Joe Kubert

Infobox Comics creator

---

imagesize = 150
caption =
birthname =
birthdate = birth date and age|1926|09|18
location = Poland
deathdate =
deathplace =
nationality = Naturalized American
(immigrated Polish)
area = Penciller, Inker, Writer
alias =
notable works = "Sgt. Rock"
"Hawkman"
awards = Alley Award (1962, 1963, 1969)
National Cartoonists Society Awards (1974, 1980)
Eisner Award (1977)
Harvey Award (1997)
website = http://www.kubertsworld.com

Joe Kubert (born September 18, 1926) is a Jewish-American comic book artist who went on to found the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art. He is best known for his work on the DC Comics characters Sgt. Rock and Hawkman. His sons, Andy Kubert and Adam Kubert, have themselves become successful comic-book artists.

Kubert's other creations include the comic books "Tor", "Son of Sinbad", and "Viking Prince", and, with writer Robin Moore, the comic strip "Tales of the Green Beret".

Kubert was inducted into the Harvey Awards' Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1997, and Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 1998.

Biography

Early life and career

Kubert was born at Yzeran, Poland [http://www.jbooks.com/firstchapters/index/FC_Kubert1.htm Kubert, Joe. Excerpt from "Yossel"] at JBooks.com] . He emigrated to Brooklyn, New York City, United States, at age two months with his parents and his two-and-a-half-year-old sister Ida. Raised in the East New York neighborhood, the son of a kosher butcher, Kubert started drawing at an early age, encouraged by his parents.

In his introduction to his graphic novel "Yossel", Kubert wrote, "I got my first paying job as a cartoonist for comic books when I was eleven-and-a-half or twelve years old. Five dollars a page. In 1938, that was a lot of money". Another source, utilizing quotes from Kubert, says in 1938, a school friend who was related to Louis Silberkleit, a principal of MLJ Studios (the future Archie Comics), urged Kubert to visit the company, where he began an unofficial apprentice and at age 12 "was allowed to ink a rush job, the pencils of Bob Montana's [teen-humor feature] 'Archie'". [http://www.stevestiles.com/kubert1.htm "The Genesis of Joe Kubert", Part 1, by Steve Stiles] ] Author David Hajdu, who interviewed Kubert and other comics professionals for the book "The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How it Changed America" (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008), reported, however, that

"Kubert has told varying versions of the story of his introduction to the comics business at age ten, sometimes setting it at the comics shop run by Harry "A" Chesler, sometimes at MLJ; however, MLJ did not start operation until 1939, when Kubert was thirteen".Hajdu, David. "The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How it Changed America", page 357. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008. ISBN-10: 0-374-18767-3; ISBN-13: 978-0-374-18767-5.]

Kubert attended Manhattan's High School of Music and Art. During this time he and classmate Norman Maurer, a future collaborator, would sometimes skip school in order to see publishers. Kunbert began honing his craft at the quirkily named Harry "A" Chesler's studio, one of the comic-book "packagers" that had sprung up in the medium's early days to supply outsourced comics to publishers. Kubert's first known professional job was penciling and inking the six-page story "Black-Out", starring the character Volton, in Holyoke Publishing's "Catman Comics" #8 (March 1942; also listed as vol. 2, #13). He would continuing drawing the feature for the next three issues, and was soon doing similar work for Fox Comics' "Blue Beetle". Branching into additional art skills, he began coloring the Quality Comics reprints of future industry legend Will Eisner's "The Spirit", a seven-page comics feature that as part of a newspaper Sunday-supplement.

1940s and 1950s

Kubert's first work for DC Comics, where he would spend much of his career and produce some of his most notable art, was penciling and inking the 50-page "Seven Soldiers of Victory" superhero-team story in "Leading Comics" #8 (Fall 1943), published by a DC predecessor company, All-American Comics. Through the decade, Kubert's art would also appear in comics from Fiction House, Harvey Comics, but he was otherwise worked exclusively for All-American and DC.

In the 1950s, he became managing editor of St. John Publications, where he, his old classmate Norman Maurer, and Norman's brother Leonard Maurer produced the first 3-D comic books, starting with "Three Dimension Comics" #1 (Sept. 1953 oversize format, Oct. 1953 standard-size reprint), featuring Mighty Mouse. According to Kubert, it sold a remarkable 1.2 million copies at 25 cents apiece at a time when comics cost a dime. [ [http://www.universohq.com/Quadrinhos/interview_kubert01.cfm "Universo HQ": Joe Kubert interview] (circa 2001)]

At St. John, writer Norman Maurer and artist Kubert created the enduring character Tor, a prehistoric-human protagonist who debuted in the comic "1,000,000 Years Ago" (Sept. 1953). Tor immediately went on to star in "3-D Comics" #2-3 (Oct.-Nov. 1953), followed by a titular, traditionally 2-D comic-book series, written and drawn by Joe Kubert, that premiered with issue #3 (May 1954). The character has gone on to appear in series from Eclipse Comics, Marvel Comics' Epic imprint, and DC Comics through at least the 1990s. Kubert in the late 1950s unsuccessfully attempted to sell "Tor" as a newspaper comic strip. [The "Tor" samples consisted of 12 daily strips, reprinted in six pages in "Alter Ego" #10 and later expanded to 16 pages in DC Comics' "Tor" #1.]

