Alter Ego #116

JOE KUBERT A GOLDEN & SILVER AGE LEGEND REMEMBERED

May 2013

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In the USA

No.116

82658 27763

8.95

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Roy Thomas’ Kubert Tribute Comics Fanzine

Edited by ROY THOMAS The greatest ‘zine of the 1960s is back, ALL-NEW, and focusing on GOLDEN AND SILVER AGE comics and creators with ARTICLES, INTERVIEWS, UNSEEN ART, P.C. Hamerlinck’s FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America, featuring the archives of C.C. BECK and recollections by Fawcett artist MARCUS SWAYZE), Michael T. Gilbert’s MR. MONSTER, and more!

2012 EISNER AWARD Nominee Best Comics-Related Journalism

Other issues available, & an ULTIMATE BUNDLE with all issues at HALF-PRICE!

ALTER EGO #106

ALTER EGO #107

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ALTER EGO #103

ALTER EGO #104

ALTER EGO #105

The early career of comics writer STEVE ENGLEHART: Defenders, Captain America, Master of Kung Fu, The Beast, Mantis, and more, with rare art and artifacts by SAL BUSCEMA, STARLIN, SUTTON, HECK, BROWN, and others. Plus, JIM AMASH interviews early artist GEORGE MANDEL (Captain Midnight, The Woman in Red, Blue Bolt, Black Marvel, etc.), FCA, MR. MONSTER’S COMIC CRYPT, & more!

Celebrates the 50th anniversary of FANTASTIC FOUR #1 and the birth of Marvel Comics! New, never-beforepublished STAN LEE interview, art and artifacts by KIRBY, DITKO, SINNOTT, AYERS, THOMAS, and secrets behind the Marvel Mythos! Also: JIM AMASH interviews 1940s Timely editor AL SULMAN, FCA, MR. MONSTER’S COMIC CRYPT, and a new cover by FRENZ and SINNOTT!

See comic art and script BEFORE and AFTER the Comics Code changes, with art

by SIMON & KIRBY, DITKO, BUSCEMA, SINNOTT, GOULD, COLE, STERANKO, KRIGSTEIN, O’NEIL, GLANZMAN, ORLANDO, WILLIAMSON, HEATH, and others! Plus: FCA, Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, BILL SCHELLY, JIM AMASH interviews Timely/Atlas artist CAL MASSEY, and a new cover by JOSH MEDORS!

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ALTER EGO #108

ALTER EGO #109

ALTER EGO #110

DICK GIORDANO through the 1960s—from freelance years and Charlton “Action-Heroes” to his first stint at DC! Art by DITKO, APARO, BOYETTE, MORISI, McLAUGHLIN, GIL KANE, and others, Dick’s final convention panel with STEVE SKEATES and ROY THOMAS, JIM AMASH interviews Charlton artist TONY TALLARICO, FCA with MARC SWAYZE and ROY ALD, MR. MONSTER’S COMIC CRYPT, BILL SCHELLY, & DITKO/GIORDANO cover!

Big BATMAN issue, with an unused Golden Age cover by DICK SPRANG! Interviews SPRANG and JIM MOONEY, with rare and unseen Batman art by BOB KANE, JERRY ROBINSON, WIN MORTIMER, SHELLY MOLDOFF, CHARLES PARIS, and others! Part II of the TONY TALLARICO interview by JIM AMASH! Plus FCA, MR. MONSTER’S COMIC CRYPT, BILL SCHELLY, and more!

1970s Bullpenner WARREN REECE talks about Marvel Comics and working with EVERETT, BURGOS, ROMITA, STAN LEE, MARIE SEVERIN, ADAMS, FRIEDRICH, ROY THOMAS, and others, with rare art!

DEWEY CASSELL spotlights Golden Age artist MIKE PEPPE, with art by TOTH, TUSKA, SEKOWSKY, TALLARICO Part 3, plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY, cover by EVERETT & BURGOS, and more!

Spectre/Hour-Man creator BERNARD BAILY, ‘40s super-groups that might have been, art by ORDWAY, INFANTINO, KUBERT, HASEN, ROBINSON, and BURNLEY, conclusion of the TONY TALLARICO interview by JIM AMASH, MIKE PEPPE interview by DEWEY CASSELL, BILL SCHELLY on “50 Years of Fandom” at San Diego 2011, FCA, Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, PÉREZ cover, and more!

SHAZAM!/FAWCETT issue! The 1940s “CAPTAIN MARVEL” RADIO SHOW, interview with radio’s “Billy Batson” BURT BOYAR, P.C. HAMERLINCK and C.C. BECK on the origin of Captain Marvel, ROY THOMAS and JERRY BINGHAM on their Secret Origins “Shazam!”, FCA with MARC SWAYZE, LEONARD STARR interview, Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, BILL SCHELLY, and more!

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ALTER EGO #111

ALTER EGO #112

ALTER EGO #113

ALTER EGO #114

ALTER EGO #115

GOLDEN AGE NEDOR super-heroes are spotlighted, with MIKE NOLAN’s Nedor Index, and art by MORT MESKIN, JERRY ROBINSON, GEORGE TUSKA, RUBEN MOIRERA, ALEX SHOMBURG, and others!

Plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, more 2011 Fandom Celebration, and part II of JIM AMASH’s interview with Golden Age artist LEONARD STARR! Cover by SHANE FOLEY!

SUPERMAN issue! PAUL CASSIDY (early Superman artist), Italian Nembo Kid, and ARLEN SCHUMER’s look at the MORT WEISINGER era, plus an interview with son HANK WEISINGER! Art by SHUSTER, BORING, ANDERSON, PLASTINO, and others! LEONARD STARR interview Part III—FCA—Mr. Monster—more 2011 Fandom Celebration, and a MURPHY ANDERSON/ARLEN SCHUMER cover!

MARV WOLFMAN talks to RICHARD ARNDT about his first decade in comics on Tomb of Dracula, Teen Titans, Captain Marvel, John Carter, Daredevil, Nova, Batman, etc., behind a GENE COLAN cover! Art by COLAN, ANDERSON, CARDY, BORING, MOONEY, and more!

Plus: the conclusion of our LEONARD STARR interview by JIM AMASH, FCA, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY, and more!

MARVEL ISSUE on Captain America and Fantastic Four! MARTIN GOODMAN’s Broadway debut, speculations about FF #1, history of the MMMS, interview with Golden Age writer/artist DON RICO, art

by KIRBY, AVISON, SHORES, ROMITA, SEVERIN, TUSKA, ALLEN BELLMAN, and others! Plus FCA, MR. MONSTER and BILL SCHELLY! Cover by BELLMAN and MITCH BREITWEISER!

3-D COMICS OF THE 1950S! In-depth feature by RAY (3-D) ZONE, actual red and green 1950s 3-D art (includes free glasses!) by SIMON & KIRBY, KUBERT, MESKIN, POWELL, MAURER, NOSTRAND, SWAN, BORING, SCHWARTZ, MOONEY, SHORES, TUSKA and many others! Plus FCA, Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, BILL SCHELLY, and more! Cover by JOE SIMON and JACK KIRBY!

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Vol. 3, No. 116 / May 2013 Roy Thomas

Editor

Bill Schelly Jim Amash

Associate Editors Christopher Day

Design & Layout John Morrow

Consulting Editor

P.C. Hamerlinck

FCA Editor

Michael T. Gilbert

Comic Crypt Editor Jerry G. Bails (founder) Ronn Foss, Biljo White Mike Friedrich

Editorial Honor Roll

Rob Smentek William J. Dowlding

Proofreaders

Daniel James Cox & Joe Kubert

Contents Writer/Editorial: Just A Guy Called Joe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Joe Kubert: How A Comics Legend Built His Remarkable Career. . 3

Cover Artists

With Special Thanks to:

Heidi Amash Ger Apeldoorn Richard J. Arndt Bob Bailey Mike W. Barr Rod Beck John Benson Kevin Brogan Mike Bromberg Pete Carlsson Diego Ceresa Shaun Clancy Pierre Comtois Daniel James Cox Craig Delich Al Dellinges Michaël Dewally Michael Dunne Shane Foley Stephan Friedt Janet Gilbert Golden Age Comic Book Stories (website) Grand Comics Database (website) Great American Comic Book Stories (website)

Jennifer Hamerlinck Douglas (Gaff) Jones Adam Kubert Andy Kubert Dominique Leonard Alan Light Jim Ludwig Doug Martin Bruce Mason Joan Maurer Mark Mayerson Jim McLauchlin Jim Murtagh Jerry Ordway Jake Oster Palantine News Network (website) Ethan Roberts Jim Salicrup Randy Sargent Eric Schumacher Keif Simon Anthony Snyder Dann Thomas Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. Dr. Michael J. Vassallo John Wells

This issue is dedicated to the memory of

Joe Kubert

Bill Schelly pays tribute to one of the last—and best—of Golden Age artists.

Kubert talks to Richard J. Arndt about being an artist, editor, and entrepreneur.

“We’re In The Kind Of Business Where The Story Is King” . . . 11 Excerpts from Bill Schelly’s interviews with Kubert for his 2008 biography Man of Rock.

A Chat With Joe Kubert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Daniel James Cox queries the artist on the unique Kanigher/Kubert series.

Behind The Lines With The Enemy Ace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Kevin Brogan’s speech posthumously presenting JK the Giordano Humanitarian Award.

A Brief Eulogy For Joe Kubert—Humanitarian . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Michael T. Gilbert looks at Joe’s re-visitations to his characters and concepts of yore.

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt: The Joe Kubert Sketchbook . . 61 re: [correspondence, comments, & corrections] . . . . . . . . . 67 FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America] #175 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 The powerful finale of “The Indestructible Antagonist!” from Captain Video #3.

On Our Cover: Cover-portrait artist Daniel James Cox is the man who persuaded A/E’s editor to launch this issue in the pipeline just when he did—for ’twas put on TwoMorrows’ schedule several weeks before Joe Kubert’s untimely passing. Daniel had sent in his interview with Joe about “Enemy Ace” which would dovetail well with material we had on hand from Bill Schelly and Richard J. Arndt… but Ye Editor had no idea Daniel was an artist until he received a scan of the fabulous portrait he’d painted of Kubert. Roy T.’s response: “Great! We’ll make this the centerpiece of the cover, and I’ll have images of Hawkman, Viking Prince, Enemy Ace, Sgt. Rock, Tarzan, and Tor added to frame it.” Almost before I finished that e-mail, Daniel had assembled the entire cover, melding black-&white Kubert images with his portrait into a beautiful, flawless whole. We’re both glad Joe saw and approved it; we only wish he were also around to read the issue. [Portrait ©2013 Daniel James Cox; Tor TM & ©2013 Estate of Joe Kubert; Tarzan TM & ©2013 Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.; other characters TM & ©2013 DC Comics.]

Above: Point of personal privilege. Ye Editor feels Joe Kubert was at his all-time best in 1953-54 issues of Tor; but even so, Roy’s favorite Kubert art was his 1940s “Hawkman”—and his all-time favorite drawing from that body of work is the splash panel of the “Hawkman” chapter of the “Justice Society of America” story “The Revenge of Solomon Grundy” in All-Star Comics #33 (Feb.-March 1947). So here it is—reproduced not from the DC Archives, but from RT’s personal bound volumes.

Script by Gardner F. Fox. [©2013 DC Comics.]

Alter EgoTM is published 8 times a year by TwoMorrows, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. Phone: (919) 449-0344.

Roy Thomas, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Alter Ego Editorial Offices: 32 Bluebird Trail, St. Matthews, SC 29135, USA. Fax: (803) 826-6501; e-mail: roydann@ntinet.com. Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices.

Eight-issue subscriptions: $60 US, $85 Canada, $107 elsewhere. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © Roy Thomas. Alter Ego is a TM of Roy & Dann Thomas. FCA is a TM of P.C. Hamerlinck. Printed in China. ISSN: 1932-6890 FIRST PRINTING.

writer/editorial

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Just A Guy Called Joe

“discovered” Joe Kubert when I was four years old.

Sometime in the first half of 1945, I persuaded my indulgent mother to buy me a copy of All-Star Comics, which starred the Justice Society of America. By coincidence, that was just the time when Joe inherited the “Hawkman” feature in both All-Star and Flash Comics. (Actually, I might have seen the latter mag first.)

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How much of the initial appeal to me of Hawkman is owed to the look of the Feathered Fury himself (with that dramatic doublebeaked, flaring-winged helmet and those huge, seemingly boundless wings on his back)—and how much to the dynamism of Kubert’s artwork (so much more exciting than the art in most comics)—it’s impossible to say. But when he left the feature for a time in 1946, it was obvious to me that the visual spark was missing from the Hawk’s exploits.

I was truly bowled over when, at age 12, I spotted the first issue of 1,000,000 Years Ago. The primitive but heroic Tor gave Joe a chance to truly shine. What’s more, there was Joe’s image on the printed page, in both photos and drawings, talking to me like a big brother.

And if “The Viking Prince,” in the mid-’50s, wasn’t quite Tor— well, it was still some of the best work being produced. In my eyes, only a few creators had rivaled Kubert’s impact over the previous decade: the who-did-what team of Joe Simon & Jack Kirby with credits popping up on so many thrillingly-told stories… the short-lived combo of Jerry Robinson & Mort Meskin on The Black Terror and The Fighting Yank… Alex Toth on “Green Lantern”… a few of the boys who drew that truncated Atlas revival of “Sub-Mariner,” “Captain America,” and “Human Torch”… Walt Kelly in Dell’s Pogo Possum… and just about everything in the first 23 color issues of Mad. To me, Kubert was at least the equal of any of them.

I’ll admit, I didn’t lay down my dime for much of his output related to crime… or horror… or romance… or, God forbid, war comics. But I usually skimmed Kubert-drawn stories in such mags, before I put them down in favor of the latest issue of Tor or The Brave and the Bold (stomping-ground of “The Viking Prince”). Thus,

I found it only fitting when my 15-year-old eyes told me that at least part of the mid-1956 artwork that introduced a new, more streamlined Flash had been done by none other than Joe Kubert.

And when he returned to draw a new “Hawkman” in 1960, it was like an oft-recurring dream come true.

So you can probably imagine the thrill I felt in summer of ’65, on my first full day of work at National/DC, when “Superman” editor Mort Weisinger introduced me to Kubert—and Joe deigned to spend several minutes talking to me, assuring me he was familiar with the Alter Ego fanzine I was putting out. Sure, he was also feeling me out about my helping him publicize a projected publication of his own that would bring back “Tor” (that tabloid would emerge briefly a few years later as Sojourn)… but he was treating me as a fellow professional… and as an adult. (Well, okay, so I was 24 at the time… but in Joe’s presence I’m afraid I reverted to the kid who’d first been dumbstruck by his version of “Hawkman.”)

I had already scheduled this issue of A/E to be the first one truly dedicated to Joe and his work when the startling word came that he had passed away.

For a moment, a little of the light went out of the world.

But it soon flared brightly again… and it will continue to do so, as long as comics readers admire sheer talent and artistic integrity.

Joe was always fond of disparaging the view that he had any special ability… insisting that most people could learn to draw and tell a story as well as he did, if they only applied themselves and worked hard.

Work is good… work is valuable.

But it won’t turn most people into Joe Kubert.

Thank God, it did so once, at least.

Bestest,

# COMING IN MAY 117 L.B. COLE & JAY DISBROW! 13 the respective copyright The Original Cat-Man ©20

Two Talented Golden Age Artists, Colleagues—& Friends!

holders.

• 1940s Cat-Man & Kitten cover art by L.B. COLE! • L.B. COLE (Cat-Man, Miss Victory, Black Venus, Magno, Black Cobra, Captain Flight, and a mountain of memorable covers) is remembered by JAY DISBROW—while JAY D. (Sheena, Kaänga, Firehair, Rulah, Unsane, horror, etc.) is interviewed by RAY (3-D) ZONE! Lavishly illustrated in color—and even in 3-D! • P.C. HAMERLINCK’s FCA takes a long look at Captain Video! Plus MICHAEL T. GILBERT’s Comic Crypt—BILL SCHELLY completes his talk with RICHARD KYLE! Plus special surprise features!

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-I-

in the GOLDEN & SILVER AGES A Six-Part Remembrance

JOE KUBERT

How A Comics Legend Built His Remarkable Career

by Bill Schelly

n Sunday, August 12th, 2012, the comics world was rocked by the announcement that Joe Kubert, one of its towering figures, had passed away that day in Morristown, New Jersey. The cause was multiple myeloma.

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The news was greeted with first shock and disbelief, then a deepening sadness as we contemplated the loss of a man of such towering importance in the history of comics, who was admired for his character as much as for his talents and many achievements. The writer-artist of Hawkman, Tor, and Sgt. Rock was gone.

The Internet abounded with heartfelt tributes to Joe from his colleagues, graduates of The Kubert School, and fans across the United States and around the world. More were expressed at his funeral on August 14th. We at Alter Ego—Kubert fans and admirers, all—owe a special debt to Joe, and while this Kubert-themed issue was planned before his passing, we would like to take this opportunity to express our condolences to the entire Kubert family, and to celebrate his life by reviewing some of the highlights of his extraordinary career in comics.

Seventy Years—And Counting!

In this 1973 photo, Joe Kubert appears to be looking both backward and forward in time: at the splash page of the very first story he ever drew as a professional (for Holyoke’s CatMan #8, Feb. 1942), at the tender age of 15— and his last comics work, when he inked this cover and the early pages of DC’s Nite Owl #3 (Nov. 2012) over pencils by his son Andy.

And, even then, stories written and drawn

by Joe were still forthcoming from DC in the Joe Kubert Presents series. The “Volton” splash, which reveals the influence of the excellent Fox/Quality artist Lou Fine, was scanned from Mike Bromberg’s Volton Fanzine #1 (May 2004), which in turn was reproduced from a vintage comic book Joe signed for Mike. [“Volton” art ©2013 the respective copyright holders; Nite Owl cover ©2013 DC Comics.]

Alter Ego’s special debt to Joe, of course, arises in part from his role in cementing the love of the Justice Society of America in the hearts of the founders of Alter Ego. Jerry Bails and Roy Thomas formed a friendship specifically in appreciation of the JSA, and A/E’s original impetus in 1961 was to support the team’s recent revival as the Justice League of America. Joe’s “Hawkman” chapters in All-Star Comics were among its best, and contributed in a very significant way to that inspiring run of issues (#33 to #37) which are some of the JSA’s most memorable... for, as it happened, Joe was the favorite comic

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How A Comics Legend Built His Remarkable Career

halting attempts to re-create his favorite characters, and soon showed artistic potential. But as the idea of becoming a professional cartoonist grew in the following years, he realized the art classes in school weren’t going to teach him about drawing comics. What to do?

Somehow young Kubert, who bought Action Comics #1 off the stands in 1938, had the chutzpah to knock on the doors of the various comic book publishers who were entering the field, and show his work to whoever would look at it. He was seeking a little advice, and ended up getting a lot more than that. He got an education working with some of the best artists in the fledgling business.

In the shop of Harry “A” Chesler, he looked over the shoulders of such artists as Jack Cole, Charles Biro, and Mort Meskin, watched them as they worked and learned about the tools of Joe & Alter Ego their trade. At MLJ, he was taught (Left:) Joe’s interview in Alter Ego [Vol. 1] #6 (Winter 1963-64) was the first interview in the original incarnation how to draw a German army helmet of this magazine, while that issue’s cover art consisted of his photo and part of his cover for Tor #3 (May 1954).

[Art ©2013 Estate of Joe Kubert.]

by Irv Novick. While erasing pages and inking panel borders at Will (Right:) Kubert gifted one-time A/E editor Ronn Foss with the original Silver Age Hawkman drawing Eisner’s production shop in which heralded the return of Alter Ego after two decades, with Vol. 2, #1 (Spring 1998)... as the flip side of Jon B. Cooke’s Comic Book Artist #1. Illo courtesy of Bill Schelly. [Hawkman TM & ©2013 DC Comics.]

Manhattan, he got to witness Will and artists such as Bob Powell and his idol book artist of both Jerry and Roy. Lou Fine turning out features for Quality Comics, and later assisted on backgrounds on The Spirit, learning all along the way Once Alter Ego was well and truly launched, and Ronn Foss from the best in the business. took over the helm of the magazine for two key issues (#5-6 circa 1963), Joe contributed to the fanzine itself. The first thing Foss did was contact Kubert—who was also Ronn’s favorite artist—for a bymail interview. Joe agreed, and that landmark interview, brief as it was, was among the first ever given by a working professional to a comics fanzine. Over the ensuing half century, Joe Kubert helped us many times, such as by allowing A/E to print previously unpublished Tor comic strips (in issue #10 in 1969-70), and, later, by consenting to more interviews. He qualifies as a kind of patron saint of Alter Ego alongside Gardner Fox, Otto Binder, and Julius Schwartz... and thus we feel a special sense of loss at his passing.

After getting his feet wet in the comic book art shops as a 15and 16-year-old, Kubert found his way to DC (or National, as it was then known) and was given the opportunity to ink Mort Meskin’s pencils on “The Vigilante,” a popular feature in Action Comics. The lessons he learned while interpreting Meskin’s beautiful artwork stayed with him the rest of his life. He was on his way.

Let’s walk along with Joe Kubert and see how the choices he made led him along the path toward comic book greatness, not only as an artist, writer, and editor, but as an educator and humanitarian.

Mayer was pleased by Kubert’s effort and the potential he saw in the work, and gave Joe the job of handling the ongoing “Hawkman” stories in Flash Comics, where the Winged Wonder was a co-star. Understanding that he was still on a sort of probation, Joe re-doubled his efforts, and his artwork improved rapidly. After all, he had just graduated from high school and already his dreams were coming true. He wasn’t going to let this chance slip away if he could help it. Kubert was repaid for his prodigious effort. His art on “Hawkman” established his reputation as an exciting new artist in the business, and became the foundation for all that followed.

When looking at the whole of Joe Kubert’s career, the first thing one realizes is that it is vast. He was a working professional for 70plus years, and as he once said, “I’ve never been out of work a day in my life.” By the end, he had reached an amazing summit, but... how did he get there? How did this immigrant boy born in Poland (in an area now part of Ukraine) emerge from the humblest of beginnings to become a national treasure?

Step #1: Learn From The Best

Yosaif Kubert (who wasn’t called Joe till he entered school) dreamed of drawing comics from the moment he discovered those four-color wonders in the Sunday newspaper. He made his first

Step #2: Seize Opportunities

In the spring of 1944, Sheldon Mayer, editor in chief of AllAmerican Comics (which had to all appearances severed its ties with National/DC), needed a new “Hawkman” artist. Kubert’s work had caught his eye. With the ranks thinning during World War II, Mayer had to look a bit farther afield. Shelly gave Joe a tryout on a “Dr. Fate” chapter in All-Star Comics. Kubert worked his heart out on the job, and then on a second test, the “Hawkman” story in The Big All-American Comic Book.

Joe Kubert

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attic of his family’s house in Elizabeth, New Jersey. In 1948, he decided to expand his horizons both in terms of where he worked, and what he did.

Joe rented a hole-in-the-wall apartment in a rickety building on Park Avenue, and invited his buddies in the business to share the space and the rent. Now he was working shoulder-to-shoulder with hot up-andcomers like Carmine Infantino, Alex Toth, Howie Post, and others. That led to a certain “cross-pollenization” of styles, inspiring him to develop a more evolved, sophisticated style.

