I had the good fortune to meet and interview Joe Kubert several times in the past few years. Here are links to those previous writings:
Joe Kubert talks about Robin Moore and "Tales of the Green Berets."
What might have been...Kubert's "Terry & the Pirates."
What also might have been...Kubert's "Superman vs. Muhammad Ali."
Convention encounters:
Mid-Ohio Con, October 2008
C2E2, April 2012
A couple of years ago he won the Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Cartoonists Society. I asked Joe about Caniff, who he loved as a kid and later got to know as a professional.
Kubert on Caniff:
There were three idols with whom every guy who started at the same time as I did were their acolytes: Caniff, Foster and Raymond. Caniff was the guy who enabled people like myself to recognize and adapt and adopt a little bit of his style. I believe that we’re all influenced by everything and everyone that we see and/or admire. Whether we realize it or not, we’re influenced by them. I sure as hell was. I was completely conscious of the fact that at one time or another I was sure influence by Milt, by Milt’s stuff. What that did, because he worked with such incredible, bold strokes with the brush, I found that doing the stuff with that kind of a style – simplifying the art – enabled me to get it done a hell of a lot faster, as you know. If you can still maintain the kind of quality that you’re looking for, and find a way to get it done a little faster, that was quite an achievement. So, for some time I think Milt’s influence showed very clearly on a lot of the stuff I did.
Personally, as a kid I passed over Kubert's work. It wasn't the clean line of a Byrne or Perez, which I was attracted to. Thankfully, in my maturity I'd grown to appreciate the skill and technique of artists like Severin and Kubert. I'm glad I got to briefly know this man who was very generous with his time. He was a man humble in the face of well-deserved praise, unwilling to rest on his body of work, always excited about the latest project. Joe Kubert was the living history of comics.
Personally, as a kid I passed over Kubert's work. It wasn't the clean line of a Byrne or Perez, which I was attracted to. Thankfully, in my maturity I'd grown to appreciate the skill and technique of artists like Severin and Kubert. I'm glad I got to briefly know this man who was very generous with his time. He was a man humble in the face of well-deserved praise, unwilling to rest on his body of work, always excited about the latest project. Joe Kubert was the living history of comics.
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