There are many great comic book creators, but there are only a few that truly the deserve the title of “legend” and Joe Kubert was up there with Jack Kirby, Joe Simon and others in terms of being influential on sequential art and comic books over the past 70 years, as proven by his early induction into the Harvey and Eisner Awards’ Hall of Fames.
Kubert began drawing comics at DC Comics way back in 1943, including an extended run on Hawkman during the Golden Age of comics that made him one of that character’s signature artists, as well as drawing some of the most influential war comics of the ’50s and ’60s most notably G.I. Combat, which featured Sgt. Rock (his other signature character), Enemy Ace and the Haunted Tank. Kubert returned to Sgt. Rock in recent years with a number of new mini-series in 2005 and 2006, as well as contributing a new story to the recent Wednesday Comics.
In 1976, Kubert and his wife Muriel founded the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art, one of the preeminent schools for comic artists that has produced many great comic artists over the past 35 years, and he’s survived by his sons Andy and Adam Kubert, who are both active and highly influential comic book artists in their own right.
Strangely, DC Comics had just announced that a new Joe Kubert Presents series featuring new stories and art from Kubert and others would begin publishing in October, and there’s no word whether that will continue in his memory.
To commemorate this unmatchably talented comic book creator, we’d like to present some of the great art of Joe Kubert below for anyone who hasn’t had a chance to experience it for themselves.