Kubert met with publisher Archer St. John and reached an agreement to package whole comic books for publication. It was an opportunity for him to have a bit more creative freedom and to make a little more money. He invited his childhood friend Norman Maurer to be a part of it and gave work to Carmine

A “Hawk-ward” Situation (Above:) Joe at age 13—and the splash page of his second super-hero full-art job for National/DC, his first featuring the Hawkman character with whom he would forever be identified, when he was all of 17 or 18. This story appeared in the oversize 1944 one-shot Big All-American Comic Book. Clearly, Joe passed the audition—and when regular “Hawkman” artist Sheldon Moldoff was drafted in ’44, Kubert was tapped to become the Winged Wonder’s regular artist. Thanks to Bill Schelly for the scans; the photo was originally made available to him by Joe & Muriel Kubert. [©2013 DC Comics.]

This tale was reprinted in 2004 in the hardcover DC Comics Rarities Archives, Vol. 1—but, outside of chapters of “Justice Society” stories in All-Star Comics, most of Joe’s 1940s super-hero work for DC hasn’t been collected. Hey, DC— how about publishing some volumes of Joe Kubert’s Golden Age Hawkman— and for that matter, Joe Kubert’s Golden Age DC Super-Heroes, gathering his work on “Johnny Quick,” “The Vigilante,” “The Flash,” “Zatara,” and “Sargon the Sorcerer”? And if you do, don’t forget that previously-unpublished-byDC third “Flash/Rose & Thorn” story! End of suggestion.

Step #3: Expand Horizons

For several years Kubert drew “Hawkman” and produced features on the side like “The Golem” in The Challenger and the odd strip for Avon, while still working in the

Tor Of Duty (Left:) Joe and Muriel’s 1951 wedding photo; this picture was given to Bill Schelly by Muriel Kubert for his 2008 biography Man of Rock.

(Above:) Tor #4 (July 1954) was actually the fifth “Tor” issue published

by St. John, there having been two 3-D issues between it and the 1953 1,000,000 Years Ago #1. See p. 66 for the cover of the latter, and the previous issue of A/E for the pair of mags officially titled 3-D Comics #2.

Thanks to Bill Schelly. [©2013 Estate of Joe Kubert.]

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How A Comics Legend Built His Remarkable Career

Heroes In Costume—And In Uniform (Left:) This ad for the first Silver Age “Hawkman” tryout issue of The Brave and the Bold (#34) appeared in, among other places, Strange Adventures #125 (Feb. 1961), with Kubert returning to the hero he’d drawn from 1945-49. Thanks to the Great American Comic Book Stories website.

(Right:) The “Sgt. Rock” feature gradually took over Our Army at War, and eventually the title of the mag was changed. This is Kubert’s cover for issue #185 (Oct. 1967). Thanks to Bill Schelly. [©2013 DC Comics.]

Infantino, Hy Rosen, and others. This step also allowed Joe to try his hand at comic book writing for the first time, setting the stage for developments that occurred after his military stint during the Korean War.

As soon as Joe received his military discharge in 1953, he was working up more books for St. John, including one that would become a creative milestone in his career: 1,000,000 Years Ago starring Tor, his “caveman with a conscience” that established him as an editor-writer-artist on a property that was both creatively and commercially successful. Kubert’s growth to an editorial role made possible the financial windfall he received for his part in creating the first 3-D comic book (Three Dimension Comics #1 in 1953), which allowed Joe and his wife Muriel to buy their first home.

Step #4: Become The Best At One Thing

After the collapse of 3-D comics and St. John’s exit from the comic book business, Kubert freelanced for Avon, Lev Gleason, and Atlas, then settled down at National, which would be his home base for many years. While he sometimes worked for editor Julius Schwartz on Westerns and handled occasional outside work, Kubert had clicked especially well with the editor and writer of National’s war comics, Robert Kanigher.

In Kubert, Kanigher found a perfect artistic counterpoint, and he responded to the extraordinary effort Joe put into his gritty war stories from the first assignment. As he did during his early “Hawkman” period under Mayer, Kubert applied himself with great energy and creativity to Kanigher’s scripts, often varying his technique as he searched for an optimum approach.

In time, Kubert ended up excelling as a war-comics specialist, having found a niche where he could rise to the top. It wasn’t that he liked drawing combat stories more than other genres, but in that field he became a star. This led to his emergence as the regular artist on “Sgt. Rock” in Our Army at War at the end of the 1950s and cemented his status as a top-tier artist at National. The “Sgt. Rock and Easy Company” series lasted for 30 years, to the end of the genre itself.

Step #5: Honor The Past

Joe Kubert had a full plate in 1960 when Julius Schwartz asked him if he would like to draw the Silver Age revival of “Hawkman.”

Kubert accepted with enthusiasm, cognizant of the part his work on Hawkman and Hawkgirl had played in his career and eager to see what he could do with the characters in this new incarnation.

Joe Kubert

While his darker, beautifully-designed artwork on the Brave and Bold tryouts failed to find widespread acceptance in 1961 among the youthful baby-boomers, Kubert’s return to “Hawkman” was greeted with a tidal wave of support from members of the new comics fandom that was forming to celebrate the revival of the Golden Age heroes. Such was the extent of that connection that fans began a letter-writing “Save Hawkman” campaign when it looked like the Winged Wonders wouldn’t get their own title, with the underlying assumption that Kubert would be the artist.

Though Murphy Anderson ultimately was chosen to usher Hawkman into his own title, Joe’s loving and artistically stunning return to his roots solidified Kubert’s standing as one of fandom’s firm favorites, and led to his return to the character in various ways in later years.

Step #6: Realize An Ambition

Kubert was 38 years old when he had an opportunity to draw a syndicated comic strip inspired by Robin Moore’s book The Green Berets. Jerry Capp, brother of Al Capp (creator of Li’l Abner), was to be the writer.

Well-established at National/DC, working at the peak of his powers on “Sgt. Rock,” Joe could have demurred. Drawing both a Sunday and daily newspaper strip creates unforgiving, punishing deadlines, and he was a family man with five children. Yet Kubert had dreamed of being a syndicated cartoonist all his life, and now that dream was within his grasp. If successful, it would bring his work into millions of homes, many more than even top-selling comic books, and give him a much larger adult audience. He couldn’t say no, as long as his collaborators agreed to give him a voice in the stories as well as the art.

Tales of the Green Beret (not a plural in the case of the strip) was accepted by the Chicago Tribute Syndicate, and a 12-week try-out debuted on September 20, 1965. The reception was overwhelmingly positive, and perhaps further fueled by the #1 hit song “Ballad of the Green Berets,” the Moore/Capp/Kubert feature returned for an ongoing run in the spring of 1966. It was carried by

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a healthy number of newspapers, but eventually became the subject of protests as Kubert began having creative differences with Jerry Capp. Kubert left the strip at the end of 1967 but had no regrets. He had fulfilled a dream and mastered a form of visual storytelling much different from that in comic books.

Step #7: Take On Responsibility

When Kubert returned to full-time status at DC in 1968, the company was going through a crisis. His old friend and collaborator Carmine Infantino had become its editorial director, and was charged with revitalizing the company’s comics and reversing sales slippage that had occurred as Marvel Comics had increased its market share. An artist himself, Infantino believed that promoting artists to editorial positions would result in books with more dynamic visuals. Joe Orlando and Dick Giordano became editors in the new regime, and Infantino asked Kubert to handle the war books.

Now living in Dover, New Jersey, commuting to Manhattan daily to work in the DC office meant Kubert would lose two hours at the drawing board each day. However, his friend and publisher needed him, so Kubert and Infantino worked out a compromise.

Joe would work at home three days a week, and come into the city just two. Ultimately, the challenge of reinvigorating the DC war comics caused Kubert to become more creative than ever, giving him the opportunity to write as well as draw. When Tarzan came to DC, he was perfectly placed to edit, write, and draw it, producing one of the most celebrated versions of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ immortal King of the Jungle. By tackling these challenges, Kubert’s work rose to an even higher plateau.

Step #8: Pay It Forward

As his status and fan base grew, Kubert was often asked for advice from aspiring comic book artists. In comics convention appearances, he found himself presented with the portfolios of hopefuls asking for his evaluation and for his suggestions.

Another War, Another Medium Kubert’s Tales of the Green Beret strip for May 22, 1966, shows the drama of his comic book pages being brought to the more staid Sunday funnies.

Script by Jerry Capp, nee Caplin. Thanks to Bill Schelly. [©2013 Chicago Tribune Syndicate or successors in interest.]

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How A Comics Legend Built His Remarkable Career

In those young artists, Joe Kubert saw himself as an inchoate youth, traipsing from publisher to publisher.

He remembered the kindness of professional artists in the comics production shops and bullpens who would examine his work, give him tips on inking techniques, and offer encouragement.

Their help had taught him the basics of how to create comic art. But where, in the mid-1970s, could a young artist go for instruction specifically aimed at the sequential art medium?

Kubert saw the need and acted to fill it, establishing The Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art in 1976. For his teaching staff, he hired working professionals, just the sort of Tarzan The Savage people who had helped him Joe’s work on DC’s Tarzan comic book, beginning with the transplant-numbered issue #207 (April 1962) as a boy. He had no idea if immediately established him as one of the all-time great illustrators of the jungle hero’s exploits. All his the school would take hold, DC Tarzan has recently been republished in hardcover by Dark Horse, but you probably haven’t seen the but it was worth a try. dramatic 2008 sketch at right, courtesy of the online Palantine News Network.

[Tarzan TM & © Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.] Muriel Kubert worked alongside Joe to get the got into doing graphic novels as a result of the talks I had with place ready for its first group of students. Subsequently, Kubert [Eisner],” Kubert recalled. “He urged me to do it—most emphatiSchool graduates in the hundreds have become working profescally.” Eisner’s groundbreaking A Contract with God provided an sionals, giving back to the medium more than Kubert himself ever example, suggesting the possibility of a whole new medium and dreamed. market for graphic stories. That started the wheels turning that eventually resulted in Kubert producing Fax from Sarajevo, the Step #9: Stretch Creatively graphic novel that won praise from readers and industry awards. It also showed that Kubert had more to give, having not yet explored In 1982, Joe Kubert was interviewed by Will Eisner for the the height and depth of his talent. His stunning Holocaust-themed “Shop Talk” feature in The Spirit magazine. Later, Kubert novel Yossel, April 19, 1943 proved him to be a Jewish artist of commented on the effect this meeting had on him and his work. “I consequence. Joe continued to create work in comic books and graphic novels of the highest caliber for the rest of his life. These projects revealed his constant desire to experiment and try new things, and as a result, his work remained alive and viable in the marketplace.

Step #10: Help Others

School Days Bill Schelly at The Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art in 2004, while interviewing Joe and his family for his 2008 book Joe Kubert: Man of Rock.

Along the way, Joe Kubert helped others when he perceived a need. In the 1980s, the Kubert School established the Norman Maurer Memorial Scholarship. During the siege of Sarajevo in the 1990s, he rallied publishing and political figures in the United States and Europe to come to the aid of his friend Ervin Rustemagic, who was trapped with his family in the war-torn city.

At the dawn of the new millennium, he was a board member of the Hero Initiative (then called ACTOR), an organization that aids comic book professionals who are in dire financial straits. In 2006, when Islamic extremists threatened the lives of cartoonists at the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, Kubert and Rafael Medoff collaborated on a letter sent to the media titled “The Power of a Cartoon” to speak out against that kind of violent response to published material. Their letter was widely circulated, contributing a voice of reason in the midst of that incendiary incident.

Joe Kubert

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Getting Graphic The covers of Kubert’s graphic novels Fax from Sarajevo (1996), Yossel, April 19, 1943 (2003), and Jew Gangster (2005). [©2013 Estate of Joe Kubert.]

Many of Kubert’s good deeds are undocumented. One had an impact on one of Alter Ego’s editors emeritus. When Ronn Foss was approaching his 60th birthday in 1999 and was in poor health, Joe Kubert was asked if he would do some sort of sketch as a surprise gift for Ronn. Instead, Joe created a gorgeous, inked Hawkman piece (gratis) making Foss (who would only live three more years) a very happy Kubert fan. Ultimately, that illustration graced the cover of Alter Ego, Vol. 2, #1, our return after twenty years in suspended animation.

Of course, much more went into the building of Kubert’s career and legacy than could be related in this simplified re-cap. No single article could hope to do justice to the man’s stellar career.

Nevertheless, we hope it shows something of the path Joe Kubert walked and the choices he made that led to his status as a legendary figure in the history of comics.

Despite all of his achievements, Kubert remained a genuinely humble human being. He never tired of saying, “I’m the luckiest man in the world.” He knew that luck plays a role in all our lives, even as we make good decisions and work hard. He never stopped being grateful to the blessings he’d received in his life.

While I came to know Joe’s history and career quite well, I only had the opportunity to spend a couple of days with him and talk with him on the phone a half dozen times. Yet I’ve read, studied, and enjoyed his work in comics almost all my life, and his effect on me has been profound. I’m certain the same is true of many who are reading this article, as well as countless others across the United States and around the world. Joe Kubert is gone, but then... legends never die.

Donations can be made in Joe Kubert’s name to the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation, at 383 Main Ave., 5th Floor, Norwalk, CT, 06851. (www.themmrf.org)

Draw, Pardner!

This self-portrait was a part of Joe’s contribution to the TwoMorrows trade paperback Streetwise (2000), which featured more or less autobiographical tales by a roster of top comic book pros. Scan by Bill Schelly. [©2013 Estate of Joe Kubert.]

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in the GOLDEN & SILVER AGES

11

A Six-Part Remembrance

“We’re In The Kind Of Business Where The Story Is King” A 2010 Interview With JOE KUBERT Conducted & Transcribed by Richard J. Arndt NTERVIEWER’S INTRODUCTION: Joe Kubert began his career in 1938 at the age of twelve, either working for the comics shop run

by Harry “A” Chesler or, if you count published work, in 1942 for MLJ Studios (the future Archie Comics Publications), inking a story of their new character, Archie. He did his first work for National/DC Comics in 1944 and did the bulk of his comic art for that company over the next seven decades. He worked there as a group editor from 1968 until 1986 and has done occasional freelance editing for DC since then. In the early 1950s, he was also an editor at St. John Publications, along with his partner and childhood friend Norman Maurer.

Kubert’s most notable work has been on such characters as Tor, Enemy Ace, Sgt. Rock, Hawkman, Viking Prince, and Tarzan. He has also been a strong presence in the world of graphic novels with such books as Fax from Sarajevo, Yossel - April 29, 1943, Jew Gangster, Tex, and Dong Xaoi, April 1965. There are also hardcover collections of his work on all six of the above-named heroes.

I

In addition, he founded The Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art in 1976, which has taught and prepared numerous artists for the professional world of comics. He was also the editor-artist for PS Magazine, a U.S. military publication that specializes in the care and maintenance of military equipment….

There’s Gold In That Thar Silver Age! Joe Kubert, in a photo that appeared in the 1980s magazine Comics interview—and an image of the original art for his cover for The Brave and the Bold #34 (Feb.-March 1961), the debut of the Silver Age “Hawkman,” courtesy of collector/dealer Mike Burkey’s website (www.romitaman.com). Incidentally, the suggested bid for this page was a staggering $150,000, so save your pennies. Photo credited to Jim Salicrup.

[Photo ©2013 David Anthony Kraft; B&B cover art ©2013 DC Comics.]

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A 2010 Interview With Joe Kubert

“The Whole Time I Was In The Army, I Was Still Working For The Comic Book Publishers”

RICHARD ARNDT: I’d like to welcome Joe Kubert—artist, writer, and editor of comics for seven decades. Mr. Kubert, although you’re best known as an artist, you’ve also been one of the leading editors for DC Comics for many years. If you don’t mind, I’d like to concentrate on your work as an editor for this interview.

JOE KUBERT: All right.

RA: You were an editor at DC Comics for close to twenty years, but you didn’t start your editorial career there. You actually started at St. John Comics in the 1950s, with Norman Maurer as your partner, isn’t that right?

KUBERT: That’s right, but it wasn’t just as an editor. Norman and I packaged the books we edited, as well. Well, actually, I started there first. Norman, my partner, had been living in California. We had no partner relationship before this, but little by little, as I was taking on more work, the person I was interested in coming in with me and working with me was Norman. It was somewhat step-by-step. I stop to think about it now and I can’t really think of any definitive plan for a partnership. It just fell into place.

RA: What titles were you packaging for them at the time?

KUBERT: Before the 3-D stuff, I was working on… Hollywood Romances, I think was one. [A/E EDITOR’S NOTE: The actual name of that two-issue St. John title was Hollywood Confessions.] That was one of the love or romance comic books. Meet Miss Pepper was kind of an Archie-type comic, perhaps a little bit more adult. I think I also did some work on some of the other books that Archer St. John, the publisher, was putting out as well. House of Terror, that sort of thing. I probably did a number of covers. It was just about at that time that I went into the Army. This was in the early 1950s.

RA: One question I’d like to ask about your Army service—did your experiences in the Army at that time influence to any major degree your attitude towards war comics?

KUBERT: Oh, no, no. When I was in the Army, I was probably doing work that was closer to being a civilian than being a soldier.

I was in a special Army group that was putting together material for the troops. I was stationed in Germany. Most of the guys I took basic training with in Fort Dix were shipped off to Korea. I was lucky. For whatever reasons they had pulled me out, along with perhaps a handful of other guys, to be shipped out to other places in the world. I was shipped to Germany. I served there for about a year until I came home. I was in the Army about two years. There was very little experience that I had in the Army that could possibly relate to the comic books that I did later on.

Incidentally, the whole time I was in the Army, I was still working for the comic publishers. I would do the drawing on my off time. I set up a small studio in the office that I had and I continued doing work. I was married at the time, and my wife would bring the stuff to the publishers. I was working on comics the whole time I was in the service.

RA: Tor was one of the titles that you packaged for St. John, is that correct?

Too Much Monkey Business The cover of 1,000,000 Years Ago #1 (Sept. 1953) can be seen in this issue’s installment of “Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt” that begins on p. 61. Tor the Hunter starred in only the 11-page lead story in that issue; but, in addition to the first “Danny Dreams” episode therein, Kubert also illustrated (and probably wrote) a half-page “Chee-Chee’s Glossary.” Below it was Norman Maurer’s cartoon depicting the era’s overcrowded comic book shelves, in an ad for the three new titles the two friends were co-editing for Archer St. John.

If you look closely, you’ll spot some partial logos of actual comic books. The cartoon was right-on: within the next couple of years, the number of publishers and titles on sale would both shrink dramatically. [“Tor” art ©2013 Estate of Joe Kubert; ad art ©2013 the respective copyright holders.]

KUBERT: Yes, Tor was a character that I came up with while I was on the boat shipping over to Germany. Actually, on the boat while I was being shipped over. Tor is actually not such an innovative character. He’s a stone-age Tarzan. Tarzan was a character that I’d always loved. One of the things that probably stimulated me to get into comics in the first place. When I was a kid I always read the stuff in the newspaper. Anyway, I had this idea for Tor. I put down the notes for the character while I was in the Army, and when I got out I went back to St. John. I had a whole slew of ideas to start putting out in books, and St. John was open to that. That was when I contacted my buddy Norman. I had so much to do in getting the books out that I thought he would be valuable and that it was something that he would want to do as well.

We had worked together before. We had started in the business together, as a matter of fact. We had attended the High School of Music and Art. That was when we were kids.

[Continued on p. 23]

ON

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“We’re In The Kind Of Business Where The Story Is King”

KUBERT Before St. John By the time he and Norman Maurer began to edit their own group of comics at St. John Publishing in 1953, Joe had been a professional artist for more than a decade. Over the next ten pages, you’ll find a pulse-pounding potpourri of early Kubert goodies not discussed in great detail elsewhere in this issue of A/E, but which are definitely a part of the artist’s first decade of work.

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“Volton” Voltage Above is Joe’s “Volton” splash page from Holyoke’s Cat-Man Comics #10 (May 1942), while at right is the one from #11 (June ’42). His “Volton” splash from #8 can be seen on p. 3. Scripter(s) unknown. All are taken from Mike Bromberg’s digest-size Volton Fanzine #1 (May 2004), which reproduced the art directly from the original comics. You can contact Mike about it at mike@designbymike.com. [©2013 the respective copyright holders.]

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A 2010 Interview With Joe Kubert

Crime Does So Pay—For Comic Book Artists!

Not all of Joe’s early pro work involved super-heroes. Here, for instance, courtesy of Ethan Roberts from his considerable Kubert collection, are both the printed splash page and the original black-&-white art of a cops-and-robbers story from Harvey Publications’ All-New Comics #10 (Sept. 1944). Scripter unknown. [©2013 the respective copyright holders.]

“We’re In The Kind Of Business Where The Story Is King”

The Ink Panther Ethan Roberts, who again provided us with scans of both comics page and original art, says that Joe only inked this “Black Cat” story from Harvey’s Speed Comics #31 (March 1944). Unsigned Golden Age stories are often hard to identify, and apparently the penciler as well as the writer is unidentified. [©2013 the respective copyright holders.]

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16

A 2010 Interview With Joe Kubert

All Cats Are Black In Harvey Comics

By Speed Comics #34 (Sept. 1944), Kubert was performing full art chores on “Black Cat,” as per the two versions of this page, again from the Ethan Roberts collection. Scripter unknown. [©2013 the respective copyright holders.]

Seen at right is a drawing Joe did of the original Black Cat in 2012 for collector Michael Dunne. As you can see, he got better with age. [©2013 Estate of Joe Kubert.]

“We’re In The Kind Of Business Where The Story Is King”

Hawking His Wares Kubert’s “Hawkman” was dynamic from the get-go—and only improved! Juxtaposed on this page are the Feathered Fury’s splash from Flash Comics #63 (March 1945) and a page from #73 (July ’46)—plus the cover of the latter, which ranks as one of the favorite comics covers ever of A/E’s editor. Thanks to amiable Al Dellinges, who a couple of years back furnished Roy with quality photocopies of the entire contents of every Golden Age issue of Flash Comics starting with #62—the issue in which Joe became the “Hawkman” artist! Scripts by Gardner F. Fox. [©2013 DC Comics.]

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A 2010 Interview With Joe Kubert

The Beak Of Perfection?

As the Hawks’ masks and wings mutated and Joe’s style got more polished, the Winged Wonders probably felt held captive not only to African witch doctors and the mysterious Ghost (in his final Golden Age appearance, only one issue before Flash Comics was canceled) but to the presumably declining sales of Golden Age super-hero titles. These splashes, likewise photocopied by Al Dellinges, are from #97 (July 1948) and #103 (Jan. 1949), respectively. Both scripts credited to Robert Kanigher. [©2013 DC Comics.]

Also seen is a 2007 sketch by Kubert of the nighidentical Silver Age Hawkman, from the online Palantine News Network. [Hawkman TM & ©2013 DC Comics.]

“We’re In The Kind Of Business Where The Story Is King”

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An All-Star In All-Star Along the way, Kubert also illustrated increasingly finely-honed chapters in the “Justice Society of America” adventures in All-Star Comics. His “try-out” was Dr. Fate’s final appearance there (in #21, Summer 1944)— followed by his drawing all but two of Hawkman’s All-Star episodes between #24 (Spring ’45, above) and #37 (Oct-Nov. ’47, at left). The first two splashes seen here were written by Hawkman/Flash/Dr. Fate/JSA co-creator Gardner F. Fox; the page from #37, which featured the first Injustice Society of the World, is by Robert Kanigher. Happily, all these stories have been reprinted in DC’s hardcover All Star Comics Archives, if not always quite as faithfully as one would like; but the images here were shot from the bound volumes of A/E’s editor. [©2013 DC Comics.]

