A Quality Artist

My friends Brad and Linda were over at our place for dinner tonight...both are artists with backgrounds in design and illustration. We were talking about the process of creating stuff, whether it be a painting, design or even something like this blog.  Sometimes, the creator can get so caught up in their own high standards, that nothing ultimately gets produced. (For example...I have re-written these last two sentences about 8 times!)

Well, during the Golden, Silver and Bronze age of comics, artists that worked for DC or Marvel (or any number of other smaller publishers) often had to crank out a significant amount of work and meet tight monthly dead lines, regardless of their personal standards.  Some of them pretty much phoned in the work and just slogged it out.  But others managed to be consistently good, and after a while, readers began to recognize when "the good guy" was working, wanted to know who it was and demanded more.  Joe Kubert was one such guy.  He did not phone in his work, and his catalog of War, Tarzan and other comics will long be recognized for their quality of craft.

I actually bought this copy of DC's Tarzan issue 212 today at a local shop.  And while it may not represent Kubert's greatest work, it illustrates my point well.  DC started this series in April of 1972, and while I cannot speak to it's commercial success, artistically I think it was another example of very solid work for Kubert on a monthly title that was entirely his artistic responsibility.

The cover promises a compelling story, a lot of action and good art.  And that promise is kept with a book length, well edited, Edgar Rice Burroughs Tarzan story, illustrated by Kubert.  I highly recommend this series, even if you have never read a comic before.  It's easy to come by, doesn't cost much to acquire (the issue above cost me $5), and is full of great stories and art.

In future posts I will try to feature some of Joe's War comics.

Until next time...