DC Comics and Sgt. Rock

Beginning with "Our Army At War" #32 (March 1955), Kubert began to freelance again for DC Comics, in addition to Lev Gleason Publications and Atlas Comics, the 1950s iteration of Marvel Comics. By the end of the year he was drawing for DC exclusively, working on such characters as the medieval adventurer Viking Prince, the superhero Hawkman, which would become one of his signature efforts, and, in the war comic "GI Combat", features starring Sgt. Rock and The Haunted Tank, two more signature strips

From 1965 through 1967 he collaborated with author Robin Moore on the syndicated daily comic strip "Tales of the Green Beret" for the Chicago Tribune.

Kubert served as DC Comics' director of publications from 1967 to 1976. During his tenure with DC, Kubert initiated titles based on such Edgar Rice Burroughs properties as "Tarzan" and "Korak". Kubert also supervised the production of the comic books "Sgt. Rock", "Ragman" and "Weird Worlds". While performing supervisory duties he continued to draw for some books, notably "Tarzan" from 1972 to 1975. Kubert also did covers for "Rima the Jungle Girl" from 1974 to 1975.

In 1976, Joe and his wife Muriel founded the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art in Dover, New Jersey.

In 2003, Kubert returned to the Sgt. Rock character, illustrating 'Sgt. Rock: Between Hell and a Hard Place' a six-issue miniseries written by Brian Azarello and wrote and drew "Sgt. Rock: The Prophecy", a six-issue miniseries in 2006.

Yaakov and Yosef

Kubert wrote and drew a collection of faith-based comic strips beginning in the late 1980s for Tzivos Hashem, the Lubavitch children's organization, and "Moshiach Times" magazine. The stories, "The Adventures of Yaakov and Yosef", were based on biblical references, but were not Bible stories. Many were based on stories of the Lubavitcher Rebbes and their disciples. [ [http://www.chabad.org/386330 Chabad.org: Kids Zone - Bookshelf - Comics] ]

Later career

As of the mid-2000s, Kubert is the artist for "PS Magazine", a U.S. military magazine, with comic-book elements, that stresses the importance of preventive maintenance of vehicles, arms, and other ordnance. (The name derives from its being a "postscript" to other, related publications.)

Kubert has drawn graphic novels, including "Yossel: April 19, 1943" (2003) and "Fax from Sarajevo" (1996), the latter initially released as a 207-page hardcover book [Dark Horse Comics (November 1996), ISBN 1-56971-143-7] and two years later as a 224-page trade paperback. [Dark Horse Comics (October 1998) ISBN 1-56971-346-4] The non-fiction book originated as a series of faxes from European comics agent Ervin Rustemagić during the Serbian siege of Sarajevo. Rustemagić and his family, whose home and possessions in suburban Dobrinja were destroyed, spent two-and-a-half years in a ruined building, communicating with the outside world via fax when they could. Friend and client Kubert was one recipient. Collaborating long-distance, they collected Rustemagić's account of life during wartime, with Kubert and editor Bob Cooper turning the raw faxes into a somber comics tale.

Awards

Kubert's several awards and nominations include:
* the 1962 Alley Award for Best Single Comic Book Cover ("The Brave and the Bold" #42)
* a 1963 write-in Alley Award for "Artist Preferred on "Sea Devils"
* a special 1969 Alley Award "for the cinematic storytelling techniques and the exciting and dramatic style he has brought to the field of comic art"
* 1974 and 1980 National Cartoonists Society Awards for best Story Comic Book, plus a 1997 nomination for Best Comic Book.
* The 1997 Eisner Award for "Best Graphic Album: New", for "Fax from Sarajevo"
* The 1997 Harvey Award for "Best Graphic Album of Original Work," for "Fax from Sarajevo"

Kubert was inducted into the Harvey Awards' Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1997, and Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 1998.

Hardcover reprints

*"Tarzan: The Joe Kubert Years" (Dark Horse Comics)::Volume 1 (2005) ISBN-10 1593074042; ISBN-13 978-1593074043::Volume 2 (2006) ISBN-10 1593074166; ISBN-13 978-1593074166::Volume 3 (2006) ISBN-10 1593074174; ISBN-13 978-1593074173
*"Tor" (DC Comics)::Volume 1 (2001) ISBN-10 1563897814; ISBN-13 978-1563897818 ::Volume 1 (2002) ISBN-10 1563898306; ISBN-13 978-1563898303::Volume 3 (2004) ISBN-10 1563899981; ISBN-13 978-1563899980

Notes

References

* [http://www.kubertsworld.com/bios/joe_kubert.html Joe Kubert's World of Cartooning] (official-site biography)
* [http://lambiek.net/artists/k/kubert.htm Joe Kubert] at Lambiek's Comiclopedia
*gcdb|type=credit|search=Joe+Kubert|title=Joe Kubert
*comicbookdb|type=creator|id=158|title=Joe Kubert

External links

*official|http://www.kubertsworld.com
* [https://www.logsa.army.mil/psmag/pshome.html "PS Magazine"]
* [http://www.paulgravett.com/articles/079_kubert/079_kubert.htm PaulGravett.com: "Joe Kubert: Rock & A Hard Place"]
* [http://www.comicgeekspeak.com/episodes/comic_geek_speak-101.php Comic Geek Speak Podcast Interview (November 21, 2005)]