Actually, though, it seems Joe did have artwork on the cover, if not in the interior, of All-Star #31 (Oct.-Nov. 1946, below left), for he once told JSA researcher Craig Delich that he had drawn the flaring wings on Hawkman's helmet on that cover (they're quite different from the ones in the same scene reprinted inside as the splash page)—and his final appearance in All-Star was on the cover of #39 (Feb.-March 1948, below right), where a Kubert-drawn Hawkman head quite clearly replaced one that had been drawn by artist Irwin Hasen. [©2013 DC Comics.]

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A 2010 Interview With Joe Kubert

Kubert Makes A Splash—With “The Flash” Kubert likewise drew a handful of stories in Flash Comics that starred “The Flash.”

Seen here are a tale of time travel with a twist from issue #88 (Oct. 1947) and Jay Garrick's first encounter with The Thorn (nee Rose) in #89 (Nov. '47), the latter scripted by Robert Kanigher. Inking of #88 is by Moe Worthman, with the writer uncertain. Joe clearly had a flare for drawing the Scarlet Speedster, and it’s a shame he didn’t do more of his adventures—or some of “Green Lantern,” for that matter. Also seen is a 2009 sketch of the Golden Age Flash, courtesy of the Palantine News Network.

Kubert's only known Golden Age drawings of the original Green Lantern were done for the final panels of the third, never-published Rose & Thorn story in the "Flash" series.

The last two pages of that story were printed for the first time in Superman's Girlfriend, Lois Lane #133 (Sept.-Oct. 1971); below is the only panel in the tale that shows GL except for a far-off flying pose. Thanks to Glenn—who never got around to giving us his last name—and to Doug Martin. [©2013 DC Comics.]

“We’re In The Kind Of Business Where The Story Is King”

Magic Time!

For some reason, National/DC seems to have liked having Joe draw its two major supernatural heroes (post-Spectre and -Dr. Fate). Clockwise cases in point: “Sargon the Sorcerer” in All-American Comics #70 (Jan.-Feb. 1946), with script by John B. Wentworth… and “Zatara the Master Magician” in Action Comics #138 (Nov. 49), scripted by Joe Samachson, and World’s Finest Comics #43 (Dec. 1949-Jan. 1950), written by George Kashdan. Before M.C. Gaines sold his affiliated All-American line to National/DC proper, all of Kubert’s “DC” work had appeared in AA comics, under the keen eye of editor Shelly Mayer. Thanks respectively to Ethan Roberts, Jim Ludwig, and Bruce Mason. [©2013 DC Comics.]

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22

A 2010 Interview With Joe Kubert

Vigilante Justice Earlier, as per above right, young Joe had inked "Vigilante" stories penciled by the famous Mort Meskin. This oft-reproduced splash by "Mort & Joe" is from Action Comics #69 (Feb. 1944).

Script credited to Joe Samachson.

By the time of Action #127 (Dec. 1948), Joe got to try his hand at the feature on his own. Ethan Roberts, who owns the original art, sent us both these versions of that issue's "Vigilante" splash page.

Scripter unknown. [©2013 DC Comics.]

[Continued from p. 12]

“We’re In The Kind Of Business Where The Story Is King”

“Many People Got Burnt [By 3-D Comics]”

RA: Roy Thomas asked me to enquire who was the illustrator on the strip “The Wizard of Ugghh,” which was one of the backup strips in Tor.

KUBERT: [laughs] “The Wizard of Ugghh” was Norman. It’s hard to say exactly. I can’t say that it was completely him. He was also doing the Three Stooges comic. He had a contact with Moe Howard, one of the Stooges. Moe was actually his father-in-law… I don’t suppose you could get a better contact than that.

RA: Probably not. [both laugh]

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RA: [The comic book] Tor wasn’t called Tor at that time. Wasn’t it actually entitled One Million Years B.C.?

KUBERT: Yeah. One Million Years B.C. or One Million Years Ago. That title was similar to a movie that was out at that time.

Somewhere around that time. I just loved the idea of a Stone Age man, regardless of the time sequence, who was, at the end of the day, just people. Didn’t matter if there were dinosaurs in it or not.

People were people.

KUBERT: Whenever he’d become inundated with work, or vice versa, we kind of helped one another. There may have been a story that he penciled and I inked or that I lettered or vice versa. We worked real well together.

Caveman Humor—Maurer Or Less The splash page of “The Wizard of Ugghh” from One Million Years Ago #1, drawn wholly (or at least mostly) and probably written by Norman Maurer. At left is a photo taken of Norm and his wife Joan on Nov. 1, 1981, by Shel Dorf. [Page ©2013 Estates of Joe Kubert & Norman Maurer.]

When Joe passed away, Joan Howard Maurer wrote a letter to his sons and daughter. Through the good offices of Shaun Clancy, she gave us permission to print a piece that she based on that letter: “As I look back on my life and my husband Norman’s, I realize there was a special place in it for Joe and Norman and their creative relationship. No wonder Norman struck out in comics, using the cartoony type male figure in his artwork, [while] Joe all his life went for the realistic human form. This was the major difference between these two men. Norman was a slim fellow, about 125 pounds after a big meal, and Joe was built like his super-heroes.

“Then there were the similarities between both men. They had great character, loved to draw, and loved each other. They were obsessed with creativity. I was an outsider who lived vicariously through Norman’s and Joe’s artwork and looked on with wonder—an observer of the life paths of these two men.

“Then Norman died—his life cut short due to smoking. He’d just turned sixty. I can’t recall all the details, but Joe called me and invited me to visit the Kubert School. It was 1986 and I was so impressed with all that Joe had achieved. And then the surprise—Joe had decided to do something special for his “old pal.” He would present a scholarship to one of his students in Norman’s memory.

“Yearly, Joe and my brother Paul met and chose the recipient. This has been going on for over 25 years. They even met this past spring, so it was quite a shock when I found out that Joe had passed away—in an e-mail, yet.

“It was with a heavy heart that I realized I hadn’t thanked Joe enough while he was living regarding his thoughtfulness in honoring Norman. Thus, last week, I sent my belated thanks to his sons and daughter—the creative Kubert Klan.” [©2013 Joan Howard Maurer.]

Thank you, Joan, for allowing us to print this excerpt from your essay.

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A 2010 Interview With Joe Kubert

RA: That certainly is a memorable strip. How did the association with St. John come to an end?

KUBERT: It was the result of the failure of 3-D comics. When 3-D started out, it was a good gimmick. Norman and I and Norman’s brother Len had developed the process with which we produced the 3-D effects. There was no trick to doing the 3-D. It had, of course, been around in three-dimensional illustrations and photographs for many years. What we did was produce it in such a way that it was feasible to put it on the market for 25 cents a copy, including the glasses. That was really a slick trick.

I had seen 3-D books in Europe. When I got out of the Army and was putting together the books for St. John, both Norm and I knew that the competition was really heavy.

There were so many titles on the market. We felt that—gosh—if we could come up with something that was maybe a little different, something to attract attention, that maybe we could stand out a little and sell more copies. We talked about a lot of different things that we might do. Perhaps change the size of the comic book, make it larger or smaller, but that had been done before. I had seen, as I mentioned before, 3-D magazines in Europe. These were photographs, not comics or illustrations, and I described what I had seen, hoping we could develop something like this and put it into a comic book. We both turned the idea down right away, saying, “How in the hell could we do something like that?”

But immediately afterwards we sat down, knocked it around and figured out a way we might do it. Then, through trial and error, we worked out a system where we felt we could produce this.

Pop Goes The Dinosaur!

Incidentally, the “caveman movie” that Kubert mentions as being out “at that time” would have been One Million B.C., starring Victor Mature, and had actually been released to theatres in 1940; clearly Joe had a long memory. It would be remade, after a fashion, in 1966, starring Raquel Welch and a bunch of Ray Harryhausen dinosaurs who barely made it onto the above poster! [©2013 the respective copyright holders.]

Dinosaurs were much in the public eye in 1953, but not in ways likely to have influenced the debut of Kubert’s St. John title. Life magazine sported a famous dinosaur cover and heavily illustrated article in its Sept. 7, 1953, issue—but 1,000,000 Years Ago #1 would’ve been on sale months before it hit the nation’s newsstands and mailboxes—nor would that year’s “dinosaur”-featuring film The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, which was about a giant prehistoric reptile (the first of many to be stopmotion-animated by Harryhausen) awakened in the present by radiation, have been on screens before the comic book was at least on the presses. [Life cover ©2013 Time Warner, Inc.; posters ©2013 the respective copyright holders.]

“We’re In The Kind Of Business Where The Story Is King”

25

“[The Green Beret Strip] Barred Me From Doing Anything Else”

RA: You, of course, continued on as an artist for the rest of the 1950s. Did you do a lot of writing after the St. John experience?

KUBERT: Whenever the situation came up, I always preferred to do my own work and handle the whole process by myself, but I never devoted time strictly as a writer. Ever.

My first love, the first work that I’ve always done, the thing I’ve always wanted to do, is draw. If you’re asking me if I became a writer, perhaps in respect to my own work, but that was it.

RA: Your next job as an editor was for DC, starting about 1967 or 1968.

KUBERT: Yup, about that. I’m very bad with dates but it was in the late 1960s.

RA: You’d just come off a stint illustrating the Tales of the

“A Lion In Your Lap”—And A Dinosaur In Your Dinner Dish!

Some images from the two St. John issues both published as “3-D Comics #2”—which were the second and third comics to feature “Tor”—were seen in A/E #115’s 3-D special.

Above is a three-dimensional image of Kubert art and story from the 3-D Comics #2 dated Oct. 1953, wherein the hero and Chee-Chee face a raging carnosaur… and the “caveman with a conscience” gets a chance to display a bit of brawn and axethrowing ability, as well as some of the better “stereoscopic” effects of that era’s 3-D comics. Hope you held onto your red-and-green goggles from last ish… and be sure to store them away carefully for next year’s second 3-D extravaganza in Alter Ego, which will feature a Kubert cover! This entire story was printed in Craig Yoe's 2001 book Amazing 3-D Comics, from IDW. [©2013 Estate of Joe Kubert.]

We set up a studio where a certain aspect of work had to be done by a number of people with more technical and less artistic abilities. That’s the way 3-D was developed.

The first book that came out in 3-D sold well. I actually bought my first house from that. But as happens, many, many times in our business, as soon as a good idea comes out, everybody jumps on the bandwagon, and before you knew it, the whole market was overwhelmed and flooded. There were way more 3-D books coming out than the market could bear. Plus, the gimmick itself just did not sell. Many, many people got burnt. Archer St. John, who had turned all his books into 3-D, whether it was a humor or mystery or whatever it was, came out in 3-D and the gimmick was just not enough . There were so many 3-D books. Everybody was coming out with 3-D books and sales were terrible. I think that the 3-D failure was what predominantly drove St. John out of the comics business.

Catch A Falling Tor And Put It In Your Pocket…

The 3-D debacle may have contributed materially to the downfall of Archer St. John’s little comics empire, but before he went out of business, three more Tor-starring issues had been published in four colors: Tor #35, actually the 4th through the 6th comics to feature the Stone Age hero— and the only three St. John editions to actually feature the name “Tor” in the title. Are we confused yet? This splash page is from the final issue. But Tor would be active on the primeval printed page again—in the ‘70s and in every decade since, at DC, Marvel, and elsewhere! [©2013 Estate of Joe Kubert.]

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A 2010 Interview With Joe Kubert

A Valiant “Prince” Between Tor and his first real foray into the world of newspaper comic strips, and simultaneous with his work on DC’s war comics, Joe Kubert drew the swashbuckling feature “Viking Prince,” set circa 1000 A.D., with a hero first written by Robert Kanigher and probably inspired in large part by Harold R. Foster’s Prince Valiant. From his Kubert cornucopia of original art, Ethan Roberts sent us this well-designed action page, scripted by Bob Haney, from The Brave and the Bold #18 (June-July 1958), as well as the printed version. The whole series, with all art except a handful of covers drawn by Kubert, is on view in DC’s 2010 hardcover The Viking Prince. [©2013 DC Comics.]

Green Beret strip for newspapers. Did that work take you away from DC for that period?

KUBERT: Yes, it took me away from everything. From everything.

Doing a syndicated strip is probably the most demanding kind of work I can imagine. The deadlines are incredibly tight. The newspaper can’t come out with a blank sheet. You can’t say, “Sorry, I missed the deadline.” It has to be done. The deadlines are incredibly stringent. Working on The Green Beret barred me from doing anything else.

Incidentally, I was recommended for that strip by Neal Adams.

At that point, I had never met him.

RA: He was doing the Ben Casey newspaper strip at the time.

KUBERT: He was doing Ben Casey. I think the story goes that he’d been offered the Green Beret strip first, but he was too busy. He had apparently seen my work on “Sgt. Rock” or “Enemy Ace” and said, “I know this guy. I don’t know if he’s available, but I think this Joe Kubert can handle this strip rather well.” He recommended me.

RA: When did you actually meet Mr. Adams?

KUBERT: I don’t remember. I guess it was later on, up at DC. I don’t think I met Neal when I was doing the strip.

RA: Sam Glanzman did the comic book version of The Greet Beret. He did four issues of the companion comic book for Dell in 1967.

KUBERT: Ah. I don’t recall ever seeing that.

RA: How did the editorial offer from DC come about?

KUBERT: Carmine Infantino, whom I’d known forever—in fact, he was an usher at my wedding—we’d pretty much started out in comics together when Sheldon Mayer, who was our editor, brought us in as kids. Carmine had taken over the managerial chores at DC, and he asked me if I’d be interested in coming up and working as an editor up at the office.

Bob Kanigher, who had been my editor at DC, had become ill, but he continued to write. It was an interesting situation, and it could have become rather sticky if Bob and I hadn’t been professionals. Bob had been my editor prior to this for years. As you know, the top honcho when you’re doing this work is the editor.

He’s the guy that hires the artist, that assigns the writer, that directs the books. When Bob took ill was when I became a full-time editor.

“We’re In The Kind Of Business Where The Story Is King”

27

I, Spy? This Tales of the Green Beret strip for Sunday, May 14, 1967, smacks of foreign intrigue, rather than battle in the jungles of South Vietnam.

Script by Jerry Capp. [©2013 Chicago Tribune Syndicate or its successors in interest.]

RA: Why did you leave The Green Beret? Did the strip run its course or…

KUBERT: No. I was unhappy with it. The strip started out with a big bang. It started off really good and my understanding was that it was supposed to be a romantic adventure, à la Terry and the Pirates, but it turned out to be a political polemic. I didn’t enjoy that. It wasn’t that I had any real objections or strict ideas in a political vein, but I just felt that the strip was not a place for a political strip, which it slowly became. The politics just become so predominant in the strip that it ceased to be the kind of story or strip that I felt I wanted to do. The strip was not appearing on the editorial pages. It was a comic strip. Despite the fact that I changed the scripts as I received them from the writer—who was not Robin Moore, by the way; the writer was someone else—it still became a chore and an uncomfortable chore to work on.

Eventually I just decided I couldn’t do it anymore.

“We Shouldn’t Do The Silly ‘Let’s Go Out And Kill The Enemy’ Sort Of Thing”

RA: I know your first books as editor at DC were the war titles— Our Army at War, Star Spangled War Stories, G.I. Combat, and Our Fighting Forces. You were still doing “Enemy Ace” at that time for Star Spangled War Stories. Also, “Sgt. Rock” for Our Army at War. KUBERT: I had about eight or ten titles at one point.

Casey At The Bat Comics phenom Neal Adams in the mid-1960s, when he was drawing the Ben Casey newspaper strip, based on the popular TV medical series starring Vince Edwards—and the Sunday for Feb. 28, 1965.

There’s a bit of roll at the right side of this image from the Internet, but we wanted to spotlight the playful effect created by panels 1, 2, 5, 6, 8, & 9. Neal would later do similar stunts in comic book series like “Deadman.” [©2013 the respective copyright holders.]

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A 2010 Interview With Joe Kubert

Sam’s Strips Artist Sam Glanzman, a number of years back—and two examples of his work for Dell’s Tales of the Green Beret comic book done while his longtime fellow DC war artist Joe Kubert was still doing the comic strip version: the cover of #2 (March 1967) and a splash page from #4 (Sept. or Oct. 1967). Thanks to Anthony Snyder for the latter. [©2013 the respective copyright holders.]

RA: Did you do any editorial work on the Showcase title? I’m thinking particularly of “Firehair.”

KUBERT: Most of the work I did for Showcase was early on… much earlier. I know Bob Kanigher was the editor for most of the Showcase material I did. “Firehair” I did for the Tomahawk book which I also edited, although it may have appeared first in Showcase.

RA: After a year or so under your direction, the war titles took a more… mature approach than they had previously.

KUBERT: I think that Bob and I agreed completely that that should be the direction for us. It was Bob’s idea right from the getgo that we shouldn’t do the silly “Let’s go out and kill the enemy” sort of thing. We both felt that we were doing the kind of stories that had more realism within the context of comic books than had been done for a long time. We tried to put in a sense of credibility as to what was happening in the stories. I think he approached the stories that way. When I took over the editorial reins, I did the same thing. We both felt that to do these stories and to glorify them or to make them look less serious than what war actually is would be a mistake. Kurtzman at EC Comics had been doing similar things before us.

RA: Archie Goodwin also produced war stories with a similar mindset for Blazing Combat at Warren Publications. This approach gave a certain edginess to the war stories, particularly in the context of the times, when there was such a backlash and a swell of protest against the more traditional flag-waving type of story.

KUBERT: Yeah.

RA: When did you hire Sam Glanzman? His first assignment appears to have been “The Haunted Tank.”

KUBERT: It’s interesting that you’re asking me about that, because

“We’re In The Kind Of Business Where The Story Is King”

29

Fire In The Hole Circa 1971, in the fading Tomahawk title, Kubert wrote and drew backup stories of his young Amerindian hero “Firehair.” This page of original art from one of them (perhaps #134? the issue number at top isn’t fully visible in the scan) was retrieved from the Palantine News Network—as was the sketch of Firehair that Joe drew in 2007. [Page ©2013 DC Comics; Firehair TM & ©2013 DC Comics.]

Sam is doing some work right now for me. I am producing a series of books, anthologies—a number of different stories, and Sam is doing… he’s 85 or 86 now and living up in the woods. I’ve always admired Sam’s work, especially the stuff that he did about the U.S.S. Stevens, the ship that he served on during World War II. In the anthology I’m now doing, I felt that his stories would be an important element, so I contacted him and he’s done some of the best work I’ve ever seen him do. Those books will be coming out, hopefully, within the next six months.

As to when I hired him back then, I really don’t remember, but it was a joy working with him then and it is now.

RA: I’ve always been very impressed by his work, particularly the “U.S.S. Stevens” series.

KUBERT: He’s an incredible artist and he has an emotional content to his work that I think is admirable.

RA: On the anthology series, is it going to be just war stories or a general all-around collection?

KUBERT: I’m doing a “Hawkman” story that I wrote and drew. I had a character [and title] called Redeemer about 20 years ago that I finished several stories for at the time. I was contracted to do a year’s worth of stories for the book, which was supposed to be

monthly, but all the other work that I had taken on made it just impossible to continue with Redeemer. I purchased back the property, so Redeemer is mine and it’s being published now. DC is publishing it. The anthology is six issues long. Sam’s got all his stories done already. They’re “U.S.S. Stevens” stories, which I really wanted him to do, and they were all that Sam wanted to do, as well. These stories are torture for him, but he’s an amazing guy and he does some incredible work, as far as I’m concerned. Like I said, I think it’s the best work of his career. It looks absolutely great. It’s torture for him, though. He’s never satisfied with the work. It’s never at the level that he himself wants it. I guess that’s true of all of us, but Sam especially.

RA: Is there a title for the mini-series?

KUBERT: Yeah, it will be called Joe Kubert Presents.

RA: It should be coming out in the fall or the early winter?

KUBERT: It is going to be six issues, and I won’t let DC even advertise the series until I have at least four done. Right now, I’m just about finished with the second issue.

RA: Fair enough. So probably next year some time.

KUBERT: I would say so.

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A 2010 Interview With Joe Kubert

Rock And The Hard Places The Kubert covers of Our Army at War #233 (March 1971) & #259 (Aug. 1973) demonstrate the more human side of the war which took center stage during the years of Kubert as editor. The former cover was undoubtedly inspired by the notorious and tragic My Lai Massacre of 1968, in which American soldiers executed South Vietnamese civilians, which only became known to the U.S. public a year later. [©2013 DC Comics.]

RA: I’m very glad to hear this news. I’m also looking forward to the debut of Redeemer. I remember reading about it in press releases years ago, but I don’t believe it ever went beyond those releases, did it?

KUBERT: No, there was a lot of promotion for it, but it just never made it into print.

“I Think That Story Is Probably A Little More Predominating”

RA: About 1972 you started overseeing the Edgar Rice Burroughs material… Tarzan, which was quite an impressive book, Korak, Son of Tarzan, “John Carter of Mars,” and “Carson of Venus” [in the title Weird Worlds]. You hired some relatively young artists on some of that material, particularly Mike Kaluta.

KUBERT: It was a great pleasure for me to have Mike on that strip.

A young guy, like Mike was at the time, was raring to go. He was just in love with the Burroughs character. He came up and pleaded with me. He wasn’t that long in the business. He said, “Joe, I want to do ‘Carson of Venus’ just as Burroughs wrote it. I don’t want to make any kind of deviations from it.” I told him if he really wanted to do this story, if he felt that strongly about it, than the story was his. “Do it the way you want to do it.” And he did some of the most beautiful work he’s ever done.

RA: Murphy Anderson was doing “John Carter of Mars.”

KUBERT: Right, and that was Murph’s love, too. He loved the character, loved what he was doing. I think that guys working under those conditions can only do their best work.

RA: It was certainly an impressive package. I’m rather regretful that, sales-wise, it didn’t appear to pan out.

KUBERT: Well, if we’re going to use the criteria that quality is based on sales, that kind of thinking is just impossible. I’ve guessed wrong so many times. Some of the stuff that I thought could do really well had miserable sales. Bob Kanigher’s “Enemy Ace,” for example, which I thought was an excellent story, never sold… never did well. Who knows?

RA: That was a great series. Beautifully illustrated.

KUBERT: I’ve always contended that it’s the writer who has the hard job. He starts with a blank page. Completely and totally blank. Boy, that’s a rough place to start. The artist, at least, has the advantage of starting with a script or a plot, even though it’s written, that gives him a starting-off place. The writer, though, starts out with a blank sheet.

RA: As an editor, what did you look for—what do you look for today in either a writer or an artist?

KUBERT: I think we’re in the kind of business where the story is king. You can get the best artwork… for example, the type of thing that’s going on today in the business—a good example of what not to do is to knock your brains out on production, using the most beautiful drawing in the world, decorate a page and print it in the most beautiful color and then find out that you can’t read the goddamn thing. It’s the tail before the dog.

I think that the perfect story in comics is a good marriage between story and art, but I think that story is probably a little more predominating. I don’t care how good the art is, if the story is not good, then you’re lost. Then again, the story can be good, but if it’s not told well with the illustration, then that’s not good, either. I look for somebody who realizes that he’s telling a story. The artist is not just doing pretty pictures, he is communicating to the reader.

