FAX FROM SARAJEVO

The astonishing true story of a family in Sarajevo, Bosnia, trapped in a city under siege as war and genocide rage around them, with only a fax machine to communicate. Artist Joe Kubert was on the receiving end of these faxes, sent by his trapped friend, comics publisher and fellow cartoonist, Ervin Rustemagic. Kubert brilliantly illustrates their struggle toward freedom against the worst kind of odds, and the death and destruction of their friends and their beloved city, crushed by an invading army. It's the tale of a very real war, told from the perspective of innocent victims, but it's also full of strength, survival, and love Kubert vowed to illustrate it in order to make the world more aware of this genocide and the atrocities that were happening to innocent civilians and families. This was first published in 1996, to international acclaim, and translated into upwards of ten languages. Joe Kubert passed away in 2012, so it was up to Rustemagic himself to update this. He has, handsomely, adding six pages "About Joe, me, my family, and this book--new color photos which bring us up to date to the present day." The book also includes 25 pages of black and white photos of Sarajevo before, during and after the ordeal that Joe so eloquently illustrates. Forward by Joe himself, and dedicated by him to 24-year-old cartoonist Karim Zaimovic, who was killed by a grenade in August 1995. This also includes the first actual FAX message from Ervin to Joe, from March 1992: "Although the situation in Bosnia is not clear and calm at all, I have decided to go back home..." Here's the story quite well told, from Wikipedia: Ervin Rustemagić (born 1952) is a Bosnian comic book publisher, distributor, and rights agent, born in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and currently based in Slovenia. He is the founder of Strip Art Features (SAF) in Sarajevo, as well as the magazine Strip Art of the former Yugoslavia. Rustemagić (through Strip Art Features) represents artists such as Hermann Huppen, Bane Kerac, and Joe Kubert. His personal plight, documented by telefax during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, was the theme of the award-winning nonfiction graphic novel Fax from Sarajevo by Joe Kubert. Rustemagić founded Strip Art in 1971 at the age of 17, and founded Strip Art Features in 1972. Strip Art won the Yellow Kid Prize [de] of Lucca Comics & Games as Best Foreign Comics Publisher in 1984. With the beginning of the Bosnian War in early 1992, Rustemagić's home and the SAF offices in the Sarajevo suburb of Ilidža were destroyed. More than 14,000 pieces of original art were lost in the flames, including pieces by American artists Hal Foster, Doug Wildey, Joe Kubert, Warren Tufts, Sergio Aragonés, George McManus, Alex Raymond, Charles M. Schulz, Mort Walker, John Prentice, Al Williamson, and Bud Sagendorf; works by Argentinean artists such as Alberto Breccia and Carlos Meglia; and pieces by European creators like André Franquin, Maurice Tillieux, Hermann, Martin Lodewijk, Philippe Bercovici, Giorgio Cavazzano, John Burns, and Ferdinando Tacconi. Rustemagić was trapped in the war-torn city with his family, sheltering in an apartment building in Dobrinja. Some months later, in October 1992, the family moved locations to the Sarajevo Holiday Inn, at that point mostly occupied by foreign journalists and constantly under fire. Thanks to help from European publishers and artists, in late 1993 Rustemagić gained journalist accreditation, enabling him to escape Bosnia and Herzegovina. After more than a month fruitlessly attempting to get his family out of the country, he was given Slovenian citizenship, which immediately transferred to his family. In September 1993 the family was reunited in Split, Croatia. This was the story told in Fax from Sarajevo. Out Of Print. Condition: Fine. Very light edge wearwith a small tear at the top cover.