I Shook Hands with Joe Kubert

 Joe Kubert has been drawing comics for 65 years! I have been a fan of his powerful artwork my entire life and I look forward to every new project that is fortunate enough to benefit from his involvement. I can hardly wait to see his Joe Kubert Presents series coming from DC later this year!

Last weekend's C2E2 convention had a 90-minute panel devoted to The Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art. While a graduate of the School described the school's curriculum, Mr. Kubert was on the stage drawing a poster of Nite Owl from Watchmen. The original drawing was to be raffled off the following day with the proceeds going to charity. (I bought a raffle ticket but did not win the artwork.)

Let me show you the two gentlemen on the dais before the drawing began and also a projected view of the drawing as it was being created. Mr. Kubert used a brush marker to draw the poster, so he seems to be partial that instrument just like Sarah Becan and I am. (By the way, I drew the Hayfamzone Ashcan 2012 comic with a brush marker.)

After the panel ended I went up to the front to meet Mr. Kubert. I waited in line and when my turn came I asked the gentleman if he please would hold up his drawing for a photo, and I share that snapshot with you up at the top of this page. I told Mr. Kubert how I had considered applying to his School the year it opened and how Jenette Kahn at the 1977 Chicago Comicon had heaped praise on Mr. Kubert's artwork when she said that every brick he drew was charged with emotion. (I have previously shared those tidbits here on the blog but it was a wonderful feeling to get to relate them to Mr. Kubert himself.) I also mentioned how I had been a charter subscriber of his Sojourn Magazine that was produced as a benefit for his School back in the late 1970s.

Here is a life-affirming photo that the superb artist (and Kubert School graduate) Amanda Conner tweeted of her posing at C2E2 with her former teacher.