We, writer and artist, are communicators. We are, first and

“We’re In The Kind Of Business Where The Story Is King”

Joe Kubert Presents... Joe Kubert The six-issue Joe Kubert Presents series, sadly, went on sale only after the artist’s passing, but it stands as a tribute both to him and to some of his favorite concepts. For the first issue (dated Nov. 2012), after his trademark introductory page (seen above left), Joe wrote and drew a “Hawkman” prequel to the Silver Age events of 1961’s The Brave and the Bold #34—and we can forgive him for drawing wings on Katar Hol’s helmet, which the Thanagarian actually didn’t “win” until his fourth appearance. Issue #2 (Dec. 2012) began the serialization of The Redeemer, a graphic novel Kubert had done more than two decades earlier; seen at right is that issue’s cover.

[Redeemer art ©2013 Estate of Joe Kubert; other art ©2013 DC Comics.]

foremost, storytellers. That’s what I look for. That’s really what I look for. I’m not interested in style. I don’t care what the style is. It could be humor. It could be a combination of humor and straight stuff. As long as the story comes across, that’s what I’m looking for in a writer or an artist.

RA: What can you tell us about Rima? I believe that was an adaptation of the novel Green Mansions by William Henry Hudson. I quite liked that comic when it came out.

KUBERT: That was another case of “I thought it was pretty damn good, too.” I thought it was a good idea, but it never made it. The sales were miserable. It only lasted a half dozen issues, if that. I had a terrific artist from the Philippines on it—Nestor Redondo. I thought he did an excellent job on it.

RA: Were all the Redondos brothers?

KUBERT: Yes! Well, maybe not so much brothers as they came

31

from the same studio.

They all worked together in the Philippines. There was Nestor and Frank and Quinco. I don’t know.

They may have been brothers. I met Nestor just once, and that was later on, when his eyes were going bad. I don’t know if they were brothers or not.

RA: Nestor had a very classical illustrative style.

KUBERT: Yes, he did.

The best stuff I ever saw him do was for a Bible book that I edited for DC. He illustrated some of the stories from the Bible.

RA: That was in the large special-edition format, the same size format that Superman vs. Mohammed Ali originally appeared in. Those largesize formats lasted for a number of years, both from DC and Marvel, but that format seemed to vanish at the same time from both publishers.

KUBERT: Yes. The problem with the Bible adaptation was that I had a habit of taking on too much work. That version sold pretty good, as a matter of fact. I just never had the time to keep going with it, to keep involved in it. The irony is that the guy who kicked off that project was Shelly Mayer, who was my first editor when I started out. I was still going to high school back then. Shelly was the one who really outlined the Bible project. I was then given the

32

A 2010 Interview With Joe Kubert

Tarz An’ The Apes An’ Others Kubert edited all the Edgar Rice Burroughs titles for most of their run at DC Comics, also doing many of the stories and covers. (Clockwise from top left:) A splash page he wrote and drew for the 2nd DC Tarzan issue, #208 (May 1972)… A Murphy Anderson page from the first “John Carter of Mars” chapter, in Tarzan #207 (April ’72), scripted by Marv Wolfman… Joe’s cover for Korak, Son of Tarzan #46 (June 1972, first DC issue)… and a Michael J. Kaluta-drawn page for the “Carson of Venus” installment from Korak, Son of Tarzan #49 (Dec. 1972); script by Len Wein.

The numbering of the DC titles picked up from the Gold Key/Western run.

[Pages ©2013 Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.]

Murphy Anderson

Michael J. Kaluta

“We’re In The Kind Of Business Where The Story Is King”

33

Rima Panorama The first appearance of Rima the jungle girl in comics was probably in the Classics Illustrated #90 (1951) adaptation of the 1904 W.H. Hudson novel Green Mansions… but it took DC and Joe Kubert to turn her into the star of her own comic mag! Seen here are JK’s cover and a Nestor Redondo page (over Kubert layouts) from Rima #6 (Feb.March 1975)—and a 2010 sketch by Joe, courtesy of the Palantine News Network. [Rima pages ©2013 DC Comics; sketch ©2013 Estate of Joe Kubert.]

Nestor Redondo (19281995) was one of the best of the many outstanding artists from (or still living in) the Philippines who worked in U.S. comics in the 1970s and beyond. He is seen below right at the 1982 San Diego Comic-Con. Photo courtesy of Alan Light.

chore of editing it, getting the artists together, laying out the book, and so on and so forth. I just had so many things on my plate. I was over-optimistic about the amount of work I could do.

RA: That’s probably better than being under-optimistic.

KUBERT: I don’t know about that. [chuckles] I don’t know about that.

RA: You also did Ragman about the same time. That seemed to me to

34

A 2010 Interview With Joe Kubert

be a character that should have caught on better than it did.

KUBERT: Yeah…well. What bothers me about Ragman is what the character has turned into. Every time it comes out they reinvent it.

Of course, it’s owned by DC, but every time they put him out they reinvent the character in another form. He’s come out in a more convoluted shape, with a background that’s twisted and turned all about. It kind of makes me uncomfortable.

RA: DC, and Marvel too, have done that with an awful lot of their characters.

KUBERT: Yes, they have. I guess what they are trying to do is to catch the interest of people at that particular period of time, which I think is a completely horrible, impossible task.

“I Left The [DC Editorial] Job Because I Had Started The Joe Kubert School”

RA: You were an editor at DC for 18 years. Did you leave because the war books were being cancelled, or was there another reason?

KUBERT: I left the job because I had started The Joe Kubert School.

I was still editing while I was setting up the School. The School has been around for about 35 years now. I had taken on the task of setting up the School and editing at the same time. Timewise, it was a little over the top.

The School has lasted a hell of a lot longer than I ever thought it would. The School wouldn’t be here in the first place if my wife hadn’t agreed to do the business end of it.

RA: Certainly the School, and the teachers who’ve taught there, have provided a powerful example for the students who’ve passed through its doors. Do you have any writers or artists that you feel a particular respect or admiration for—ones that you set somewhat above the rest?

KUBERT: For writers, there are two I have a great respect for.

Gardner Fox, I think, was an outstanding writer. Bob Kanigher was, without question, one of the most prolific, and best, writers in the business. Bob handled almost every character I can think of.

Bill Finger was a terrific writer, also. Those are the three writers that come to mind.

I would hesitate to mention one or two artists for fear that I would leave somebody out. But as far as the artists I admired personally, there were three guys who have probably given birth to more comic book artists than they ever dreamed of. Those three were Hal Foster, who drew Tarzan and Prince Valiant; Alex Raymond, who drew Flash Gordon and Secret Agent X; and Milton Caniff, who did Terry and the Pirates and Steve Canyon. Those were, and still are, the stars of my constellation. I learned more from them, continually, than anyone, and I admire them more than anyone else. People are, I think, starting to come to an understanding of how much they’ve done and are still doing. They were terrific. Those are my three favorites and, I’m sure, the favorites of many, many others who started when I did.

RA: Are there any other projects beside Joe Kubert Presents that we should be keeping an eye out for?

KUBERT: The one I’m most interested in, at least at this point, is the graphic novel called Dong Xaoi. It’s a story that takes place in Vietnam in 1965, which will be coming out in about two weeks.

RA: You did an earlier story on that battle, I think, for Dark Horse. It was in their Medal of Honor Special about 15 years ago.

KUBERT: How the hell did you know that? [laughs] I finished Dong Xaoi about a year and a half ago. I only discovered that I had done the Medal of Honor thing after I had finished the graphic novel. I had completely forgotten that I’d had done that story. If somebody had told me about it and not shown me the story, I would have denied it. I had no recollection of the earlier story at all.

RA: That’s funny.

KUBERT: [laughs] But it’s true.

RA: So asking you about the earlier version wouldn’t do any good, would it? [much mutual laughter]

Into The Wild Black-&-White Yonder This sketch of Eric Von Hammer, Enemy Ace, was drawn in 2009. Thanks to the Palantine News Network. See the special coverage on this series beginning on p. 49. [Enemy Ace TM & ©2013 DC Comics.]

KUBERT: I don’t know what I could have said about it. The reason I did this book was kind of a personal thing. I don’t know how much you know about the graphic novel, but the reason I did it in the first place was that I happened to meet the guy who was involved in the story. It came about in a weird way, which I won’t even go into now, and when I learned about the story, I learned about this guy who was actually there and the description he’d given of the battle and the contact that he’d kept with all the guys he served with. It happened in 1965, before the Vietnam War actually started. The United States was still sending advisors, Special Forces guys, to teach the people there how to take care of their villages, how to put sewers in, things like that. They’d been attacked by the North Vietnamese. It was just at the outset of the war, and this guy described this encampment that he was sent to with a group of guys—there were 12 of them—and what they went through and how the whole camp was completely obliterated by the battle that took place there. This was a story that I just felt I had to do. The fact that I had done a story on the same battle years and

“We’re In The Kind Of Business Where The Story Is King”

35

“The Creative Kubert Klan” (Clockwise from above left:) The “creative Kubert Klan” that family friend Joan Maurer mentions back on p. 23—minus Joe himself. Muriel, co-founder of the Kubert School, passed away in 2008. At this time, of course, neither Andy nor Adam had entered the comics field where they, too, would become star artists. This panel is from the introductory page Joe wrote and drew for the mostly-reprint DC Special #5 (Oct.-Dec. 1969), which showcased highlights of his DC work to that date; the cover of that issue can be seen on p. 62. [©2013 DC Comics.]

Joe Kubert and son Andy at the table representing the Kubert School, at a 2008 comics convention. Photo by Jim Murtagh & Keif Simon.

Andy K. penciled and his father inked the stories and covers of the first two issues of DCU: Legacies (July & Aug. 2010), which retold the 75-year history of the DC Universe from the point of view of a man who’d lived through it all. [©2013 DC Comics.]

years earlier had completely slipped my mind.

I enjoyed doing it and I hope it is a success. Oh, one more thing I’d like to mention. I just finished a job that I did inking my son Andy’s pencils.

It’s a DC Universe story, part of their 75th anniversary series—DC Legacies—and our issues [#1 & #2] should be out in May and June [of 2010].

RA: Well, I know you’ve got to go. I want to thank you for the interview. I’ve enjoyed it and it’s been a real pleasure to talk to you.

KUBERT: Thank you, too, and take care.

Still In Saigon (Left:) Kubert first drew the story of a 1965 incident in what was in the process of becoming the Vietnam War in Dark Horse’s Medal of Honor Special (April 1994)—and the comic’s cover, as well. Script for the 12-page tale was by Doug Murray. [©2013 Dark Horse Comics, Inc.] (Right:) JK revisited the battle at greater length in his graphic novel Dong Xaoi, Vietnam 1965 in 2010. [©2013 DC Comics.]

RICHARD ARNDT is a librarian and comics historian from Elko, Nevada. His interviews and articles have appeared in magazines such as Alter Ego, From the Tomb, and Spooky, as well as online at www.enjolrasworld.com.

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A 2010 Interview With Joe Kubert

JOE KUBERT Checklist

[NOTE: The following Checklist is adapted from information found in the online edition of Who’s Who of American Comic Books 1928-1999, established by Jerry G. Bails (see ad on final page of this checklist). Names of features which appeared both in comics with that title and in other magazines have generally not been italicized. Key: (w) = writer; (p) = pencils only; (i) = inks only; (a) = full art; (ed) = editor; (d) = daily newspaper comic strip, Monday through Saturday; (S) = Sunday newspaper comic strip.]

Name: Joe Kubert (1926-2012) – artist, writer, editor, publisher

Education: High School of Music and Art (NYC)

Major Influences: Harold R. Foster; Alex Raymond; Milton Caniff; Mort Meskin

Members of Family in Arts: Adam Kubert & Andy Kubert, sons – comic book artists

Comics Shops/Studios: Harry “A” Chesler (as apprentice) 1939, as artist 1945 (work published that year may be from inventory); Eisner Studio (office boy) c. 1941, (colorist & i) 1941-44; S.M. Iger Studio c. 1942; Kubert studio (head) 1949

Member: National Cartoonists Society

Print Media (Non-Comics): artist for pulp magazines 1940s-1950s (MLJ, St. John, & Avon); producer – The Super Dictionary (1978) & Super-Hero Catalogs (c. 1977-78)

Performing or Other Arts: Musician, photographer

Tell Tchaikovsky The News Officially, “The Joe Kubert School”—meaning the students as well as Kubert himself—were the artists of this 1985 Christmas-period newspaper comic strip inspired by Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker Suite” ballet sequence. However, as comics historian John Wells, who supplied these two dailies, opined, it does indeed look as if Joe’s formidable inking submerged much of what may have lain beneath. He probably wrote it, as well. [©2013 the respective copyright holders.]

Commercial Art & Design: Toys – Sgt. Steel for G.I. Joe c. 1995

Founder, Director, & Teacher: The Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art 1976-2012

Honors: Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award 1997; Eisner Award for Best New Graphic Album 1997; Eisner Award Hall of Fame 1998; Harvey Award for Best Graphic Album (Original Work) 1997; Harvey Awards – Jack Kirby Award (Lifetime Achievement) 1997; Inkpot Award (San Diego Comic-Con) 1977; National Cartoonists Society Best Comic Book Artist 1981

Newspaper Syndication: Big Ben Bolt (d)(S)(a) 1977 (three months for King Syndicate); A Christmas Carol (a) 1982 for NEA; Gift of the Magi (d)(w)(a) 1948 (three months); Hans Brinker (d)(w)(a) 1984 (three months); The Nutcracker (w?)(major a) 1985 (three months); The Spirit (S)(assistant colorist) 1941-42 for Register & Tribune Syndicate; Tales of the Green Beret (d)(S)(a) 1965 for NEA, 1966-67 for Chicago Tribune

Comics in Other Media: cartoons (w)(a) for satire magazines; Tor in Alter Ego (Vol. 1) #10 1970 (done in 1958); various features in Avon Out of This World pulp magazine 1950

Creator: Firehair (DC); Tor (St. John, but creator-owned); Unknown Soldier (DC)

Promotional Comics: Advertising comics (a) 1977 for Superhero Book of Goodies

French Comics: Special USA (a) 1968

Italian Comics: (a) Tex: The Lonesome Rider (a) 2005, SAF Comics

UK Comics: A1 (for Atomeka Press) 1990

COMIC BOOK CREDITS (Mainstream or Related U.S. Publications):

Acclaim Comics: card insert in comics (a) 1991 (imprint Valiant)

Archie Publications/MLJ: Archie (i) 1942; Black Witch (a) 1944; Boy Buddies (a) c. 1943; Zoom O’Day (a) no date

Avon Periodicals: Alabam (a) 1947; Badmen of the West (a) 1951; cartoons (a) 1950; crime (a) 1952; Eerie (a) 1947, 1951-52; Jesse James (a) 1950-52; Kenton of the Star Patrol (a) 1947; Out of This World (a) 1950; Strange Worlds (a) 1952

Blackthorne Publishing: covers (a) 1987; Tales of the Green Beret (a) 1985-86 graphic album (reprint – imprint Timeline)

Charlton Comics: mystery/occult (a) 1957

Dark Horse Comics: Fax from Sarajevo (a) 1996

DC/National Comics: ad pages (a) c. 1982; All-American Men of War (a) 1955-66; All-American Western (w)(a) 1949; Arion, Lord of Atlantis (ed) 1983-84; Balloon Buster (a) 1966; Batman (a) 1986, (w)(a) 1996; Batman Gallery (a) 1992 reprint; Batman-Predator trading cards inserts (a) 1991-92 (DC & Dark Horse co-pub.); Battle Album (a) 1970; The Bible (p) 1975; Blackhawk (a) 1976; Blitzkrieg (ed) 1976; Buffalo Bill (a) 1955-56; Captain Hunter (i) 1966; Captain Storm (w)(p)(some i) 1964-66, (w)(a) 1972; Cave Carson (a)(some just i) 1962; covers (a) 1945-48, 1955-93, 1998; Crimson Avenger (a) 1943; DC 100-Page Super-Spectacular (ed) 1972; DC Silver Age Classics (i) 1992 with reprint of The Flash; DC Special Series (ed) 1977-78; DC Special (ed)(w)(a) 1969; Dr. Fate (i) 1944; 80-Page Giant Magazine (ed)

“We’re In The Kind Of Business Where The Story Is King”

1970-71; Enemy Ace (a) 1965, 1968-70, 1972, 1976, 1982, (w) 1970; Epics of the Texas Rangers (some w)(p)(i) 1951-52; Fanboy (a) 1999; fillers (w)(a) 1949, 1951; Firehair (w)(a) 1969-71; Flash (Golden Age version) (a) (some p) 1947-48; Flash (Silver Age version) (i) 1956; Foley of the Fighting 5th (a) 1948-50; G.I. Combat (a) 1957-61, 1966, 1968, 1970, (ed) 1968-72; G.I. Joe (a) 1958, 1964-65; Golden Age Gallery (a) 1984; Green Arrow (a) 1943; Green Lantern (Golden Age) (a) 1948; Gunner and Sarge (a) 1959, 1963, (w)(i) 1972; Haunted Tank (a) 1963-65, (w)(a) 1970, 1972; Haunted Tank and Sgt. Rock (a) 1964; Hawkman (Golden Age) (a) 1944-49; Hawkman (Silver Age) (a) 1961-62, 1968-69, 1974, 1981; Hawkman and Hawkgirl (p) 1969; Headline Heroines (a) 1949; Heroes against Hunger (p) 1986 (Superman and Batman); House of Mystery (a) 1960-61; illustrations (a) 1984-85, 1991-92, 1997, 1993 (latter Dark Horse & DC); Indian Buffalo Hunter (w)(a) 1951; Jimmy Wakely (p) 1950; Jimmy Wakely backup feature (p) 1951; John Carter of Mars (w) 1972; Johnny Cloud (a) 1964, The Eyes Of Tex, They Are Upon You (w)(a) 1972; Johnny Peril (a.k.a. Just a In 2005, for the Italian company SAF, Kubert illustrated a 200+Story) (a) 1951, 1957; Johnny Quick (i) page graphic novel featuring the Western hero Tex Willer, who 1943-44; Justice League of America (a) has been around since 1948 in the series Tex. [©2013 SAF.] 1982; Justice Society of America 194447 (see Dr. Fate and Hawkman credits); Kings of the Wild (a) 1956; Korak – Son of Tarzan (w)(a)(ed) 1972-74; Lieutenant Johnny Cloud (a) 1964; Mark Merlin (a) 1960; My Greatest Adventure (p) 1960; Mystery in Space (a) 1956, 1980; Newsboy Legion (i) 1945; Our Army at War (a) 1955-72, 1974, (ed) 1968-77, (layouts) 1976-77; Our Fighting Forces (a) 1955-75, (ed) 1968-73; public service page (a) 1984; Ragman (p)(some i) 1976-77 (ed) 1976-77; Rima the Jungle Girl (w) 1973-74, (ed) 1974-75; Rip Hunter – Time Master (a) 1960; Robin Hood (i) 1956; Sargon the Sorcerer (a) 1944-46; Sea Devils (a) 1963, Secret Army Files (a) 1977;

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Secret Origin: The Flash (i) 1998; Sensation Mystery (a) 1953; Sgt. Rock (some w)(p)(some i) 1959-80, 1982-85, 1988, 1992; Sgt. Rock Annual (ed) 198384; Sgt. Rock team-ups (a) 1964, 1978, Sgt. Rock (ed) 1977-86; Seven Soldiers of Victory (a) 1943; Shining Knight (i) 1943; Showcase (ed) 1969; StarSpangled Kid & Stripesy (i) 1943; Star Spangled War Stories (a) 1955-72, 1976, (ed) 1968-72; Strange Adventures (w)(a) 1955; Superman team-ups (a) 1984 (incl. with The Demon); support (lettering) c. 1944-46, 1951-52, 1977, 1992, 1996 (on own art); Tank Killer (a) 1959; Tarzan (w)(a)(ed) 1972-76; Tarzan Digest (ed) 1972; The Tarzan Family (ed) 1976-76; text (w) 1968+, Three Battle Stars (a) 1964; Tomahawk (i) 1960; Tomahawk (ed) 1970-72; Tor (w)(a) 1976-76; Unknown Soldier (some w)(a) 1970-72; Vigilante (i) 1943-44, (a) 1948; Viking Prince (a) 1955-59, 197172, 1974-75, 1988-89; The War That Time Forgot (a) 1965-66, 1968; Weird War Tales (w)(a)(ed) 1971-72; Who’s Who in the DC Universe entries (a) 1985-87, 1989; Wildcat (a) 1947; Young All-Stars (a) 1988; Zatara the Master Magician (a) 1949-50

Dragon Lady Press: Tales of the Green Beret (a) graphic album reprint (no date)

Batman Revisited Kubert drew only a relative handful of “Batman” stories, but the Dark Knight was one of his most-requested characters for sketches, after Sgt. Rock, Hawkman, and one or two others. This 2011 sketch was drawn in a book owned by collector Dominique Leonard. [Batman TM & ©2013 DC Comics.]

tLunar Tunes & Martian Melodies The splash panel of the Kubert-illustrated lead story from Avon Periodicals’ Out of This World #1 (June 1950). Joe drew two of the three sciencefiction/fantasy stories in this comic, which was reprinted a month later in the first issue of an Avon-published pulp magazine of the same name; in the latter, of course, the comics content was surrounded by prose tales. Script credited to John Michel. [©2013 the respective copyright holders.]

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A 2010 Interview With Joe Kubert

Wings And Water-Wings In Flash Comics #66 (Aug.-Sept. 1945), writer Gardner Fox and artist Joe Kubert created Neptune Perkins, a supporting character who appeared in one more “Hawkman” story in 1947. In the 1980s, writer/editor Roy Thomas guest-starred the amphibian—three years younger—in several issues of his World War II-set DC series All-Star Squadron, and then in most issues of its follow-up series Young All-Stars. Since the splash page from the Flash #66 yarn was reprinted in Bill Schelly’s 2011 book The Art of Joe Kubert, we’ve showcased the final page of “The Dweller in the Sea,” which has never before been reprinted.

Thanks to Al Dellinges. [©2013 DC Comics.]

Marvel/Timely/Atlas: Abraham Stone (w)(a) 1995 imprint Epic; Battle (a) 1955; covers (a) 1992-93, 1995; Ghost Rider (i) 1992; Girl Comics (i) 1950; horror (a) c. 1949-50, The Hulk (p) 1997; Kid Colt Outlaw backup features (p) 1955; Lovers (a) 1950; Marines in Battle (p) 1955; Marvel Tales (p) 1955; Marvel Universe (p) 1986; mystery/occult (a) 1956; The Punisher War Journal (i) 1991; The Punisher War Zone (a) 1994-5; Tor (w)(a) 1993 imprint Epic

New Comics Group: Deadtime Stories (p) 1987

EC Comics: Frontline Combat (a) 1953

Eclipse Enterprises: covers (a) 1986, 1989 reprint; Tor (w)(a) 1986 reprint; Tor 3-D (a) 1986 reprint with new cover Fiction House Comics: Star Pirate (a) 1944

Harvey Comics: All-New Comics backup features (a) 1944; Black Cat (a) 1944-45; crime (a) 1944; Girl Commandos (a) no date; mystery/occult (a) 1944; Robin Hood (a) no date; Scarlet Phantom (a) 1943; Shock Gibson (a) 1944-45; Speed Comics backup features (a) 1946; Zebra (a) 1944-45

Heavy Metal: illustration (a) 1984

Holyoke Publications: Alias X (a) 1942; Blue Beetle (a) 1943; Flag Man (a) 1942; Spark Stevens (a) 1943; Volton (a) 1942

Interfaith Publications: The Challenger (a) 1946

Lev Gleason Publications: Chuck Chandler (a) 1955; covers (a) c. 1955; Crime Does Not Pay (a) 1955

Kitchen Sink Press: Voodoo in Manhattan (w) 1983

A Punishing Schedule Most of Kubert’s work for Marvel Comics in the past two decades consisted of either his limited-series revival of Tor or his inking one of his talented sons. But he did a spot of quasi-super-hero full art, as well, as on this cover and action page from the 6-part The Punisher: War Zone #31 (Sept. 1994). Script by Chuck Dixon. Thanks to Jim Ludwig for the scans. [©2013 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

“We’re In The Kind Of Business Where The Story Is King”

Kubert At Timely/Atlas In 1954-55, probably around the time the St. John situation was beginning to implode because of the 3-D fiasco, Kubert branched out to do work for Timely/Atlas. (Clockwise from top left:) Uncanny Tales #28 (Jan. 1955), one of the last pre-Code issues—not that you could tell it from this unsigned splash page! This scan and the next two were supplied by Dr. Michael J. Vassallo.

