Joe Kubert, a legend in the world of comic book art and founder of the school in Dover that bears his name, has died. He was 85. Kubert, who lived in Dover, died Sunday at Morristown Medical Center, following a short illness. He is best known for his work on the DC Comics characters Sgt. Rock and Hawkman. His sons, Andy Kubert and Adam Kubert, have themselves become successful comic-book artists.
Kubert’s first known professional job was penciling and inking the six-page story “Black-Out”, starring the character Volton, in Holyoke Publishing’s Catman Comics #8 (March 1942; also listed as vol. 2, #13). He would continuing drawing the feature for the next three issues, and was soon doing similar work for Fox Comics’ Blue Beetle.[8] Branching into additional art skills, he began coloring the Quality Comics reprints of future industry legend Will Eisner’s The Spirit, a seven-page comics feature that ran as part of a newspaper Sunday supplement.
Beginning with Our Army at War #32 (March 1955), Kubert began to freelance again for DC Comics, in addition to Lev Gleason Publications and Atlas Comics, the 1950s iteration of Marvel Comics.[8] By the end of the year he was drawing for DC exclusively, working on such characters as the medieval adventurer Viking Prince, the superhero Hawkman, which would become one of his signature efforts, and, in the war comic GI Combat, features starring Sgt. Rock and The Haunted Tank, two more signature strips.
In 1976, Kubert and his wife, Muriel, founded the first and only accredited school devoted solely to the art of cartoon graphics, The Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art, Inc. in Dover. The school, which has produced many of today’s leading cartoonists, features a three-year program in cartooning and graphic art. Of all the credits to Joe Kubert in the comic world the creation of the school is probably the greatest achievement and most influential in the world of graphic art. Great art work will never be dead as long as we have graduates of the Joe Kubert School. He will be missed and remembered as one of the greatest art teachers of art of all time. Good Bye Joe. Stay tuned comic faithful as we help you understand the comic and entertainment world. 🙂 Walt