed in a pure, written format, like a traditional novel. I have nothing against grahic novels, I collected comics for a number of years when I was younger and even today will occassionally pick up a comic or graphic novel I've heard of. But this one somehow manages to fall short of its obviously heart-felt attempt to be a great piece of story telling. I became interested in "Fax" while speaking with a friend who spent a year in Kosovo and witnessed many of the same atrocities shown in "Fax." So I finally picked up a copy and read it. My difficulty is not with the story so much as the art. Joe Kubert does have a knack for showing war, but his artwork is very inconsistent, particularly in his drawings of people. Throughout the book I had difficulty distinguishing some of the characters from one another. Kubert has a scratchy art style that just did not necessarily lend itself well to this story. And because of the artistic inconsistencies, it made it difficult to follow the story in places. I'm considering re-reading it and perhaps the second time through, with a bit more familiarity with all that is going on, I'll be able to better appreciate it. Its' clear Kubert poured himself into this book, the problem is his artistic style may not have the best one for relating this story. Still, I do recommend it. It tells a frightening tale of a war that we in America still seem largely ignorant of, and it also functions as a cautionary tale against the atrocities precipitated by hate and violence.
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