Battle #37 (Feb. ’55). Competent enough work, but Joe was clearly a better fit at National/DC than at the future Marvel.

Marines in Battle #7 (Aug. ’55). Hard to see Kubert in this “Counter-Attack!” splash? It’s because, amazingly, he is inked by a different artist, namely one Sy Moskowitz. Since Joe tended to be a rather sketchy penciler who supplied most of the detail when he inked, most of his finest qualities were submerged when others embellished his work. [©2013 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Pacific Comics: covers (a) 1984; First Folio (w)(a) 1984 with “Kubies” (art student assistants); support (ed) 1984; text pieces (w) 1984 Quality Comics: Espionage (a) 1943; Phantom Lady (a) 1942-43

Renegade Press: Revolver (i) 1986

St. John Publications: covers (a) 1952-55; crime (a) no dates; Danny Dreams (a) 1953-54; Hollywood Confessions (package)(a) 1949 (NOTE: Kubert reported that he had owned part of the preceding title); horror 1952-53, 1955; illustration (a) 1953-54; Mark Montage (a) 1949; Meet Miss Pepper (p) 1954; Mighty Mouse (a) 1953; romance (a) 1953, romance (a) 1953; Secret Mission (a) 1949; Son of Sinbad (w)(a) 1949-50; support (ed) 1952-55; text (w) 1953-54; 3-D

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A 2010 Interview With Joe Kubert

Comics [Tor] (w)(a); 3-D House of Terror (p) 1953; Three Dimension Comics [Mighty Mouse] art transformation to 3-D 1953; The Three Stooges (package)(a) 1953; Tor (w)(a) 1953; Whack (a) 1953 Star Publications: crime (a) 1953

Trojan Comics: covers (a) c. 1950; crime (a) 1950

White Cliffs Publishing: Sojourn (publisher & ed) 1977; Tor (w)(a) 1977 Whitstone Publications: Cockeyed (a) late 1950s; Lunatickle (a) 1956 [A/E EDITOR’S NOTE: Other Internet sources say that Lunatickle was published in 1958.]

Ziff-Davis Comics: The Hawk (p) 1952; horror (a) 1952

Shell-Bent For Leather Get out those 3-D glasses again! Here comes a giant prehistoric turtle headed for the water, desperate to flee a raging fire—and Tor and Chee-Chee are right in its path! From the second 3-D Comics #2. [©2013 Estate of Joe Kubert.]

The WHO’S WHO of American Comic Books 1928-1999 Online Edition Created by Jerry G. Bails FREE – online searchable database – FREE www.bailsprojects.com – No password required

A quarter of a million records, covering the careers of people who have contributed to original comic books in the US.

The “silver print” of Joe Kubert’s Hawkman cover for Flash Comics #94 (April 1948), showcasing the coloring of production chief Jack Adler. We’ve reproduced this before—but only in black-&-white! [©2013 DC Comics.]

-III-

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in the GOLDEN & SILVER AGES A Six-Part Remembrance

A Chat With JOE KUBERT Talking About Tor… Sgt. Rock & Robert Kanigher… The Kubert School… & The Future Of Comics

Interview Conducted by Bill Schelly

NTERVIEWER’S INTRODUCTION: Hard as it is for me to believe, over eight years have passed since I sat down with Joe Kubert in his office at the Kubert School to tape an interview with him for my biography Man of Rock. Joe and his wife Muriel made me feel very welcome during my visit to Dover, New Jersey, in 2004, even though Joe himself wasn’t all that enthusiastic about the project. He wanted to focus on current and future projects, and isn’t the type of guy who spends a lot of time thinking about the past. Moreover, he found the idea of a book about his life to be embarrassing, and he certainly didn’t want anyone to think that it was his idea. Even so, I found that Joe was, by nature, a gracious individual, who tolerated my intrusion into his life with remarkably good grace. Maybe he realized how much the project meant to me.

I

Transcribed by Brian K. Morris

Anyway, I have nothing but warm memories of that visit, and the response to Man of Rock when it was published in 2008 was most gratifying. Only now, for this issue of Alter Ego, have I revisited the transcript of the conversation Joe and I had that day, to pull out a few choice sections which I think will be as interesting to you as they were to me.

After discussing his childhood and his early years as an aspiring artist, his marriage to Muriel, and the 3-D period at St. John, our talk turned to a subject near to his heart: Tor, his caveman with a conscience, who was a huge milestone in his career in 1953 and 1954. I wanted to hear in his own words how the idea for Tor was born, and what it was that he was trying to accomplish with the character, as well as about numerous other matters. What follows is an excerpt from that interview, conducted on October 23, 2004. —Bill.

Talking about Tor

BILL SCHELLY: When you returned from the military, it seems to me like this is the beginning of your mature period, artistically speaking.

Because the themes you explored in Tor, your caveman character, are pretty deep. Would you agree?

JOE KUBERT: Yeah.

BS: As I understand it, it came right after your military experience.

KUBERT: Actually, the idea for Tor came when I was going over to Europe when I was in the military, not after. I still have notes that I made when I had the idea—someplace in the house.

BS: How did the idea come about?

KUBERT: When I was heading out, I was on the boat. I was working for a small newspaper they turned out on the boat, a daily thing they printed on—what do you call it again? A mimeograph machine.

BS: If it had black printing, it would probably be mimeograph. You did the artwork on stencils with a stylus.

School Days The Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art, photographed in 2007

by Joe’s son Adam Kubert—and a caricature of Joe done in 1982 (but probably not by him) for the National Cartoonists Society (with thanks to Shane Foley). [©2013 Estate of Joe Kubert.]

KUBERT: Yeah. They put out daily bulletins like that, and I was doing some work on that. I’ll never forget the trip on the boat.

Anybody who’s been on a troop ship, you’re sleeping four or six people on these pallets, packing one on top of another, down in the hold. But, you know, we’re a bunch of guys who are all going through the same thing, so no big deal. But during the trip, I was sketching a character in a little spiral notebook ... that I felt was really a Stone Age Tarzan. And I named him Tor. That was my intention, my initial thought. I just got to thinking about the character in the, if I remember correctly, ten days to Europe on the boat. We landed in Hamburg, Germany, and I took the train down to the southern end of Germany where I was stationed in Sonthofen.

BS: When you read the stories, you just feel that there was a sort of message in the “Tor” strips. That was new, although.... you hadn’t written much before “Tor.” KUBERT: No, just a little.

BS: So this was you emerging as a writer/artist, coming into your full thing.

KUBERT: That’s right.

BS: But you really can see a maturity, because Tor—he’s sort of like Tarzan with dinosaurs, but the hook that makes Tor work so well is the idea of a caveman dealing with situations that might show him developing ethics and so on.

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KUBERT: My whole theory of this was that people really, essentially and basically, never really have changed in terms of having a sense of right and wrong, and they would react to some degree, basically, the same. People are still affected, I think, by the same things today that affected them hundreds of years ago and perhaps even back to the basics, back to the caveman.

BS: It was certainly a canvas where it gets down to the basics…

KUBERT: Yeah.

BS: …so it’s a good way to dramatize those things.

Talking About Tor, Etc.

A Personalized Primeval Joe Kubert & Norman Maurer’s personalized introductions to the first issues of St. John’s 1,000,000 Years Ago #1 and The Three Stooges #1 made readers feel a part of things.

(Above:) Joe drew his partner and himself on the first interior color page of the former comic, which featured the debut of his caveman hero Tor; this is the first panel of that intro. On the comic’s inside front cover was a typeset greeting and the famous, oft-reproduced photo of Kubert & Maurer.

(Right:) The dynamic splash page of the first “Tor” story, the second interior page from that issue. DC reprinted the entirety of the six St. John issues in hardcover editions in 2001. [©2013 Estate of Joe Kubert.]

KUBERT: Because that’s the way I felt about it. And there are glitches and there are holes in those original stories, of course. I mean, I knew years ago that those beings at that time bore no physical relationship to the kind of things that I was drawing... and then having dinosaurs at the same time.

BS: Well, it’s a fantasy construct, created to dramatize these different ideas that you might have had.

KUBERT: Right, right, right.

BS: But it feels more contemporary.

An American Caveman In Paris (Left:) Joe in Paris, 1953, as a guest of the U.S. Army. It was during this tour abroad, during which he was stationed in West Germany, that he conceived the idea of Tor—and incidentally, what became the germ of 3-D comics. Thanks to Bill Schelly, who was given a copy of this photo by the late Muriel Kubert.

(Right:) A few years ago, the artist drew this head of Tor opposite the title page of a DC Tor hardcover. Scan sent by Belgian collector Dominique Leonard. [©2013 Estate of Joe Kubert.]

A Chat With Joe Kubert

KUBERT: That’s exactly what I wanted to convey. I didn’t want to show the incredible differences between the Neanderthal people or beings of that time with modern day people. It was not a scientific treatise. It was merely my kind of approach, my kind of attempt to show that people really never change—they don’t change.

The War Comics Genre

BS: That gives “Tor” a universal appeal, when you realize these stories are actually relevant to our lives now. That’s probably why those stories are so effective, even though you obviously developed a lot both as an artist and writer after that.

But then Tor [the comic book] died, a victim of the collapse of those St. John comics, and I want to ask you about what came next. Because somewhere in the mid-’50s, I guess it would be 1955, you found the genre that you ended up being most associated with, which was the war comics genre. I’m kind of wondering... how you feel about that now, looking back? Was it just chance that you ended doing war comics?

KUBERT: Pure happenstance.

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BS: It wasn’t anything about your personal interest in that subject?

KUBERT: Not at all. What happened was, very simply, [that] when I came back, I was doing a whole bunch of books through the St. John Publishing Company. None of them were war material. Norm [Maurer] and I were producing these books. We were essentially packaging these books for St. John. Norm had gotten the rights to The Three Stooges as a result of having married Joanie Howard. I tried “Tor” and several other things that we attempted in these books for St. John, because he was happy for the things that I had done before I got into the Army. When we did the 3-D stuff, the first book sold incredibly well, way beyond our expectations. And immediately afterwards, when everybody jumped on the bandwagon and figured that the gimmick was going to perpetually sell comic books, we all discovered that, no, that ain’t gonna happen. A lot of people paid a hefty penalty for doing that, not the least of which was St. John, because he had converted all of his books to 3-D, figuring that he was really going to make a killing on it. Well, it killed him, because it just ruined the business.

BS: And he went out of the comic book business shortly thereafter.

“This Means War!” (Left:) Joe Kubert got things a wee bit backward in stating, in this interview, the order of (a) his work for Harvey Kurtzman at EC Comics and (b) the collapse of St. John Publications. When he drew “Tide!,” the first of his two stories for Kurtzman in Two-Fisted Tales, in issue #32 (March-April 1953), the debut issue of 1,000,000 Years Ago was still half a year away… St. John’s 3-D comics a couple of months beyond that… and the latter company’s collapse obviously even a bit further in the future. In fact, the story Kubert illustrated in Two-Fisted Tales #33 (May-June ’53) featured a monkey that visually foreshadowed Chee-Chee in his upcoming primeval opus. Or had he already designed Chee-Chee, as well, on that troop ship to Germany? Thanks to John Benson for the scan. [©2013 William M. Gaines Agent, Inc.] (Right:) This early DC war splash by Kubert appeared in Star Spangled War Stories #43 (March 1956). Script credited by the Grand Comics Database to Jack Miller. Thanks to Bill Schelly. [©2013 DC Comics.]

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Talking About Tor, Etc.

developed with you and Kanigher, anyway, that the stories were a place where more adult themes could be explored. Themes that were more related to the Tor idea of what’s right and wrong— KUBERT: Yeah, yeah.

BS: —how we retain our humanity in the face of war—

KUBERT: Yeah, yeah.

BS: So you ended up finding the field that you were well-suited for just by chance. I guess that’s like a lot of things in life: things happen, and then years later we realize it was a sort of turning point. You just have a wonderful affinity for the war genre.

KUBERT: Well, Bob’s intention, when we first started this stuff, was to do exactly that which you described, that I was to do the kind of stuff that was meaningful, and that meant something to him. And in turn, it was meaningful to me, which kind of, I guess, made me do a little bit more and push me a little bit more into getting deeper into the kind of stuff, storytelling, dramatics, and so on and so forth.

BS: To me, that’s when you really stood up and fully became the artist we know today. And you see it in your other work in the late 1950s, like in “The Viking Prince,” but definitely in the war stuff.

KUBERT: Bob essentially gave me carte blanche on the stuff. He would give me a script to do, but it was up to me to do anything and everything I wanted. He had that much faith in my ability to do the best on his work. It was great. I had complete and total freedom to do any of this stuff. I had no compunction about making whatever changes I felt were necessary, as long as they were in keeping with what I felt that he wanted, and it was fine.

Kubert & Kanigher Kubert and DC editor/writer Robert Kanigher had an excellent relationship from the 1950s till RK’s passing in 2002. The artist drew this cover to spearhead the first installment of a two-part interview which began in The Comics Journal #85 (Oct. 1983). [DC characters TM & ©2013 DC Comics; other art ©2013 Estate of Joe Kubert or the respective copyright holders.]

KUBERT: He had to go out of business, yeah. I was lucky enough to set myself up again elsewhere. It wasn’t too difficult for me to get work. Immediately, I did some stuff for Harvey Kurtzman, as a matter of fact.

BS: For the EC war books, Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat, is that right?

KUBERT: Exactly. Then I went up to DC. I spoke to Bob Kanigher.

He was editing the war books. That was his charge, and he said, “Here, Joe. Do a war story.” And to me, it was the same as taking on any other kind of story.

BS: You’d done horror stories, weird stories, and of course “Hawkman” and “The Justice Society.”

KUBERT: Yeah, I’d done super-heroes and lots of other kinds of stories. So Bob gave me this war story, and I just went ahead and did it. And it kicked off well, and he liked it, and... as a result of that, I got more and more of the stuff to do. But it wasn’t as a matter of choice. It wasn’t a matter of selection. It wasn’t because I had any particular desire to do war stuff. That’s the way it worked out.

BS: To me, it was a great genre for you, because I’ve always felt your work has a more mature quality than a lot of other comic book art... and it

BS: When you think about teams in comics—Lee and Kirby and all these people—well, Kanigher and Kubert were together for probably longer than I can think of any other team, just off the top of my head.

KUBERT: Yeah, I guess so.

BS: You may not have even thought of yourself as a team, per se…

KUBERT: No.

BS: …but the reality is that you guys worked together for so long because you were creating something special.

KUBERT: Sgt. Rock, at one time or another, outsold every other book that they had. At one time or another, it outsold Superman, Batman; and its longevity, I guess, proved that. It went on to be published without interruption for at least 30 years.

BS: Yeah. Yeah, I think it’s about thirty, and that is remarkable in any comparison to anything, because really, when you talk about the other characters, Superman or Batman, they’ve been reinvented. They’re really not the same characters now that they were. I’m not that aware of what was done with “Rock” after you left, but the character did continue to work without being reinvented.

KUBERT: That’s right.

BS: Do you think that, at some point, the security of working at DC became paramount to you? Were you under contract?

KUBERT: Never.

BS: Never. Even as an editor?

KUBERT: Never ever. No, and I never felt that I needed that security. As a matter of fact, I felt quite the opposite. I didn’t want

A Chat With Joe Kubert

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Green Grow The Berets Kubert clearly gave his all to the seven-days-a-week comic strip Tales of the Green Beret.

Depicted here are the Sunday for Oct. 30, 1966… the daily for Nov. 14, 1967… and the Signet paperback collection Tales of the Green Berets, for which a final “s” was added. Thanks respectively to the Internet, the Palantine News Network, and Bill Schelly for the scans. [©2013 Chicago Tribune Syndicate or successors in interest.]

it. I didn’t want to be tied to anybody. I wanted the freedom to be able to move and do whatever it was that I wanted to do. In fact, there was a period of time when I did The Green Beret [newspaper strip], when I left DC completely to be able to do that.

BS: That’s true. So maybe I’ve got that wrong. Even though you were working mostly for DC for many, many years—

KUBERT: It’s not because I wasn’t offered other jobs at other places. [Other publishers] sent out feelers, kind of... “Joe, you want to work here?” And there were guys that came over, and asked, “Why don’t you come over and do some stuff?” No, I felt no need to do that, and I did feel a certain amount of loyalty to Bob Kanigher. Bob is a guy that I worked with and that I felt some loyalty to because of the way that he had treated me. But I was not money-driven, really, during that time, and the payment that I got from DC was, I felt, fair and justified.

I never felt the need to change.

BS: When you were an editor, did you get a salary as opposed to a page rate?

KUBERT: No, I didn’t get a salary. I got a set amount for each book. I got a payment for the amount of work that was done, and it was a payment that came

46

Talking About Tor, Etc.

Marvels—Kubert Style (Left:) Joe Kubert rarely drew for Marvel Comics until relatively late in life, but he was rightfully treated there like a star when he did. The cover of the promo magazine Marvel Age #131 (Dec. 1993) depicted Joe with his sons Adam (on left) and Andy, both stellar artists in their own right.

[Tor TM & ©2013 Estate of Joe Kubert; rest of cover ©2013 Marvel Characters, Inc.] (Right:) While handling the U.S. Army maintenance magazine P.S., Kubert Pere drew Spider-Man and Dr. Octopus on this March 2002 cover.

Thanks to Ger Apeldoorn. [Marvel characters TM & ©2013 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

for each book that I edited, because I never really had a full-time job up there. I never had to be in the office any particular amount of time. I never wanted a salary, and I didn’t want to be in the office all the time. I never felt that I had to have somebody hold my hand.

BS: Also, you said Sgt. Rock was a very successful comic for many, many years. That’s like a license to print money, as long as it’s well done.

KUBERT: Yeah.

BS: How did you feel when you had others do the artwork? What was that like for you?

KUBERT: It was disappointing, kind of [sighs]… not that the other guys weren’t good—they were. But it wasn’t me. It wasn’t exactly what I felt it should be. Look at guys like Russ Heath. You couldn’t find people much better than that.

BS: True.

KUBERT: Doug Wildey did it for a while, George Evans did it for a

while. The best guys that I know were working on the stuff.

Filipino artists did it for a while, but it wasn’t me, and I felt disappointed, because there were nuances and there were things that I would have loved to have incorporated that the other guys just didn’t do.

BS: For me personally, even though Russ and the others did very good artwork on “Rock,” it just wasn’t the same. Somehow it wasn’t really “Rock,” because you and Kanigher somehow were able to do something special. It’s the difference between a war comic and something a little more universal. I don’t know how to express it, otherwise.

KUBERT: Well, I appreciate what you’re saying, but like I said, Russ is one of the best artists.

BS: I take it the sales were okay, that just because you weren’t drawing the comic book—

KUBERT: Yeah, they were all right. You know, I think disappointing is the wrong word. It wasn’t disappointing, it was just different.

A Chat With Joe Kubert

47

of. The time teaching, it’s not difficult. It’s easy for me; I’m not playing games with anybody. All I’m doing, and I tell the classes that I have right off the bat, the first time we get together, I say, “Look, I’m going to be telling you things that I’ve done. It’s not the only way to do things; it’s the way I do them. What I’m going to be telling you is of value because I’ve been able to make a living doing this for all these years. If you want to follow what I’m telling you, that’s great. If you don’t want to follow what I’m telling you, you’re in the wrong place. You shouldn’t be here in the first place.”

BS: In the ’70s, there were times that weren’t so good in comics. Some of the product got kind of shoddy in the middle ’70s and I think everybody was trying to flood the market and all kinds of problems were happening.

And yet you chose a time like that to start a school for people that were going to break into comics. You obviously thought comics were going to be around.

KUBERT: I’m sure that comics will always be around.

BS: That’s what I was getting at.

KUBERT: Yeah. I’ve heard gloom and doom any number of times in the past fifty years about how it’s going to affect comic books.

But I’m convinced, personally—and I don’t think it’s an ignorant,

Nine Easy Pieces The cover of Our Army at War #112 (Nov. 1961) showed the “combat-happy Joes of Easy Company.” Cover by Kubert, of course. For a look at “Sgt. Rock” drawn by Russ Heath and others, see the several volumes of Showcase Presents Sgt. Rock. Thanks to Bill Schelly. [©2013 DC Comics.]

Joe Kubert: Educator

BS: You said something last night at dinner I wanted to ask you about.

You said you don’t like teaching. Now that’s an interesting statement from a man who owns and runs a school of teaching. [laughs] But you know, that isn’t really contradictory, because you don’t have to like teaching to want to provide an educational experience for people.

KUBERT: Well, I don’t like standing up in front of people and talking.

BS: That’s what you mean by that.

KUBERT: That’s exactly what I mean. I don’t like the physical aspects of the whole setup. My preference is to be sitting at that drawing table and drawing. I don’t like being pulled away from that. That’s what I like to do, that’s where I like to be.

BS: I don’t see you having any problems with someone coming up next to you and saying, “Now, Joe, about this…” I think you seem very comfortable with that, but that’s different than getting in front of a classroom and having to lecture and stand on your feet all the time.

KUBERT: It’s funny. In some ways, it’s almost like vacation, kind

The Hangman Cometh Kubert’s dramatic “Enemy Ace” cover for Star Spangled War Stories #162 (Jan. 1966). Nobody did it better! Thanks to Bill Schelly. [©2013 DC Comics.]

48

Talking About Tor, Etc.

Cover Stories Two of Kubert’s most famous hero-covers: Tor #3 (May 1954) for St. John Publications, and The Brave and the Bold #36 (June-July 1961). The original art of the former was seen in the (sadly out-of-print) trade paperback Alter Ego: The Comic Book Artist Collection (TwoMorrows, 2001). The original art for the latter was given by editor Julius Schwartz to fan/letter-scribe Roy Thomas in '61, and finally sold in the 1980s for what then seemed a fair piece of change... which now turns out, relatively speaking, to be have been chump change—but c'est la vie. This reputedly best-ever of Kubert's Silver Age "Hawkman" covers was one of the DC Comics stamps issued by the U.S. Postal Service in 2007. [Tor cover ©2013 Estate of Joe Kubert; B&B cover ©2013 DC Comics.]

just blissful look at the future—but I believe that the medium itself is one that will always be around in the combination of illustration and story.

BS: You even have art classes for kids, don’t you?

KUBERT: We were asked to start a class for the younger kids, which is what we did, and this has been going on now for close to 30 years. Now we don’t really advertise it at all, and yet the classes are full every Saturday. We have at least forty kids who appear every Saturday to take lessons.

