Read: "Fax from Sarajevo: a story of survival" by Joe Kubert

Fax from Sarajevo: a story of survival by Joe Kubert

Fax from Sarajevo: a story of survival by Joe Kubert

Comic book novel. Joe Kubert is a friend of Ervin Rustemagic, a comic book artist and business dude who lives in Sarajevo. The story is about Ervin and his trails to evacuate himself and his family from the city.

Ervin and family had fled Sarajevo for Holland when the Balkan wars first started. The returned to Sarajevo, their home and place of business, right before the Serbs started attacking the city. Ervin and family flee his suburban home after Serbs attack his residential street with tanks. After a year of lobbying by his overseas friends and colleagues Ervin is able to get to Croatia and from there work for his family's escape.

I did not like the artwork of this novel. I am much more impressed with Joe Sacco's work about the Bosnian War. Sacco's artwork is more accurate and emotional.

The storyline itself is as sad and maddening as the war. All through the story, as the Chetniks snipe and shell children and ambulances, I think about the Serbian apologists who overlook the atrocities their comrades/friends committed. How can the Serbs justify, or live with, paying a bounty on dead children?

The U.N. wasn't good for much of anything except witnessing the everyday cruelty. I suppose their presence there stopped a full out assault on Sarajevo by the Serbs. When the time came to save people the U.N. troops were about as effective as a toothless Chihuahua behind a fence.