Monday, June 18, 2012

I love me some Kuberts!

Amy Kuperinsky profiles legendary comic book artist Joe Kubert and his talented son Andy for the Star/Ledger-- an online news aggregator?-- with a name-check for Adam.  I'm shocked Andy and Adam are in their 50s.  I really thought they were younger for some reason.  But I should have known or guessed.  Both sons are seasoned pros with huge bodies of work.  I've just telescoped their careers because time really does fly.

My inability to understand chronology aside, there aren't any big revelations in the story.  Joe Kubert is one of the all-time greats, his sons adore him as a father and an artist, they have a school that's graduated a number of highly-thought of professionals in its almost 40 years of operation.  It's nice to read about a family that does comics together and it comes with a nice slide show, however.

Joe Kubert's garnered praise and awards throughout his long career, but even so as a comic book fan-- especially one who appreciates the old guard, the prime movers, the influences-- I feel any time of the day is the right time to think about him and the thousands of amazing pages he's drawn.  That he's in his mid-80s and still doing vital work is a wonder.  Most artists rise, peak and then decline, but Joe Kubert's charted his own curve that seems to have plateaued at a nose-bleed inducing level and just stayed there, decade in and decade out.  Not many artists get even a rocky little spike to that altitude of greatness and there sits Joe Kubert, a kind of mountain range unto himself.  Appreciate him and feel lucky we've been able to enjoy the view for so long.

The Kubert Mountains.  I thought to scale them when I was a kid copying his Sgt. Rock covers with a yellow #2 pencil into my school notebook.  I got about halfway up one of the foothills before pooping out.

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