BS: When I was getting out of my car this morning, suddenly at nine o’clock all these car doors started popping open, and suddenly all these younger kids are heading for the school doorway.

KUBERT: The success of that Saturday morning class is probably more due to the instructors than anything else. Fernando Ruiz, who is also a graduate of the school down there, a regular instructor at the school, this guy who runs it on Saturdays for me and I instituted it when we first started. I used to do the Saturday

morning classes as well, which was a hell of a lot of fun. I don’t think you can get much more pleasure out of anything as much as watching a young kid who’s enthusiastic about wanting to do this.

And it’s interesting because if you just give them a little clue as to what they can do to improve their work, it’s like opening up a door, it’s like opening up a window, and it’s nice.

[My conversation with Joe continued for some time that cool, crisp October day, and much of it found its way into Man of Rock. I was also able to talk to Joe’s wife Muriel and his sons Adam and Andy. So it was a great memory, and I feel very privileged at being able to peek into their world a little bit. —Bill Schelly.]

Man of Rock, Bill’s biography of Joe Kubert, is still available, as are the coffee table book The Art of Joe Kubert, and a third book containing 32 pre-Code stories drawn by Joe, titled Weird Horrors and Daring Adventures. They can all be purchased at www.fantagraphics.com, or through Amazon.com, or by ordering a copy through your local comics specialty shop.

-IV-

49

in the GOLDEN & SILVER AGES A Six-Part Remembrance

DANIEL JAMES COX: Joe, thanks for agreeing to do this. I don’t want to gush too much, but I’m a huge fan of your work and consider “Enemy Ace” to be a groundbreaking series.

JOE KUBERT: Well, thank you very much. I’m happy to talk about it.

DJC: So take us back in time to 1965, when you are working monthly on Our Army at War for DC. Can you remember when was the first time Robert Kanigher mentioned the idea of “Enemy Ace” to you?

KUBERT: I can’t remember the time or precise year, but I was working closely with Bob Kanigher, who was probably one of the best and most prolific writers in the comic book business at the time.

Bob was my editor for a long time and we had a great working relationship. I understood him and he understood me, and the results from that relationship we were both very happy with.

The idea of “Enemy Ace” came up when Bob was riding on the crest of the popularity of “Sgt. Rock” and he was constantly looking for something different to do… a new type of character or a different spin on the storytelling… and he hit on this idea of telling the story from the enemy side.

INTERVIEWER’S NOTE: As a lifelong Joe Kubert fan, I eagerly devoured Bill Schelly’s biography Man of Rock. Though it is a handsome and fitting tribute to Joe’s considerable body of excepttional work, I found there wasn’t as much information therein as I wanted to see about the development of what I consider the apex of Joe career… the Enemy Ace!

I

I soon realized that, if I was going to get to the bottom of how this series came about, then I would need to write the article myself. That meant interviewing Joe, which got me pretty excited.

Joe kindly agreed to the interview, and I recorded [the following] phone conversation with him on Tuesday, November 29, 2011….

—Daniel James Cox.

You see, we had attempted to do the Korean War and Vietnam War previously, but none of them were successful. But with “Sgt. Rock” and World War II, well, that was accepted, so Bob focused on World War I and decided to base the character on the infamous Red Baron. I thought that was a great idea and set about researching not only the Red Baron, but I also got as many books and as much material as I could find—books about the construction of the Tri-Wing Fokker that he flew—as I felt it was important that I find out what it might be like to be in one of those things before I could convey that to the reader. Which by the way, still amazes me… paper, wood, and cloth flying thousands of feet in the air and having people shoot bullets at you. I mean, that’s nuts. But anyway, the reason I did all that was because I wanted the stories to feel as realistic as possible.

DJC: So did you purchase a toy model or anything so you could depict the Fokker from different angles?

KUBERT: No, no… I didn’t use models, as I felt that would restrict me. I didn’t want it to be formal, strict, or too mechanical. I wanted to be able to exaggerate the forms, which I thought would result in much more dynamic flying sequences. So I read as many of the plans as I could find and studied World War I flyers, trying to get a feel for what the experience must have been like. One thing I

50

An Interview With Joe Kubert

would go from there.

Then I sit down and make a number of sketches and start to get a feel for the character. As I drew, I found that I wanted him to be a Germaniclooking character (someone who clearly looks like a German), and also officiouslooking. When he puts on his uniform, his attitude conveys confidence… the type of character who could be a lead in a romantic movie!

Our Enemy Ace At War (Above:) Splash page of the first “Enemy Ace” story, which appeared in Our Army at War #115 (Feb. 1965). (Above right:) Less than half a year later, after three appearances, ironically, in a title named after the U.S. Army, this feature about a First World War German pilot modeled loosely after Baron von Richtofen (“The Red Baron,” seen in photo at right) was given a two-issue berth in DC’s tryout comic Showcase, beginning with #57 (July-Aug. ’65).

Script by Robert Kanigher; art by Joe Kubert. The entirety of the series has been reprinted in two color hardcover editions of The Enemy Ace Archives, and in black-&-white in a Showcase Presents volume. [©2013 DC Comics.]

learned was that the cockpit had holes cut through the bottom of the fuselage so the pilot didn’t have to look over the cockpit, but could look straight down and see what was below them! But that was just one of a number of things I learned, and I tried to get a feel for what it was like to fly. For example, how they maneuvered the plane, how the controls worked, the wires… until I understood the construction of the plane, which then allowed me to exaggerate the forms and illustrate the stories in a much more dynamic way than copying a model toy would. Hopefully, I achieved that!

DJC: Well, obviously, since I’m writing this article, I’m biased... but yes—you certainly did!

KUBERT: Oh, well, thank you very much!

DJC: So let’s talk a little bit about the development of Von Hammer as a character who has a distinct look… as do all your characters, which is one of the aspects of your work that I love. Can you talk a little bit about the process you went through designing him?

KUBERT: It always starts with Bob! He would hand me a written description of what he felt the character could look like, and I

But I also wanted him to be the type of character who shows his emotion through his face… with his expressions. I also found that I liked him with high cheekbones and almost feminine lip. But, most importantly, I wanted him to have “tight” eyes… almost birdlike, which I thought would be fitting for a World War I flyer. I also made him a tall character... a slim character who would be free to maneuver the Fokker.

And it was the same process for all the characters… The Black Wolf, St. George, The Hangman… they were all started as Bob’s ideas!

DJC: Fantastic… and clearly Von Hammer is a very intense character. And what about his outfit, with the distinct helmet?

Did that come from research?

KUBERT: The costume is an amalgam of all the photographs and flyers that I had found during my research, as all the flyers didn’t dress alike. The clothes were different… some would wear scarves, while others wouldn’t. But the helmet itself, and the emblem on the helmet and the goggles with the flair… I just made that up. It was artistic licence, because I doubt any flyer in his right mind would wear them!

DJC: [laughs] That same year the “Enemy Ace” appeared in his own issue of Showcase #57… how did that come about?

KUBERT: It was really a business decision and Bob’s decision as the editor. Mostly they’re a financial decision! In the end, the only reason we stopped “Enemy Ace” was because the sales didn’t warrant it.

DJC: Can you talk a little about that infamous cover of this issue: you chose to do a montage of the planes in a dogfight with [the image of] Von Hammer ghosted behind them (which was very cinematic for its time).

Can you talk a little bit about your thought processes behind that?

Behind The Lines With The Enemy Ace

Plane Speaking (Above left & below right:) Interviewer Daniel James Cox prepared this spotlighting of Von Hammer’s fighter plane and the Enemy Ace himself, with art from DC stories.

DJC also chose the two pages (above right & below left) from Spangled War Stories #139 (June-July 1968) as ones in which Kubert & Kanigher skillfully delineated the history, character, and fatalistic mystique of Von Hammer. [©2013 DC Comics.]

51

52

An Interview With Joe Kubert

decided to bring him back.

DJC: One of those artists was Neal Adams, who penciled “Death Takes No Holiday” in 1969?

KUBERT: Yes, and I inked him. Neal had asked me if he could draw it… Neal wanted to draw it. He absolutely loved Bob’s writing. Neal was mostly doing pencils at the time… and he purposely emulated my style of drawing. As a matter of fact, Neal was a guest here at the school recently and he told the story of inking “Enemy Ace.” He recalled what I said when he asked me what I thought of his pencils, which apparently was, “It looks like you had crawled into my mind.” He did such a great job. It was an absolute pleasure inking over his stuff.

DJC: And that’s very flattering!

KUBERT: Oh yes, oh my God, yes… flattering to me, as Neal is such a great artist and a great friend.

DJC: In 1974, you had Frank Thorne draw the three-part “Hell’s Angels” story.

KUBERT: Yes. I always admired Frank Thorne’s work, as well.

He’s a wonderful artist… and he did a terrific job.

“Ariel, Like A Harpy” The Hangman, most oft-encountered and perhaps most-remembered foe of Von Hammer, was seen on p. 47. Another memorable foe was The Harpy, as seen on Kubert’s cover for Star Spangled War Stories #142 (Dec. 1968-Jan. 1969). Scan from DJC. [©2013 DC Comics.]

KUBERT: Sure… that’s just the standard process I would go through. I’d make sketches that Bob would approve. My intentions with those covers were really based on what kind of story and script he handed me. Working with Bob, he was such a good friend I had a lot off freedom to do whatever I wanted. I can’t remember exactly what I was trying to achieve at the time, but I’m glad you like those covers.

DJC: So, skipping forward a few years: when you became editor, you decided to revise the character in Star Spangled War Stories #138.

Why?

KUBERT: Bob had taken ill, but was able to continue to write, and DC asked me to take over as editor. You ask an interesting question. I was also editor on about 10-15 books at that time, including Tarzan, and I was doing a lot of interiors and covers.

And, as the editor. the responsibility shifted from Bob to me. I pride myself on working professionally, but the final word during the time that I was editing was mine. So anyway, despite the fact that the sales were only OK, “Enemy Ace” was still a favorite of mine… Bob liked the character, I liked the character… I liked drawing the stories. In fact, there were a number of artists, some of whom I admired, who asked me if they could have a shot at drawing “Enemy Ace.” So despite the fact it wasn’t a best-seller, I

“It Looks Like You Had Crawled Into My Mind” That’s what Joe said when he first saw Neal Adams’ pencils for the “Enemy Ace” story in Star Spangled War Stories #144 (April-May 1969). With Kubert inking, they were a seamless team. Repro’d from The Enemy Ace Archives, Vol. 2. Script by Kanigher. [©2013 DC Comics.]

Behind The Lines With The Enemy Ace

53

DJC: It felt like he emulated your work, as well?

KUBERT: Possibly. I didn’t ask him to, though. Same with Neal… it wasn’t because I asked him to. He wanted to do it himself. If Frank’s work looks like mine, its something he did himself. I didn’t ask him to. Alex Toth was another artist who asked me to do a story. Alex was a good friend of mine, but Alex had a reputation that he would rewrite stories if he didn’t think they were up to scratch. I admired and still admire the work he did, but he was extremely headstrong, so I told him that I didn’t want him to change the story without him telling me. But when the story came in, it was a totally different story, so I sent it back to him. I refused to print it and pay him. On the other hand, both Neal and Frank followed the script and did fantastic work.

DJC: Joe…you’re tough, but fair. So skipping ahead again, in the 200th issue of Star Spangled War Stories… you wrote and drew the “Enemy Ace” story “Shooting Star.” Was this the first “Enemy Ace” story you wrote?

KUBERT: Yes, I think so. It was a story I wanted to do. I was in the fortunate position of being able to do what I wanted

Tag-Team Titans The original cover blurb for Star Spangled War Stories #144 promised a story in that issue drawn by Alex Toth. However, due to what Hollywood would call “creative differences,” when the comic came out, that issue’s story was drawn by Adams and Kubert instead. That was a no-lose situation either way for readers.

Thanks to Daniel James Cox. [©2013 DC Comics.]

to do. I count my blessings every day!

DJC: Can you talk a little bit about Schatzi? That poor little pup… he fell to his death!

KUBERT: [laughs] Oh yes. I wrote that and enjoyed doing that story. The point of that story was to show that war is not a happy time. In war, innocents are killed. People get killed and get killed in horrible ways. War in not a good thing. It’s horrible. In war, innocents die. And Schatzi was an innocent.

DJC: Well, that story made me cry. Recently you’ve revisited Sgt. Rock.

Have you had any thoughts of revising Enemy Ace?

KUBERT: Yes! I don’t know if I’ll get to it, though. I have several projects on my table now… several “Sgt. Rock” stories and other things that I’m into. But yes, that’s something I have in the back of my mind. I would enjoy that.

DJC: And would you write the story yourself?

KUBERT: Oh, yes. For better or worse, I’m at a point now where I enjoy doing the whole job from writing to drawing to coloring and everything else.

DJC: And would it be done like the older stories, or would you investigate doing it all in pencils like you did Yossel?

KUBERT: No, no… I think I would do it in the conventional way.

Black and white ink, and then color.

A Thorne-y Situation Certain (superficial) similarities between Joe Kubert’s and Frank Thorne’s art made the latter a natural to draw the “Enemy Ace” three-parter spread over Star Spangled War Stories #181-183, with Balloon Buster as guest star. Seen here is Thorne’s (and of course Kanigher’s) splash page from #182 (Sept.-Oct. 1974). By this time, a third excellent war-comics editor had succeeded Kanigher and Kubert: Archie Goodwin. Thanks to Daniel James Cox. [©2013 DC Comics.]

54

An Interview With Joe Kubert

DJC: Do you have any specific stories in mind?

KUBERT: Not yet. I’m not working on it, but we shall see.

DJC: Well, there you go, folks.

If we are lucky, we may see Joe’s Enemy Ace in the skies again!

ADDENDUM: I conducted this interview in December 2011, right before the Kubert School closed for the Christmas holidays. That was only eight months ago as I write these words. On August 12th, I awoke to the shocking news that Joe had passed away. But, as much as that pains me, I don’t want to finish this article by dwelling on his death.

Instead, let’s jump back a few months to July 2012. Roy had graciously offered to print a portrait I had done of Joe on the ’Tis More Blessed To Give… front cover of this issue of Alter (Left:) Joe Kubert in 2012 holding the giant-size printout of Daniel Cox’s cover art for this issue of Alter Ego. Ego, and I had a lot of fun He looks pleased. Of course, Hawkgirl had to be covered up by the A/E logo. Thanks to Pete Carlsson. finding sketches of Joe’s DC (Right:) A never-before-published drawing of Von Hammer which Joe gifted to Daniel James Cox. work with which to border the [Enemy Ace TM & ©2013 DC Comics.] image. It came out so well that I decided to send Joe a print of it Dear Daniel— and had my local print shop print it up huge. I posted it to Joe at the School… and got this note from him: My buddy, Pete, is so fast, he sent out a copy of this photo before I had a chance to write a “thank you.”

Thank you.

Innocence Abroad One of the most affecting (and effective) covers and stories of “Enemy Ace” was “Luck Is a Puppy Named Schatzi!” in Star Spangled War Stories #148 (Dec. 1969-Jan. 1970).

Cover by Kubert; the story within was written by Kanigher. [©2013 DC Comics.]

The painting is beautiful. I’m having it framed and hung in the School. Thanks to your terrific packing, the outer wrapping was slightly damaged, but the painting came through unscathed. Perfect.

Thanks again—

Joe

That’s Joe for you—always willing to take a moment for a fan. That’s Joe Kubert—a comic book legend!

DANIEL JAMES COX has worked in the feature film industry for ten years. He was recently the vfx art director on The Great Gatsby and Spartacus: Gods of the Arena. He was a storyboard artist on the Marvel film Wolverine, worked at Weta Digital on Fantastic Four 2: Rise of the Silver Surfer, and labored in the art department on the nowdefunct George Miller Justice League. He has been a comic book fan all his life and is currently preparing several creator-owned projects, including a kids’ animated show called Cog & Turbine and such comics projects as a gangster-crime noir called The Soldato and a big science-fiction extravaganza called Red Giant. If that wasn’t enough, he also paints portraits in his spare time (not that he has any).

He lives and breathes in Sydney, Australia, with two cats and his two children, Jamie and April.

Daniel James Cox.

CBA’s Jon B. Cooke is back in April!

Make ready for COMIC BOOK CREATOR, the new voice of the comics medium!

TwoMorrows is proud to debut our newest magazine, COMIC BOOK CREATOR, devoted to the work and careers of the men and women who draw, write, edit, and publish comics, focusing always on the artists and not the artifacts, the creators and not the characters. Behind an ALEX ROSS cover painting, our frantic FIRST ISSUE features an investigation of the oft despicable treatment JACK KIRBY endured from the very business he helped establish. From being cheated out of royalties in the ‘40s and bullied in the ‘80s by the publisher he made great, to his estate’s current fight for equitable recognition against an entertainment monolith where his characters have generated billions of dollars, we present Kirby’s cautionary tale in the eternal struggle for creator’s rights. Plus, CBC #1 interviews artist ALEX ROSS and writer KURT BUSIEK, spotlights the last years of writer/artist FRANK ROBBINS, remembers comics historian LES DANIELS, talks to TODD McFARLANE about his new show-all book, showcases a joint talk between NEAL ADAMS and DENNIS O’NEIL on their unforgettable collaborations, as well as throws a whole kit’n’caboodle of other creator-centric items atcha! Join us for the start of a new era as TwoMorrows welcomes back former Comic Book Artist editor JON B. COOKE, who helms the all-new, all-color COMIC BOOK CREATOR! (And don’t miss the double-size Summer Special #2, paying tribute to JOE KUBERT, this July!

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-V-

56

in the GOLDEN & SILVER AGES A Six-Part Remembrance

A Brief Eulogy for JOE KUBERT – Humanitarian A Speech By KEVIN BROGAN, September 8, 2012 A/E EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION: Many at the 2012 Harvey Awards ceremony held at the Baltimore Comic Con were touched by the speech given by Hero Initiative volunteer Kevin Brogan to introduce the Dick Giordano Humanitarian of the Year Award on September 8, 2012.

Some were moved to tears. Kevin and Hero Initiative Administrator Jim McLauchlin made a transcript of this short speech available to us, and, after a few introductory notes which we asked Kevin to write, it is presented below….

One Fan’s Story

y childhood hobby was comics. I loved the stories and the art. I wrote and drew my own characters when I was young. (E.g., “BIRD Squad”―a 12-member team in the Bureau of Illegal Research and Development. In one of my stories the BIRD Squad yanks Superboy from the time current for illegal time travel. My thought at the time was it would be the predecessor to the Science Police. Jeanette Kahn never returned my phone calls.) Today I am an engineer, but in a parallel world where Gwen Stacy had lived or where The Huntress is Helena Wayne, only child of Batman and Catwoman, I am a comic book creator.

M

To bring some of that life into this world I work with Hero Initiative. As many of you know, Hero Initiative is dedicated to helping creators in need of financial assistance or dealing with medical issues. By being a part of this charity run by and for comics professionals, I am given the chance to be part of the comic book community.

Where this community really thrives is at conventions; my favorite one is Baltimore Comic Con.

If you’ve ever been to Baltimore Comic Con, then you know what it feels like.

Baltimore Comic Con is different

Memories Of Joe Joe Kubert at the Big Apple Con in New York City in November 2008 and a Hawkman drawing he did especially for Kevin Brogan that same year. The photo is courtesy of Jim Murtagh & Keif Simon.

[Hawkman TM & ©2013 DC Comics.]

from the rest of the convention scene. It is 100% comic books, comic book art, comic book artists and writers. All things comics; nothing else. If you have been there, you know we are all the proverbial kid in the candy store, more so than any other convention. What makes this show special are the comic creators that have been guests, and Baltimore’s commitment to them. Baltimore Comic Con is the host of the Harvey Awards.

Baltimore’s commitment to the artists and its award show made it the ideal place for Hero Initiative to offer up its award of Lifetime Achievement and The Dick Giordano Humanitarian Award. Over the years we have given awards to legends―Stan Lee, John Romita, Jerry Robinson, Nick Cardy, Joe Kubert, Neal Adams―and the superstars―George Pérez, Walt Simonson,

A Brief Eulogy For Joe Kubert – Humanitarian

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Mike Gold, John Romita, Jr., Tim Sale. I am fortunate to have been a part of this award show for the last seven years. It has given me the opportunity to meet and work with these artists on a personal level.

All of this―my childhood hobby, my own desire as an artist, the conventions, and the charity―allows me the opportunity to be at play in the field of the heroes. I am Snapper Carr; I am Rick Jones. Nothing makes me happier at a show than John Romita, George Pérez, Walt Simonson, and the like stopping their sketching or signing just to say “hey.”

It is with this excitement that I approach Baltimore Comic Con and the Hero Initiative Awards.

In early summer, the Hero Initiative determined the recipients for the two awards; this year, 2012, John Romita, Jr., for Lifetime Achievement, and Joe Kubert for the Dick Giordano Humanitarian Award. I was elated; I knew both of them and was looking forward to working with them again. All summer long e-mails were exchanged in preparation for the convention and the award show. I had the honor of preparing the introductory notes for our two guests.

The show began with cocktail hour and a mingling of the guests. I spent the time attending to last-minute details while many of the guests took the opportunity to meet with friends, fans, and peers. Then we took to the banquet hall, where we focused on comics as a forgotten art form and how this creative community has changed the world.

That night we were able to make fun of ourselves in our geeky hobby, as well as realize

A Book By Its Cover The cover of the book A Day No Pigs Would Die, written by Robert Newton Peck. Cover scan by Kevin Brogan. [©2013 the respective copyright holders.]

that comics are moving into the mainstream of culture. We then began the awards.

For the Hero Initiative awards, Stan Lee (and John Romita, Sr.) would present to “JRJR,” and I was to find another artist to present to Joe Kubert. Unfortunately, we lost Joe a month before the show. My notes for the introduction speech became a eulogy―reprinted below. As with all his fans and friends, I am saddened, but I am encouraged that by continuing to volunteer no other legend will remain a stranger….

Kevin Brogan’s Speech At 2012 Harvey Awards Ceremony

As many of you know, Hero Initiative is dedicated to helping creators in need of financial assistance or dealing with medical issues. At the Harveys, we honor outstanding creators with two awards: the Lifetime Achievement Award and the Dick Giordano Humanitarian Award. But if you can indulge me for a moment…

When I was young, I read a book titled A Day No Pigs Would Die. It was the story of a pig farmer and his 10-year-old son. It went on for 300 pages, but the title was an allusion to the father dying of a heart attack, and the day of his funeral. On that day, in this oneindustry town, the slaughterhouse shut down, the packing district emptied out, and Cannery Row closed, as seemingly everyone turned out for the father’s funeral. On that day, “No Pigs Would Die.” The boy learned the value of his

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A Speech By Kevin Brogan, September 8, 2012

Roots And Remembrance Joe on a visit to Israel and a key page from his Holocaust-centered 2003 graphic novel Yossel April 19, 1943.

[Cover ©2013 DC Comics.]

father and what made him such a great man to his friends and peers.

I suspect that on August 12, when we heard the sad news of Joe Kubert’s passing, the pens and pencils were placed silently down on the drawing boards. It became “A Day No Comic Books Were Created,” as we all reflected on the greatness of this artist and his legend.

I was truly looking forward to seeing him again this weekend. I will miss him.

May God bless his family. That’s my eulogy.

Jim McLauchlin reminds me that I am Irish, and I need to celebrate the life and not mourn the passing. So let’s get back to the awards.

I was working on my notes for the Giordano Humanitarian Award when I heard the sad news.

I sent this introduction as condolence to Adam and Andy Kubert. I was asked to read it as I wrote it:

I met Joe Kubert through the Hero Initiative back in our early days. He was very kind to this eager fan behind the booth.

It was such a treat for me to meet him. As a would-be artist, he is an inspiration to me. And the day he reviewed my art and told me that I had talent of telling a story validated my childhood passion.

Through the years at conventions, I had the chance to work and speak with Joe often. And in 2007, I was honored to provide the introduction for Joe Kubert as he won the Hero Initiative Lifetime Achievement Award.

A Brief Eulogy For Joe Kubert – Humanitarian

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But today we honor him again for his humanitarian efforts.

For me, as a military man and sailor who has seen life throughout the world, Joe’s effort in telling the tale of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising of 1943 in his book Yossel, or the story of members of a special forces operation in Dong Xoai, Vietnam 1965, or the horror of genocide just a generation ago in A Fax from Sarajevo all depict the compassion of a man and his commitment to the truth, using his medium to tell the tale the way only he can. What the reporters would not tell or news stations could not show, Joe captured in his art to let the world know the true reality of heroism.

I spoke with Mr. Kubert often of these books and my military experience. I am privileged to have conversed with him at such a personal level.

And tonight, Hero Initiative is honored to award Joe Kubert the Dick Giordano Humanitarian of the Year Award, where Joe, through his true-to-life stories, is Changing Comics One Day at a Time.

Accepting on behalf of the Kubert Family, Paul Levitz….

Titans Two The Dick Giordano Humanitarian of the Year Award, as presented posthumously to Joe Kubert in September 2012 at the Baltimore Comic Con. Flanking that photo are, at left, a painting of the late great artist/editor Dick Giordano (by comics artist Joe Rubinstein) and, at right, a photo of the legendary Joe Kubert. [Painting ©2013 Joe Rubinstein.]

Get the Best of the Rest of the Original ALTER EGO! THE BEST OF ALTER EGO, VOLUME 2 is the new sequel to ALTER EGO: THE BEST OF THE LEGENDARY COMICS FANZINE, which presents more fantastic features from the fabled mag begun in 1961 by JERRY BAILS & ROY THOMAS—covering undiscovered gems from all 11 original issues published between 1961 and 1978! Editors ROY THOMAS and BILL SCHELLY uncover never-revealed secrets about the first super-hero fanzine ever published, with vintage articles about TOR, HAWKMAN, THE SPECTRE, BLACKHAWK, THE JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA, THE ALL WINNERS SQUAD, ROBOTMAN, WONDER WOMAN, THE HEAP, THE LENSMEN/GREEN LANTERN CONNECTION, and so much more! Plus rarely-seen comics stories by JOE KUBERT (a gorgeous, unsold “Tor” newspaper strip), RONN FOSS (“The Eclipse”), and ROY THOMAS and SAM GRAINGER (adapting Gardner Fox’s novel “Warrior of Llarn”), as well as Roy’s entire “Bestest League of America” parody, collected for the first time ever! There’s even a never-before-reprinted 1977 interview with JEAN GIRAUD (“Moebius”), plus special sections on Bails’ adzine THE COMICOLLECTOR and on “the A/E #10 that almost was”! It’s all behind a classic cover of GARDNER FOX and his greatest creations by then-future Marvel artist SAM GRAINGER! (160-page trade paperback) $19.95 • (Digital Edition) $6.95 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-048-9 • Ships May 2013 STILL AVAILABLE: ALTER EGO: THE BEST OF THE LEGENDARY COMICS FANZINE • (192-page trade paperback) $21.95 • ISBN: 978-1-893905-88-7

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-VI-

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in the GOLDEN & SILVER AGES A Six-Part Remembrance

(Left:) 1990 cover to Al Dellinges’ Joe Kubert: The War Years. [Sgt. Rock, Hawkman, Viking Prince, Flash TM & 2013 DC Comics; other art ©2013 Estate of Joe Kubert.]

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Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

Two Self Portraits (Above & right:) A 2009 self-portrait sketch and the cover of DC Special #5 (Oct.-Dec. 1969). [©2013 Estate of Joe Kubert & DC Comics, respectively.]

The Joe Kubert Sketchbook!

The Rock of DC Co.

oe Kubert’s comics have been part of my life ever since I was a kid in the late ’50s. Even then, Joe’s elegant art always packed an emotional punch, whether on “Sgt. Rock” (“The Rock of Easy Co.”), “Rip Hunter,” “Sea Devils,” or his classic “Hawkman” comics.

J

When I was a teenager drawing my own amateur comics, Joe was there to inspire me. No one drew wrinkles and baggy eyes better. He and Steve Ditko demonstrated how beautiful human imperfection could be.

Though Joe worked primarily for DC, he also produced striking work for Avon, Lev Gleason, EC, Marvel, St. John, and others.

Regardless of the company logo, Joe Kubert always delivered art with uncommon heart and humanity. His lithe heroes, sexy women, and gritty backgrounds were instantly recognizable.

This was especially evident when I recently visited the Joe Kubert Never Dies website at: http://kubertneverdies.wordpress.com.

This site consists of dozens of commissioned sketches and finished art by Joe, posted by his fans. We’re pleased to present a small sampling of these rarely-seen treasures in honor of Joe Kubert―the Rock of DC Co.!

A Sad Day (Right:) Joe drew this pensive Hawkman drawing in 1993. Hawkman was one of Joe’s signature characters in the ’40s. Later he and writer Gardner Fox co-created a new Silver Age version in The Brave and the Bold #34 (Feb. 1961). [Hawkman TM & ©2013 DC Comics.]

The Joe Kubert Sketchbook!

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“The Rock and The Wall!”

The Rock of Easy Co!

Joe Kubert drew more “Sgt. Rock” stories than any other character in his long career. Rock first appeared in G.I. Combat #68 (Jan. 1959). The story simply titled “The Rock” by Bob Kanigher and Joe Kubert is generally considered a prototype of the character.

A second proto-Rock story, “Hold Up, Easy!,” appeared in Our Army at War #82 (May 1959). This was followed by the first “official” Sgt. Rock story, “The Rock and the Wall!” in Our Army at War #83 (June 1959). That tale was written by Bob Haney and drawn by Joe.

The first official “Sgt. Rock” story appeared in Our Army at War #83, coverdated June 1959. Script by Bob Haney, edited by Bob Kanigher, with art by Joe. [Sgt. Rock TM & ©2013 DC Comics; cover ©2013 DC Comics.]

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Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

Back From The Dead!

Above, a unique team-up of Sgt. Rock and the Viking Prince, from Our Army at War #162 (Jan. 1966), by the original creators, Kubert and Kanigher. [Sgt. Rock & Viking Prince TM & ©2013 DC Comics; cover ©2013 DC Comics.]

With issue #302, Our Army at War became Sgt. Rock comics. Combined, the two titles lasted an impressive 422 issues, finally cashing out in July 1988. The lead story in #422 featured the first professional collaboration between Joe and his cartoonist sons Andy and Adam. Joe continued to revisit the character, most recently in DC’s Sgt. Rock: The Prophecy in August 2006. These examples are just a few of the Rock sketches Joe drew for his fans.

The Joe Kubert Sketchbook!

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Warriors Three!

(Above left:) The cover to Brave and the Bold #1 (Aug. 1955), with art by Joe, Russ Heath, & Irv Novick. [©2013 DC Comics.]

(Above:) Joe’s 2010 sketch of Prince Jon. [Viking Prince TM & ©2013 DC Comics.]

The Viking Prince!

DC’s “Viking Prince,” another Kanigher/Kubert collaboration, made his debut in The Brave and the Bold #1 (Aug. 1955). Prince Jon, a noble warrior suffering from amnesia, originally appeared in B&B #1-5 and #7-24.

His most unusual adventure may have been a unique two-part story pairing the Viking Prince and Sgt. Rock in Our Army at War #162-163 (Jan.-Feb. 1966). Rock discovered the Prince frozen in a glacier.

The Prince also appeared in a four-part backup story in Arak – Son of Thunder #8-12 in 1982, written by Bob Kanigher and illustrated by Kubert School graduate Jan Duursema.

Double Trouble!

(Above:) When DC Special #12 (May 1971) reprinted “The Viking and the Mermaid” from B&B #16 (Feb. 1958), Kubert redrew his original splash page. Gotta say, the new one’s even better! [©2013 DC Comics.]

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Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

Tor!

Joe’s caveman feature was created in 1953 for St. John Publications. Archer St. John, a generous and progressive publisher, gave Joe full control over the feature and even allowed him to retain copyrights. It was an incredible deal, and Joe ran with it. He wrote, drew, and colored “Tor,” and even schlepped to the printing plant to ensure that his baby was reproduced properly. Joe revisited the character many times over the years, at DC in 1975 and 2008, at Marvel in 1993, and elsewhere. His love of the character really comes through in these sketches.

Joe’s Baby!

(Above:) The cover to St. John’s 1,000,000 Years Ago #1 (Sept. 1953), featuring Tor’s first appearance. The next two issues of the comic were technically titled 3-D Comics #2 (both of ’em!), and with #4 the comic was renamed Tor. [©2013 Joe Kubert.]

Before We Go...

I’d like to take a moment to thank Joe for all the pleasure his comics have given me over the years, and to thank those who were kind enough to share their special drawings. There wasn’t room to credit everyone here, but if any of those fans would like to share their personal memories of Joe and their sketches, I’ll try to print some in a future issue.

Till next time,

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contended that Two-Face wasn’t the only Batman villain erased by the Comics Code. Catwoman, who’d reformed in 1950, returned to crime for two stories in 1954, only to vanish without a trace until 1966 when the Batman TV show spurred her revival. Evidently, even suggesting Batman was smitten with a beautiful criminal was too much for the post-Code 1950s. It’s possible that the lawabiding Batwoman was introduced in 1956 as a way of filling the void left by Catwoman’s absence.

oy here. I’ll be honest with you: I’m up to my Cyclops-style visor in work right now on a humongous book for the prestigious German publisher Taschen about a subject I know a little bit about—namely, the life and times and career of Marvel’s Stan Lee—and I had to finish the preparations for this month’s Alter Ego in record time. (Matter of fact, the situation will probably be like this for the next few months, but I’ll try not to shortchange you, or the traditions of A/E.) So, after thanking Shane Foley for his fine “maskot” drawing homaging Joe Kubert’s cover figure of the space adventurer called Starman for DC’s 1st Issue Special #12 (March 1976), and Randy Sargent for so ably coloring it—I’ll plunge without further ado right into comments on A/E #105.

R

“Bob Toomey’s ‘Green Lantern Corps’ story was actually written and drawn in 1978 for Green Lantern #111 (Dec. 1978), when the DC line had expanded to 25 story pages per issue. After the DC Implosion abruptly cut the story pages back to 17, the ‘GLC’ story was left in limbo. All three chapters ultimately ran in GL #130-132 (July-Sept. 1980). My point here is that there was probably a two-year gap between the initial submission of the first chapter to the Code (when it was rejected) and its second go-round (which was accepted), rather than ‘a few months.’

“There were at least two standard-format 1970s DC issues that didn’t bear the Code symbol. Starfire #1 (Aug.-Sept. 1979) didn’t carry the CCA box, leading Dave Blanchard to speculate in #3’s letter column that this had been because Starfire killed a man while in a rage. The editorial response emphasized that ‘there was absolutely nothing that the Comics Code Authority objected to in the first issue of Starfire—nothing at all! The seal did not appear on our cover by a mistake missed by everybody, including the Code.’

Later, World’s Finest #245 (July-July 1977) also ran without the Code symbol, evidently another accidental omission. The issue included

Actually, though, because the “cover feature” of that issue was Richard Arndt’s article “Tales from the Code,” dealing with the changes wrought in the comics industry—literally—by the Comics Code Authority beginning in 1955, a number of the letters we would ordinarily have printed in this “re:” section were instead pulled out and became the basis of aspects of Richard’s follow-up “Tales” piece in issue #113. But that still leaves us with some interesting tidbits of additional information—and a couple of complaints from people because “Tales from the Code” was not the precise type of article they wanted to read. But we’ll burn that bridge when we come to it. Let’s get started—in our recent style, in which all comments by Ye Editor (Roy) are written in italics—and, because of space limitations, I’ll say as little as Maybe They Should’ve Called Her possible:

John Wells, author of TwoMorrows’ The American Comic Book Chronicles: 1960-1964, writes: “Just a quick note to say how much I enjoyed your long-awaited ‘Tales from the Code.’ Richard Arndt (and the A/E auxiliary) did a spectacular job! I’ve always

The Pink Canary!

Frankly, with all that was on view in the “Black Canary” feature in the giant-size World’s Finest Comics #245-247 (Aug. 1970-Jan. 1971), we wonder if anyone bothered to read the “Superman & Batman” stories that led off those issues! The scripts were by Gerry Conway, the art by Mike Nasser & Terry Austin. Thanks to Bob Bailey for the scans. [©2013 DC Comics.]

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[correspondence, criticism, & correspondence]

a topless shot of Black Canary (her breasts mostly concealed by her hair), but similarly provocative shots appeared in #246 and #247 (the latter actually featuring her fighting a wolfman while she was clad in a towel and ultimately nude), both of which earned Code approval.”

Douglas (“Gaff”) Jones: “Reading the Comics Code issue of A/E, a couple of things: while haters of comics and proponents of the Code (pretty much the same group) might have delighted in comics sales in 1962 being far less than a decade previous, the Code can only take part of the credit (or blame) for that.

The devastating price increase of October 1961 from a dime to 12¢ (15¢ for Dell—a 50% increase on comics targeted at a young audience least able to afford such an increase) was the biggest reason. It hit me hard: my 50¢ allowance that used to afford five comics could only afford four at the most—a 20% loss.

“Also, the Code did not restrict its inspection to the finished art, but scrutinized pencils as well. This proved to be a problem one time on a ‘Supergirl’ story: artist Jim Mooney, to save time, didn’t detail Supergirl’s uniform and just drew the basic figure. Well, the Code thought Supergirl was flying around in the nude, and Mooney was read the riot act that he had to put everything in the pencils that would be in the finished art.

Too Cool For School?

Teeny-tiny lettering in the top left corner of the composition-book-style front cover of Mad #20 (Feb. 1955) may have indicated it was “Designed to Sneak into Class”—but did New York educators really believe any kid thought he could get away with it? Didn’t they know magazines have back covers, too?

Or maybe all composition notebooks in the 1950s sported full-color ads telling children how to win great prizes? [Mad cover ©2013 E.C. Publications, Inc.]

“While proofreading at DC, I had to make the copies for the Code and file the returned Xeroxes. Wish I’d had the presence of mind to keep ‘before’ and ‘after’ the Code versions of everything they demanded done.

“That EC sci-fi story [‘Judgment Day’] with the black astronaut could almost be used as a commercial: ‘Never let them see you sweat.’” I don’t recall Marvel generally sending the penciled art for a story to the Comics Code, Gaff. Was this perhaps something DC did voluntarily when it was concerned that there might be something therein that might later be nixed by them?

Pierre Comtois: “Although I looked forward to reading and did enjoy the lengthy article on the Comics Code by Richard Arndt in Alter Ego #105, I was somewhat disappointed that the focus remained largely on the history of the Code and various examples of editing or censorship over the years. Those of us who’ve been fans for a while have become familiar with much of that, but what we haven’t seen much of and that I looked forward to reading was the inside operation of the Code offices. Who exactly were the industry figures behind the establishment of the Code Authority in the 1950s? How exactly were its guidelines drawn up? Who were the reviewing members of the Authority and how were they chosen for the job? I would dearly have liked to see interviews with past members to find out what they thought of their job, their battles if any with editors, and did they see themselves as fighting the good fight or not?

“Unfortunately, what we wound up with in Arndt’s article was mostly one man’s seeming frustration at ‘censorship.’ I put the word in quotations because I’m not sure it’s even censorship we’re talking about, since it was done by private companies and not enforced by government. The companies volunteered for decades to submit their product for review because they had an interest in

maintaining sales to as broad a customer base as possible, something that has been lost sight of in the last decade, as hand in hand with the abandonment of the Code has been the utter loss of young readers. Whenever I visit local comic shops these days, all I ever see are adults doing the buying. And when kids do show up, usually in the company of a parent buying comics for themselves, they act bored out of their minds. And who can blame them?

There’s not much in today’s dark, negativistic, even ugly comics that can appeal to young readers.

“I think examples cited by Arndt including Son of Satan #8 are prime examples of show-stoppers so far as the average man on the street is concerned. (That crucifixion scene would surely have given me pause if I were in Marvel editorial at the time! I mean, it does come pretty close to profanity to have the son of Satan substituted for the Son of God on the cross while echoing the same words uttered by Jesus!) Well, be that as it may, my bottom line argument is that maybe having a strong Comics Code Authority wasn’t all that bad. Was it too strict? Sure, at times. It could have been loosened and it was, in the early ’70s, but beyond that revision, I don’t think anything more needed to be done. If companies wanted to tackle more adult themes, they could still have done it in other formats, such as the black-&-white mags.”

To which Richard Arndt, the author of both “Tales from the Code” articles to date, responds: “I have to say I agree with some of the points Pierre made about the article. I would have liked more about the actual inner workings of the Code (even though it would have made an already long article about three times as long), but many of those people have passed away or are largely unknown to the general public, including me. Judge Murphy only lasted two years as the head of the CCA and, as far as I can tell, all of the workers in his office at the time were retired school teachers, almost certainly passed away by this time. It had only been a year

re:

or so earlier that the New York School System had condemned [the color] Mad for making the cover of their comic look like the standard black-with-whitespeckled composition book, so retired teachers, none of whom would have read comics as a child, may not have been the best folks to hire for a reasonable judgment. In addition, no names have ever been mentioned regarding these workers. Nor does anyone that I know how to contact seem to have any knowledge of people employed by the Code, either recently or in the past. If we could locate someone who actually worked in the Code office, from any time period, it would certainly be a good idea to see if they were OK with an interview.

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That’s not a guideline or benign; it’s flatout reactionary censorship.

“I, too, lament that young people don’t read comics as much as I did, but it’s not because there aren’t comics designed for them but because the current delivery system doesn’t take children into account. Places where I bought comics as a child (groceries, party stores, drug stores) don’t sell them anymore. Every regular bookstore, either independent or chain, has a book nook area for young kids. I’ve never been in a comic shop that has a brightly lit, kid-friendly section near the front of the store. Most of them, at least in the area I live in, if they have a kid section at all, are in the back of a store where a kid must parade past all the “Contacting the Goldwater family comics a parent might not be happy with, might also be a good idea, although in a kneel down in a corner that’s dark and history of the Code, John Goldwater could often dingy, and look at comics which the easily come across as a villain. He openly comic shop owners don’t have much of a gloated about driving Bill Gaines out of knowledge of, or, frankly, an interest. comics. And while neither of the two main However, kids do read comics if they’re books on the subject of the Code available and age-appropriate. Jeff Smith’s mentioned him extensively, neither do Bone is one of the most-read collections of either of them show him in a good light…. books in my library (grades 7-8) and also one of the most challenged—there are Hold The Bone!

“There should perhaps have been folks worried that Bone’s ‘girlfriend’ is Jeff Smith’s Bone clearly appeals to kids’ prurient more discussion about other reasons the human and Bone is not, that Bone doesn’t interests. Seen here is the cover of #2 (Feb. 1996), various comics publishers had for being a reprinting of Cartoon Books’ original 1991 issue wear clothes, that it’s fantasy, and on and nervous about a Congressional probe in Bone #2 with a new cover. [©2013 Jeff Smith.] on, etc., etc. Much of that, as with many 1954. Many of them had started out challenged books, is utter nonsense. The publishing girlie or soft-core porn Superman Adventure and Batman Adventure books that came out 5 or magazines in the 1920s and 1930s, all of which were somewhat 6 years ago move all the time; it’s too bad DC didn’t keep them in problematic to publishers now publishing comics for kids. Some of print or print a complete collection. Linda Medley’s Castle Waiting them may have had connections to organized crime, particularly in is a favorite, and so is the recent comic adaptation of Peter Beagle’s their early days. And the racial factor would have to be looked at The Last Unicorn. Some of Eureka’s Graphic Classics line do quite as well. Could a Jewish publisher or an industry that employed so well.

Joe Kubert’s Yossel and Dong Xui are checked out a lot—and many Jewish or black creators get a fair shake in the courts at the often by kids for their dads to read. To give the entire comics time, even in Northern courts? industry a black eye for not publishing enough material for kids is “Much of this, unfortunately, is probably outside the scope of wrong. It’s not that it’s not there; it’s that you often can’t find it what I’m able to accomplish from li’l ol’ Elko, Nevada. I’d need where you should be able to.” names and contact persons to move on much of this. [YE Jake Oster: “Re the censored scene in World’s Finest Comics EDITOR’S NOTE: See pro writer Mike W. Barr’s letter below… but it #189 (Nov. 1969): Perhaps Mr. Arndt didn’t know or just forgot that behooves me to point out that I asked Richard to write the type of article the issue of the blacked-out panel in that issue was addressed in he wrote—not that the kind that Pierre Comtois wants to see wouldn’t the letters page of World’s Finest #192 (March 1970). After several also be a good idea and a good read.] readers asked about it, editor Mort Weisinger (or perhaps assistant “By the way, it’s always censorship when an outside or a E. Nelson Bridwell) replied as follows: ‘Here are the facts. Before governing body tells a creative community what they can or the tale was written, we checked with the Code, and they okayed cannot write, draw, or publish. It’s also censorship when I, as a the plot, provided we kept the pictures within the bounds of good librarian, decline to buy or keep on the shelves books that I deem taste. When we got to that panel, we knew it wouldn’t pass as too adult for the students that I’m serving. Or when a parent says written, so we put in the ‘Censored’ label as a gag. The fact that the no to a videogame they think is objectionable. It’s called guidelines Code Authority passed it proves that they have a sense of humor. or benign censorship (or simply being a good parent) and it’s —Ed.’” Yeah, Jake, a few other readers pointed that out to us, as well. commonly practiced in nearly every educational and family unit in Author Richard Arndt says he had half-remembered that fact, but forgot it one way or another. when writing his article for A/E #105.

“The original Comics Code, at first glance, might have Mike W. Barr: “Unfortunately, A/E #105’s ‘Tales from the appeared to be the same thing. However, in much of its early Code’ was pretty much what I expected—a self-satisfied excorihistory, it did not operate that way. It threw out nearly everything ation of that damn Comics Code Authority, the soulless, puritanical that appeared even mildly adult in nature, gave every indication bluenoses that kept comic books from become the mature, adult that it was headhunting certain publishers, and appeared to have medium it was intended to be by fascistically censoring its heavenhidden agendas in certain aspects of religion and racial thought. It touched creators and their golden, gossamer dreams (said dreams did not say this particular story maybe shouldn’t be sold to minors. mainly involving not having to work in factories like their fathers).

It said that this particular story shouldn’t be sold to anybody.

“Though it is true there would have been reaction from some

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[correspondence, criticism, & correspondence]

against the vital new medium of comic books when they debuted, no matter what their content, comic books made their own bed by publishing much of the material they did. Doubtless the Code did at times overreach. But often in its history the comics business has not acted responsibly. One of the elephants in the room in this discussion is the EC story ‘Foul Play!’ (from The Haunt of Fear #19, May-June 1953, by Bill Gaines, Al Feldstein, and Jack Davis). The only feature that distinguished this tale from the 99.99% of welldrawn but otherwise mundane, repetitious, and predictable EC formula horror stories is the fact that it climaxes with a baseball game played on a diamond made of human entrails. This is not horror; this is not even shock; this is simply license, sniggering juvenile self-indulgence, of no more artistic value than mooning out a window.

