Back in 2010, on a trip to the Island of Maui in Hawaii, I purchased this oddity in a second-hand book shop in La Haina, Sojourn #1, published in September 1977.
Sojourn was a broadsheet sized, independently published comic, the brainchild of Joe Kubert and Ivan Snyder, featuring creator-owned stories by the likes of Kubert himself, Dick Giordano, Lee Elias, Sergio Aragones, John Severin and Doug Wildey , with a stunning fold-out poster by Steve Bisette and editorial support from Jack Harris.
The quality of the artwork is superb, reproduced presumably the same size as the originals, printed on good coated stock.
The lead story by Kubert involves his prehistoric Tarzan/caveman TOR, of which I had some familiarity, having bought the six issues that Kubert had drawn for DC back in 1975. At that time I was unaware that Kubert had originally drawn five issues of TOR first back in 1953 for St John Publications.
[Interestingly, I can find no information that states that these TOR stories have ever been collected in the subsequent hardcover TOR collections by DC. Can anyone confirm?]
Re-reading the issue now, I’m really impressed by the standard and quality of all the contributions. The artwork on the EAGLE strip by the great John Severin is especially fine.
I'm also particularly taken by the artwork of British-born artist Lee Elias on Kronos, the serialised story of which was eventually completed four years later in Warren’s The Rook. I'm convinced that Lee Elias and Frank Robbins must have shared some of the same DNA, the similarities in posing in their artwork are so great.
Sojourn ran for two issues, beset by distribution problems that probably caused its cancellation, although the mix of material - three private-eye strips, one caveman strip, a Western and an SF epic could do with more variety. That said, the avoidance of any superhero content is admirable.
The non-standard size and format of the comic probably challenged retailers as well. But it was a great experiment for an independent creator-owned property. The broadsheet format was of course followed by DC’s own short-lived Wednesday Comics 30-odd years later, but without the editorial content, or lofty ambition.
Anyway, enjoy the selection of pages I have included.
[Apologies for not colour-balancing the page reproductions, or scanning the pages on a flat-bed scanner ; Mrs B. is keeping me firmly away from the family in the spare bedroom while I sit out my COVID isolation!]
TOR was drawn largely caption free, different to the DC version of a few years earlier. Comparing it to my copy of TOR #1 from 1975, my preference is actually for the colour rendition in the DC comic, although I can see that Kubert was striving for a lean aesthetic here.
Central painted poster by Steve Bisette. This is a full double-spread broadsheet size. The intention was to have a similar poster in each issue.
First page from Dick Giordano's The Smooth.
E.V. Race Private Investgator, by Doug Wildey.
The superbly detailed work of John Severin on EAGLE.
Finally, I've included the editorial by Joe Kubert and Ivan Snyder on their ambitions for Sojourn:
