Review by Ian Keogh

Based on true events during the Vietnam War, Dong Xoai details what happens when a group of American soldiers, labelled as specialist advisors, set up a base near the Cambodian border for the purpose of training the locals to resist the advance of the Communist forces. Working with local Vietnamese reveals a clash of cultures and priorities, and having to overcome grim local superstitions complicates the mission, and that’s before substantially increased Viet Cong activity is noted in the area of Dong Xoai.

Joe Kubert’s end notes identify Dong Xoai as fictional, but based on events recalled by participants 44 years later for a report. The report is reproduced in full after the story. Those events are alarming and dangerous, but somewhat distanced by Kubert using narrative captions to contain the dialogue with names attached to indicate who’s speaking. It’s further anonymised because instead of traditional comics storytelling Kubert opts for the experiment of the captions accompanied by pencil sketches. The sketches aren’t inked, are in some places very basic, and Kubert doesn’t often erase his layout lines, but as illustrations they’re first class. They just don’t tell a story efficiently.

It all means that despite Kubert’s immense talent and the appeal of his cultured art, Dong Xoai isn’t going to meet all expectations. The illustrations are so sketchy it’s barely possible to distinguish one American soldier from another, and the format of dialogue placement highlights how frequently it’s stiff and unrealistic, just not the way people would speak to each other. This might have been less obvious within traditional word balloons. It’s a shame as the explanations convey conditions and the way the Americans tread a thin line between leading and advising.

There’s a considerable amount of building up to the storm, which forms the best portion of Dong Xoai. Kubert’s battle scenes have the necessary urgency and bring home the horror of armed combat at close quarters. We’ve come to accept action battle scenes as a succession of heroic poses, but what Kubert supplies is people fighting for their lives, although the occasional more familiar type of mythological image slips in.

Fans of Kubert’s art will enjoy seeing it in its raw pencilled state, but because these illustrations don’t tell a story well anyone who wants more from a graphic novel is advised to look for a different Kubert project.