If industries don’t exercise responsibility, someone will exercise it for them (or ought to). Products produced for children

do need to adhere to certain standards. This is not suppression of anyone’s precious artistic instincts; it is forcing discipline on an industry that refuses to assume it. To anyone who believes no standards are needed for literature produced for children, try substituting the term “food” for “literature,” and see the ramifications of such so-called thought. (Any of the EC stories, just like any comics story, can be read by adults, and some, such as ‘Judgment Day,’ can be appreciated by adults and mature children. But to those who maintain that ECs were produced for adults, see ‘Foul Play!’)

It is unfortunate that former DC editor Laurie S. Sutton was not interviewed for this issue. Laurie, as the only person I know of to have worked both for the CCA and for a major comics publisher, might have provided some valuable insight into the issues discussed.

But onward: with artistic freedom at last victorious over the barbaric, drooling, jackbooted Comics Code, what excuse do we comics creators now have for the medium failing to reach its full potential?”

We’ll be happy to contact Laurie Sutton if we can, Mike, because we’d love to see an interview or article about the inner workings of the Comics Code, nor would we be looking for a hatchet job on same.

However, since Ms. Sutton was an editor at DC in the early ’80s, she probably worked for the Code right before or after that time, and thus such a piece would fall more under the province of our sister publication Back Issue than under A/E’s franchise. We touched on post-1974 matters to some extent in “Tales from the Code,” but most of its focus was on the Code’s first two decades or else (particularly when I myself inserted a note or two re Conan the Barbarian, etc.) on my own work, which is also part of this mag’s franchise, whatever the year. Still, we suspect BI editor Michael Eury would welcome such a piece.

Jerry Ordway: “Skimmed through Alter Ego about the Comics Code and will read through it later, but what a fun idea for a theme! I had a hilarious Code issue on an Adventures of Superman I wrote in the ’90s. [A/E EDITOR’S NOTE: See art at left.]

“Another example was from All-Star Squadron, though I don’t know if the Code asked for changes, or whether editorial did: when Firestorm jumped out of bed [in issue #5], she was drawn in shadows, but naked. Production drew some horrible underwear on her in the printed version.” Afraid that Douglas Jones (formerly Carl Gafford) owned up some years ago, in our TwoMorrows trade paperback The All-Star Companion, Vol. 2, that DC itself censored the sequence which you inked over Rich Buckler’s pencils—with Gaff, as a production staffer, appointed to make the change. The “before” artwork is also shown in that book, as Gaff saved a photocopy of it.

When Santa Went Slumming Re the first paragraph of Jerry Ordway’s letter at right: turns out he was talking about the splash page of The Adventures of Superman #487 (Feb. 1992), which he scripted and Tom Grummett drew. Jerry writes: “I had my character Bibbo, a big lug, dress up as Santa to give out Christmas presents to his down-on-their-luck friends. The splash page has him slipping on some ice, and lettered above him is the story title, ‘A Nutcracker Suite.’ The rejection letter [from the Code] was very serious and objected to the title because ‘the character is clearly going to crack his nuts,’ or something close to that. Very funny. We of course changed it.” Clearly, the world became a better place when that title was changed to “Christmas in Suicide Slumberland.” Actually, though, that’s not a bad title at all! Thanks to Eric Schumacher for the scan. [©2013 DC Comics.]

Mark Mayerson sent the following to Comic Crypt editor Michael T. Gilbert, who forwarded it to us: “I wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed the series you did on Abe Kanegson in Alter Ego. I can fill in a small piece of information. On page 53, Louis mentions ‘Oscar,’ ‘who was very well known in the folk and creative music field of those days, who had a radio program.’ This is undoubtedly Oscar Brand, who is still alive at the age of 91. His website is www.oscarbrand.com, and there’s a page to contact him if you care to follow up.”

Michael T. Gilbert himself points out that “one small problem [with his Crypt section in A/E #105] was that one of the captions was repeated (an Octopus page listed as a Lonesome Cool page).”

He also forwarded us a second missive from a Crypt reader, coincidentally from an acquaintance of Dann’s and mine (Roy’s) from the days we spent at a comics convention in Turin, Italy, in 2003:

Diego Ceresa says: “Thank you so much for the several installments of your Alter Ego column devoted to the great Abe Kanegson. I’m an Italian letterer and was always inspired by

re:

71

Shaun Clancy, who in A/E #102 conducted an interview with the original Betty Cooper whom Bob Montana made the namesake of Archie Andrews’ first “girlfriend,” sent us this unwelcome news: “Just got a call [7-18-12] regarding Barbara Lucey Tancredi.

She was in San Diego and the Comic-Con this week to accept a Lifetime Achievement Award on behalf of her dad ([‘Archie’ artist] Harry Lucey) when she suddenly fell ill and passed away on Saturday, July 14, 2012—as it happened, her Who Was That Masked Ranger?

66th birthday.

Cal Massey drew these stories for Premier, which was, as Jim Vadeboncoeur informs us, not an imprint of Story Comics. The “Crimson Barbara was Avenger” story—no relation to DC’s masked hero—is from Masked Ranger #6 (Feb. 1955), while the “Masked Ranger” tale is from #9 (Aug. instrumental in ’55); both are signed by Massey. Thanks to Jim Ludwig & Michaël Dewally, respectively. [©2013 the respective copyright holders.] my research for Kanegson’s work, along with Sam Rosen’s, Gaspar Saladino’s, and my [forthcoming book on original ‘Archie’ artist] Bob Montana, John Costanza’s. Abe Kanegson was the most awe-inspiring to me. since her aunt Betty was the role model for Betty Cooper of the Every page he did was a creative explosion that incredibly added ‘Archie’ comics. In fact, it was Betty who phoned to tell me the bad to The Spirit’s atmosphere. I remember when, in 1998, Will Eisner news. We filmed Betty and Barbara just a few months ago, and it’s came here to Torino and I asked him about Abe. He told me he was hard to believe she is gone so quickly, as she was only in her early so good and fast doing his job! I never could have imagined that 60s.” We were very sorry to learn that news, Shaun, and her family and you would be able to unearth the real story of such a comics loved ones have our condolences. genius!”

Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr., notes, concerning Jim Amash’s interview with a prominent comic artist of the 1950s: “I enjoyed reading about Cal Massey. Twice, in the interview and the illustrations accompanying it, there is a reference to ‘Premier’ being an imprint of ‘Story Comics.’ ’Tain’t so. The Who’s Who [of American Comic Books 19281999] is clearly in error in this case. Premier Magazines, which printed Masked Ranger and the Crimson Avenger character, and for whom Cal worked (as you clearly demonstrate on p. 60) was a unique publishing entity. It had a different address, a different staff of artists, and totally unique graphic design. Perhaps if Jim had asked Cal about Premier instead of Story, he might have gotten a different response. Even the early printed Who’s Who had [the company] referenced as “Friedman”—just not so. Neither the original Who’s Who nor my Street & Smith notes show any Massey work. I tend to agree with Cal that he’s not there, but until one sees all of the comics, you have to leave the possibility open. Ditto for Superior credits. I think that, here again, the Who’s Who is misinformed. Surely you know by now that ‘Boffo the Clown’ is not known in comic circles—at Lev Gleason or elsewhere. Maybe it is something yet to be discovered.” Thanks for clearing that up for us, Jim. We’ll try to avoid making that mistake in the future.

It is also with profound sadness that we must report that Josh Medors, the talented young artist who drew the Spider-Man cover of Alter Ego #105, passed away of a rare form of spinal cancer while this issue was being readied. He was best known for his work on such comics as Frank Frazetta’s Swamp Demon, his own Willow Creek, and IDW’s 30 Days of Night. I never met Josh, and only talked to him once over the phone, but he seemed determined to fight his illness to the end, aided by his wife Charlotte. They have a son, Garth. His courage in the face of deadly adversity should be an inspiration to all of us: “Do not go gentle in that good night.”

Send your comments and criticisms to:

Roy Thomas e-mail: roydann@ntinet.com 32 Bluebird Trail St. Matthews, SC 29135

Be here next time for a focus on artists L.B. Cole and Jay Disbrow— plus the usual plethora of Golden and Silver Age goodness!

Edgar Rice Burroughs’

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Part III of “The INDESTRUCTIBLE ANTAGONIST!”

[Photo from back cover of Captain Video #1 ©2013 the respective copyright holders.]

#175 May 2013

NOTE: Artist/writer Marc Swayze had Captain Marvel handle his showdown with the evil robot Klang a bit more physically in Capt.

Marvel Adventure #15 (Sept. 1942) than Captain Video did re Makino nine years later! [Shazam hero TM & ©2013 DC Comics.]

Special Introduction

n the previous two issues of FCA (and Alter Ego), we reprinted the first 13 pages of the above-titled story from Fawcett Publications’ licensed comic Captain Video (June 1951). The three-media career of Captain Video’s adventures (TV, comics, and movie serial) will be covered next issue. This story, whose scripter is uncertain, was penciled by George Evans and inked by Martin Thall. Thanks to Rod Beck and P.C. Hamerlinck for the scans of this 19-page spectacular.

I

The tale begins with Captain Video and the young Video Ranger discovering that the brilliant scientist Prof. Seminik has been murdered—by his own creation, the diabolical robot Makino. Stealing the Captain’s Whirlojet, Makino vows to prove his own superiority to the humankind that spawned him—by forcing men of science to try to ask him questions he cannot answer, then slaying them when he answers them easily, as he always does. The Captain and the Ranger barely manage to prevent Makino from killing a Nobel prize-winner, but find their ray-guns have no effect on the robot’s super-alloyed body. In their auxiliary jet, the pair head for the United Nations in New York… which doesn’t really have much of a runway for landing….

—Roy Thomas, Guest FCA Co-Editor.

74

[Story page ©2013 the respective copyright holders.]

FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America]

Roy T. here: The names that comics writers give incidental characters in their stories fascinates me. I’m forever trying to figure out their origins. Now, “Sir Reginald Darsely,” the captive Nobel-winner from the preceding few pages, may have got his name from the celebrated “Mr. Darcy” in Jane Austen’s immortal novel Pride and Prejudice… or maybe not. “Prof. Arvin Priestley” is a bit easier, since Joseph Priestley (1733-1804) was a famed natural philosopher and chemist who is generally (though not exclusively) credited with the discovery of oxygen. Wonder what we were all breathing before then?

[Story page ©2013 the respective copyright holders.]

Part III Of “The Indestructible Antagonist!”

Once again Video and the Ranger foil Makino—just barely. And once again he reaches out a super-extended metal arm which barely comes short of grasping the auxiliary jet as they take off with Prof. Priestley. Either the story’s writer believed in subtlety, since the robot’s two uses of that technique are only drawn, never referred to verbally… or else the extending was something that penciler George Evans tossed in on his own, and hence there’s no reference to it in dialogue or captions.

75

76

[Story page ©2013 the respective copyright holders.]

FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America]

Aerial duels, like car races, are notoriously unexciting in comic books, which can rarely capture the speed of motion needed to fully immerse oneself in them. Still, Evans’ angles and storytelling are right on-target in this six-panel unequal combat. Which is all the more impressive if one is aware that Evans, in later years, didn’t have much of a kind word to say about his assignment as the penciler of the six issues of Fawcett’s Captain Video. But some people are just too good to do a bad job.

[Story page ©2013 the respective copyright holders.]

Part III Of “The Indestructible Antagonist!”

The auxiliary jet’s crash, too, is nicely handled, with Evan’s trademark realism. He would go on to draw (and often script) stories for EC’s “New Dimension” title Aces High in the mid-1950s, mostly concentrating—as did the rest of the comic, for most of its five-issue life—on the aerial aspects of the First World War, but expanding into World War II by its last issue or so. This encounter with Makino ends pretty much the way the previous one had—with a narrow escape by the heroes, and a severely wounded scientist—but Video’s words in the final page on this page clue you in that the climax of the story is coming up fast.

77

78

[Story page ©2013 the respective copyright holders.]

FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America]

A page of talk, not action (as if simply “talking” amounted to not doing anything, which it doesn’t, necessarily), on which Captain Video announces he will take on Makino himself, even though five other scientists have been killed or disabled by the robot—two of them offstage before the story opens. Evans keeps up visual interest with the use of shadows to outline a sink and a body on an operating table in panel 1, a beaker next to spiral tubing and books in panel 4, and what seems to be an iron lung in the final panel. The iron lung was a familiar image in the world of 1951, before Dr. Jonas Salk had discovered a vaccine for polio/infantile paralysis.

79

[Story page ©2013 the respective copyright holders.]

Part III Of “The Indestructible Antagonist!”

The writer, or Evans, or both make a good choice by having Video face Makino before an academy of scientists—in a setting which clearly resembles an ancient arena. It calls up images of gladiators stalking each other, of heaven-reaching Christians facing ravenous lions, in the Roman Coliseum and all the pulp-magazine and science-fiction homages to such a scene. The Captain’s question seemingly comes out of nowhere.

80

[Story page ©2013 the respective copyright holders.]

FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America]

Video’s ploy might or might not have worked in real life, had there been such a sentient and vengeful robot as Makino.

But it works in Captain Video #3, and the young reader isn’t really given much time or space to wonder if things might possibly have ended up otherwise. In the end, Makino is carried from the “arena” in pieces, yet with his malicious metal head intact. If he had been a Marvel, DC, or even regular Fawcett super-villain, he’d probably have returned a few issues later to menace the world anew. Next Issue: The Life & Various Times of CAPTAIN VIDEO!

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KIRBY COLLECTOR #61

ALTER EGO #117

COMIC BOOK CREATOR #1 COMIC BOOK CREATOR #2

BRICKJOURNAL #24

Former COMIC BOOK ARTIST editor JON B. COOKE returns to TwoMorrows with his new magazine! #1 features: An investigation of the treatment JACK KIRBY endured throughout his career, ALEX ROSS and KURT BUSIEK interviews, FRANK ROBBINS spotlight, remembering LES DANIELS, WILL EISNER’s Valentines to his beloved, a talk between NEAL ADAMS and DENNIS O’NEIL, new ALEX ROSS cover, and more!

JOE KUBERT double-size Summer Special tribute issue! Comprehensive examinations of each facet of Joe’s career, from Golden Age artist and 3-D comics pioneer, to top Tarzan artist, editor, and founder of the Kubert School. Kubert interviews, rare art and artifacts, testimonials, remembrances, portraits, anecdotes, pin-ups and miniinterviews by faculty, students, fans, friends and family! Edited by JON B. COOKE.

LEGO TRAINS! Builder CALE LEIPHART shows how to get started building trains and train layouts, with instructions on building microscale trains by editor JOE MENO, building layouts with the members of the Pennsylvania LEGO Users Group (PennLUG), fan-built LEGO monorails minifigure customization by JARED BURKS, microscale building by CHRISTOPHER DECK, “You Can Build It”, and more!

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ALTER EGO #118

ALTER EGO #119

ALTER EGO #120

JACK KIRBY: WRITER! Examines quirks of Kirby’s wordsmithing, from the FOURTH WORLD to ROMANCE and beyond!

Lengthy Kirby interview, MARK EVANIER and other columnists, LARRY LIEBER’s scripting for Jack at 1960s Marvel Comics, RAY ZONE on 3-D work with Kirby, comparing STEVE GERBER’s Destroyer Duck scripts to Jack’s pencils, Kirby’s best promo blurbs, Kirby pencil art gallery, & more!

GOLDEN AGE ARTISTS L.B. COLE AND JAY DISBROW! DISBROW’s memoir of COLE and his work on CAT-MAN, art by BOB FUJITANI, CHARLES QUINLAN, IRWIN HASEN, FCA (Fawcett Collector’s of America) on the two-media career of Captain Video, MICHAEL T. GILBERT in Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, BILL SCHELLY on comics fandom history, Cat-Man cover

by L.B. COLE!

AVENGERS 50th ANNIVERSARY! WILL MURRAY on the group’s behind-thescenes origin, a look at its first decade with ROY THOMAS, STAN LEE, JACK KIRBY, THE BROTHERS BUSCEMA, TUSKA, ADAMS, COLAN, BUCKLER, ENGLEHART, MERRY MARVEL MARCHING SOCIETY, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY, FCA, Golden Age Blue Beetle artist E.C. STONER, unused Avengers cover by DON HECK!

MARC SWAYZE TRIBUTE ISSUE, spotlighting FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America)!

Salutes from Fawcett alumnus C.C. BECK and OTTO BINDER, interview with wife JUNE SWAYZE, a full Phantom Eagle story from Wow Comics, plus interview with 1950s Dell/Western artist MEL KEEFER, MICHAEL T. GILBERT in Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, and a SWAYZE Marvel Family cover art from the 1940s!

X-MEN SALUTE! 1963-69 secrets, rare ‘60s BRAZILIAN X-MEN stories, lost ‘60s XMen “character sheet” by STAN LEE, ROY THOMAS on the 1970s revival, art and artifacts by KIRBY, ROTH, ADAMS, HECK, FRIEDRICH, and BUSCEMA—plus the MARVELMANIA fan club story, interview with Golden Age writer ED SILVERMAN, FCA, Mr. Monster, BILL SCHELLY, and JACK KIRBY’s unused X-Men #10 cover!

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DRAW! #25

BACK ISSUE #64

BACK ISSUE #65

BACK ISSUE #66

BACK ISSUE #67

LEE WEEKS (Daredevil, Incredible Hulk) gives insight into the artform, YILDIRAY ÇINAR (Noble Causes, Fury of the Firestorms) interview and demo, inker JOE RUBINSTEIN shows how he works, “Comic Art Bootcamp” with MIKE MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS, “Rough Critique” of a newcomer by BOB McLEOD, and “Crusty Critic” JAMAR NICHOLAS reviews art supplies and software! Mature readers only.

“Bronze Age Backup Series”! Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Black Canary, Metamorpho, GOODWIN and SIMONSON’s Manhunter, PASKO and GIFFEN’s Dr. Fate, “Whatever Happened To…?”, Nemesis, Rose and the Thorn, Seven Soldiers of Victory, art and commentary by CARY BURKETT, JOHN CALNAN, DICK GIORDANO, MIKE GRELL, ELLIOT S! MAGGIN, DAN SPIEGLE, cover

by GRELL and JOE RUBINSTEIN.

“Bronze Age B-Teams”! Defenders issue-byissue overview, Champions, Guardians of the Galaxy, Inhumans, PETER DAVID’s X-Factor, Teen Titans West, Legion of Substitute Heroes, an all-star chatfest of Doom Patrol interviews, plus art and commentary by ROSS ANDRU, SAL BUSCEMA, KEITH GIFFEN, TONY ISABELLA, PAUL KUPPERBERG, ERIK LARSEN, GEORGE PÉREZ, BOB ROZAKIS, cover by KEVIN NOWLAN.

“Bronze Age Team-Ups”! Marvel Team-Up and Two-in-One, Super-Villain Team-Up, CLAREMONT and SIMONSON’s X-Men/New Teen Titans, DC Comics Presents, SuperTeam Family, HANEY and APARO’s Batman of Earth-B(&B), Superman/Captain Marvel smackdowns, plus art and commentary by BUCKLER, ENGLEHART, GARCÍA-LÓPEZ, GIFFEN, LEVITZ, WEIN, and a classic GIL KANE cover inked anew by TERRY AUSTIN.

“Heroes Out of Time!” Batman: Gotham by Gaslight with MIGNOLA, WAID, and AUGUSTYN, Booster Gold with JURGENS, X-Men: Days of Future Past with CHRIS CLAREMONT, Bill & Ted with EVAN DORKIN, interview with P. CRAIG RUSSELL, “Pro2Pro” with Time Masters’ BOB WAYNE and LEWIS SHINER, Karate Kid, New Mutants: Asgardian Wars, and Kang.

Mignola cover.

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Ambitious new series documenting each decade of comic book history!

AMERICAN COMIC BOOK CHRONICLES: 1960-64 & The 1980s

JOHN WELLS covers comics in the 1960-64 JFK and Beatles era: DC’s new GREEN LANTERN, JUSTICE LEAGUE and multiple earths!

LEE and KIRBY at Marvel on FF, SPIDER-MAN, HULK, and X-MEN! BATMAN’s “new look”, Charlton’s BLUE BEETLE, CREEPY #1 & more!

MODERN MASTERS: CLIFF CHIANG

Spotlights the career of CLIFF CHIANG (artist of DC’s New 52 breakout hit WONDER WOMAN series) through a career-spanning interview, and loads of both iconic and rarely seen artwork from Cliff’s personal files. There’s also an in-depth look into the artist’s work process, and an extensive gallery of commissioned pieces, many in full-color. By CHRIS ARRANT and ERIC NOLEN-WEATHINGTON.

1960-64: (224-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 (Digital Edition) $11.95 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-045-8 • Out now!

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THE STAR*REACH COMPANION

Complete history of the influential 1970s independent comic, featuring work by and interviews with DAVE STEVENS, FRANK BRUNNER, HOWARD CHAYKIN, STEVE LEIALOHA, WALTER SIMONSON, BARRY WINDSOR-SMITH, KEN STEACY, JOHN WORKMAN, MIKE VOSBURG, P. CRAIG RUSSELL, DAVE SIM, MICHAEL GILBERT, and many others, plus full stories from STAR*REACH and its sister magazine IMAGINE. Cover by CHAYKIN! MATURE READERS ONLY.

KEITH DALLAS documents comics’ 1980s Reagan years: Rise and fall of JIM SHOOTER, FRANK MILLER as comic book superstar, DC’s CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS, MOORE and GAIMAN’s British invasion, ECLIPSE, PACIFIC, FIRST, COMICO, DARK HORSE and more!

THE BEST OF ALTER EGO, VOL. 2

DAN SPIEGLE: A LIFE IN COMIC ART

PLUGGED IN!

COMICS PROS IN THE VIDEO GAME INDUSTRY

This sequel to ALTER EGO: THE BEST OF THE LEGENDARY COMICS FANZINE presents more vintage features from the first super-hero fanzine, begun by JERRY BAILS & ROY THOMAS. Editors ROY THOMAS and BILL SCHELLY reveal undiscovered gems from all 11 original issues published from 1961-78, including features on Hawkman, the Spectre, Blackhawk, the JLA, All Winners Squad, the Heap, an unsold “Tor” newspaper strip by JOE KUBERT, and more!

Documents his 60-year career on DELL and GOLD KEY’S licensed TV and Movie adaptions (LOST IN SPACE, KORAK, MAGNUS ROBOT FIGHTER, MIGHTY SAMPSON), at DC COMICS (BATMAN, UNKNOWN SOLDIER, TOMAHAWK, JONAH HEX, TEEN TITANS, BLACKHAWK), his CROSSFIRE series for ECLIPSE, DARK HORSE’S INDIANA JONES series and more, with rare artwork, personal photos, and private commission drawings. Written by JOHN COATES.

Offers invaluable tips for anyone entering the Video Game field, or with a fascination for both comics and gaming. KEITH VERONESE interviews artists and writers who work in video games full-time: JIMMY PALMIOTTI, CHRIS BACHALO, MIKE DEODATO, RICK REMENDER, TRENT KANIUGA, and others. Whether you’re a noob or experienced gamer or comics fan, be sure to get PLUGGED IN!

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