Super Stuff in the Bronze Age: Sojourn

Monday, October 17, 2022

Bronze Age Obscurities - Sojourn #2

The landscape front cover of Sojourn #2.

As I noted in the comments to last week’s blog Bronze Age Obscurities, Sojourn #1 taking a look at the first issue of the innovative independent large-format comic, I managed to locate a copy of issue #2 for sale. The comic arrived in the post a couple of days ago, so I thought I’d share the final issue with our readers.

The second issue immediately introduces two changes in format; (1) the cover is landscape and (2) the logo now carries the strapline "New Vistas in Narrative Art".

Comparison of Sojourn to large-format DC and standard format comics.

Soujourn was the brainchild of Joe Kubert and Ivan Snyder. The first issue was dated Sept 1977 on the front cover. This second issue has no date on the cover, but the indicia inside also dates this issue as Sept 1977, and also numbers issues #2 as #1 by mistake.

The artistic content is very much the same as issue #1, continuing the stories by the likes of Kubert himself, Dick Giordano, Lee Elias, Sergio Aragones, John Severin and Doug Wildey , with another stunning fold-out poster by Steve Bissette and editorial support from Jack Harris. The magazine takes a tentative step to include text articles, with a huge article with incredibly small font by Jack Harris on the current state of the comic business, and another article on the film oeuvre of Roger Corman by Bill Kelley.

This was to be the last issue of Sojourn. I feel that this comic/magazine hybrid died before it could get traction. By issue #2 it was becoming a comic/text magazine hybrid, not too dissimilar from the Marvel Black & Whites of a few years earlier, but not serving the needs of Superhero fans, or cross-promoting recent films in the pop-culture genre.

There were other large format magazines at this time - Steranko’s Comixscene/Mediascene/Prevue and The Monster Times come to mind as magazines which started with large format broadsheet pages. The Monster Times did not survive beyond the mid-seventies and Prevue's survival into the 80s was at the expense of moving to a more traditional format.

Sojourn was aiming for a more mature audience, a late teen/early twenties audience familiar with underground comix and the satire of National Lampoon. The artwork in Sojourn #2 pushes the envelope a bit ; some nudity in the art by Dick Giordano puts the book beyond the reach of the Comics Code in its stated objective of new vistas of narrative art.

Perhaps lack of success was due to bad timing. Large-format DC Limited Collectors Editions (the brainchild of Sol Harrison to create something different on the newsstand) were close to the end of their run. (1972-1978) . Famous First Edition facsimiles would run until 1979. With very few exceptions, these were reprint books, as were the Marvel Treasury Editions of the same era.

Up until this time, Kubert had largely avoided large format books. In 1975 Kubert had drawn the cover of DC's Limited Collectors edition of The Bible (July ,C-36), plus his artwork had also appeared in reprints of the DC Tarzan stories in large format in the same series.

Perhaps the lack of success was down to audience awareness. As far as I can find, the only ad for Sojourn appeared of page 4 of the June 1977 issue of National Lampoon. A lovely bit of art by Joe Kubert of Tor, but insufficient to capture audience awareness, or comprehension of the innovative new format.

Anyway, I've included some pictures of the pages of Sojourn #2. I encourage you to track down the issues; they are a lot of fun, even if they didn't break the mould of comic publishing.

Wednesday, October 5, 2022

Bronze Age Obscurities - Sojourn #1

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.

The always-dependable Sergio Aragones contributed T.C. Mars (very) Private Eye. I always liked his single line strips and one-pagers in Plop!

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.

Kronos by Lee Elias. I'd swear that Frank Robbins had a hand in this artwork, especially the lower right-hand panel. [Were Elias and Robbins ever seen together in the same room??]. I'm going to try to track down the remaining parts of this story; hopefully I've secured a copy of Sojourn #2 online earlier today.

Finally, I've included the editorial by Joe Kubert and Ivan Snyder on their ambitions for Sojourn: