Joe Kubert Week

Welcome to Joe Kubert week, on this blog, in honor of Joe's 84th birthday, one week from today. Joe's lifetime achievement, from the golden age to the present, has been tremendous in the field of graphic story-telling. His work has been foremost in my appreciation since I was a boy.

So every post this week will be something by Kubert. Probably you've seen a lot of it, but these will be scans from my collection that has meant something to me.

Above, my portrait of Kubert, as he looked when I met him back in the 80s.

Below, from Out of this World Adventures #1, July of 1950, story by John Michel. I love Kubert's space stories, I just wish he had done lots of them, but alas. This story, Lunar Station, almost looks like a source for Ron Goulart's premise of StarHawks.

Pigs with Tricky Noses

Wallace Tripp is easily described: an artist who likes to have pfun.

The Girl You Love to Look At

This beauty surfaced from the swimsuit file in my pictorial morgue. From May, 1941, this ad illustrated by Esquire's Alberto Vargas ran in Life magazine, reaching millions of households . . . and that's how some artists became household names.

Bolton's Goblin Market

Paul Ballard, a terrific illustrator in his own right, took the time to send over these scans of John Bolton's graphic story version of Goblin Market — in response to the earlier posts of Arthur Rackham and Kinuko Craft's versions.

Paul sez in his email: Too beautiful not to share . . .

I agree. Thanks Paul!

Dusty Treasure

I've mentioned before how I have very fond memories of digging for treasure in the old dusty book and magazine stores of my youth. Old SatEvePosts with Norman Rockwell covers sold for 3 dollars. I had a hard time picking out 3 for the ten dollar bill I had in my pocket. Below was one of 'em. I idolized Rockwell in those days.

Myrddin

A nice visualization of Myrddin, otherwise known as Merlin,

by Susan Seddon-Boulet.

The Fairy's Birthday

Back for a moment to W.Heath Robinson, a favorite illustrator of many.

What a nifty piece here entitled The Fairy's Birthday from December of 1925, showing a nice variety of tiny folk coexisting with the faerie folk. I could truly enjoy an extended visit to this realm, though I'd want to bring all my drawing materials and a good digital camera. Hmm. I've been needing a vacation . . .

But if I couldn't go, I'd give my ticket to Larry MacDougall. Though, come to think of it, I think he travels there all the time.

Below, a really nice portrait of WHR by a contemporary of his, whose name I don't recall (and can't decipher from the inscription).

Sensuousity

Kelly Freas was responsible for selling SO-MANY sci-fi books with his intriguing covers. I bought many just for his art and then stayed and read the books as well. He brought his own brand of sensuousity to the genre (I know that's not really a word, but I felt compelled to use it in honor of Freas' uniquisity).

Art by Kelly Freas for Up to the Sky in Ships by A. Bertram Chandler

Original art by Kelly Freas for The Star-Crowned Kings

Art by Kelly Freas for The Star-Crowned Kings by Robert Chilson

Backwater Planets

Frank Kelly Freas' work was always a treasure to be collected. No matter how loose or cartoony his work was, he always captured the essence of galactic intrigue and backwater planets that is such a part of the science fiction that I love.

front cover

back cover

Goblins

Gimme a chance, you guys jumped in too fast. I was doin' some Labor Day party stuff and went out to play badminton before posting the next item, which was . . .

The piece from Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market that Arthur Rackham painted that Craft's painting was a take on.

Geez, I didn't know anyone was payin' attention here.

The Old Fairy Tale Style

Some renderings visualize nature spirits as being more malevolent and crass.

This somewhat disturbing image, dripping with sexual innuendo, was a commissioned illustration by Kinuko Craft, for an adult version of Goblin Market, so don't blame her for its content. But it's a lovely execution in the old fairy tale style.

This image is a small print in my pictorial morgue, but it was originally an illustration for Playboy in 1973.

Nature Spirits

Some artists have the gifted insight to see nature spirits wherever they look. Especially artists of the Victorian era. This painting, The Maidens of the Mist, is by Fabio Cipolla, an Italian painter, contemporary of Herbert Draper.

One of the Greats

I just now saw where Paul Conrad, one of the greats of editorial cartooning, has died. Pulitzer-winning and Nixon enemy (and proud of it), Conrad had a distinctive style of art and wit.

He was a hero to me, back in the '60s when I was so sure I was going to be a cartoonist. I used to hang around his office when he was editorial cartoonist for the Denver Post. I would bug him for advice and watch him draw, and he was always gracious and willing to put up with my noive. When he left for the Los Angeles Times, I'll bet he was just trying to get away from me. But then I hung out and bugged his successor at the Post, Pat Oliphant.

Man I had ink in my veins back in those days.

Conrad sometimes used to draw tribute cartoons of deceased politicians standing at the pearly gates. I imagine a drawing of Conrad standing there and St Peter checking his roster book and saying, "No. If Nixon ever checked in here, his page is missing."

Records

Or I can find bittersweet comfort in the obscure music of my old records, like Mr. Novello here, as rendered by Dave Sheridan, also from Meef #1.

The Man Who Knows Everything

Or when things get out of hand, I like to delve into the mysteries of the cosmos—and read old comix as well. Where better to turn than Fred Schrier, the inside back cover of Meef Comix #1.

The Comfort of Wonders

When I'm feeling overwhelmed by life's demands (more often than I care to admit), I turn to nature's astronomical wonders for comfort (and sometimes the old comic books—but ignore that I said that).

The vast universe, as captured by the wonderous Hubble, is my narcotic.

This nebula, IRAS 05437+2502, is a floating mountain of interstellar dust, with some mysterious features still being worked out by astronomers. It looks a bit like I would imagine Mt Olympus to be. The spikes on the stars are artifacts of the photo process, but are oh, so gorgeous.

Ain't Sure if I'm Snoozin' or Waked Up

I didn't collect Abbie an' Slats on a regular basis, it seeming a bit dull or soap operaish for my young tastes in the 60s, but every once in a while the strip by Raeburn Van Buren caught my attention . . .

And little did I know at the time that Van Buren had been an illustrator for the slick magazines for decades, usually with a pin-up flare . . .

Rather Mesmerizing

Anyone remember the John Pound portfolio entitled Midnight Gods?

I remember that it seemed to be advertised everywhere in the fantasy fanzines and newsletters way back when. This was the primary (rather mesmerizing) image:

Keep Goin', Oop

Collecting continuities of strips couldn't always work out. Newspaper editors would switch locations of the strips, sometimes week to week, so that one week Alley Oop was on the backside of Dotty Dripple, for example (a strip I would never collect) and the next week on the back of Pogo, which I always collected. So Alley Oop suffered a lot of breaks in the story line, not that the stories were that complex. Plus many times one Alley Oop looked like any other Alley Oop when they were back in Moo, which was 99% of the time in the mid 60s. So I ended up tossing a bunch of those. But I kept a few, and these two were continuous, though the format changed from one week to the next, as the editors were wont to do.

Across the Ages

I have a love/hate attitude toward the Silver Age of comix. Much of it has little appeal for me, but some of it still feels good—none more so than Joe Kubert's take on Hawkman.

Here is an across-the-ages special panel that Kubert drew, during the bronze age, of the Silver Age Hawkman and Hawkwoman battling the Golden Age Gentleman Ghost.