Sgt. Rock…Tarzan…Enemy Ace…Tor…Viking Prince…Hawkman…Punisher…
Joe Kubert. The last of the Golden Age artists still working at his craft, passed away this week with art yet left to be published on the Before Watchmen comic he’s been inking.
Year after year, his work got bolder, more confident, and more gorgeous with every passing day. I can’t think of any other artist in any other field who continued to improve as long as he drew breath. There was never a period of decline.
Now that I’m a teacher of how to make comics, I often think about Joe and the magnificent institution he built known as the Joe Kubert School. I never went there, but always felt that he taught me a hell of a lot in every conversation I ever had with him.
Thanks for the world you helped make, Mr. Kubert.
Ty the Guy OUT!
Here now, your BONUS Joe Kubert Moments:
The first Joe Kubert artwork I ever saw. This comic belonged to an older brother.
The first Kubert comic I ever owned. I bought this when I was about eight years old, ENTIRELY because of that cover.
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For last week’s Bun Toon “Brush with Greatness”, click above.
For every Bun Toon ever, click above.
For a previous blog entry about this very subject, and Mr. Kubert’s advice, click here.
Ty Templeton's ART LAND!! 
Ty, thanks for this. Joe was my teacher and then later my boss, I’m an instructor at the school. This is dead on the Joe I knew.
Love it. There are pens and pencils I enjoy but I always tell people, when asked for advice, to draw with whatever they want. If a 98 cent felt tip pen at Staples gives you the line you need, use it!
PS – The twig panel is cool. 🙂
Panel eight is, in fact, inked with a 98 cent Sharpie I found near the phone. And just so you don’t think I’m a naturally messy inker…this page was produced “size as” on a single piece of 8×11 printer paper.
I got to meet Joe Kubert once, at the Boston Comic Con a year and a half ago. I was 31 and I think he could have easily kicked my ass (and I kinda inadvertently gave him a reason), so it was a surprise to hear he passed away, even given his age.
I think the reason that people ask for advice on brushes and pens is because those of us casual artists are still trying to figure out how to make them lines, and wanna know where to start. Well, I do anyway.
I know that “a poor craftsman blames his tools” is an old saw, but you’re about the only person I know of who uses it. I’ve loved it since that one scene in Stig’s Inferno.
Love it. Also, Bill Watterson supposedly one DID ink a panel of CALVIN AND HOBBES with a twig from the yard.
So, Ty, can we start calling you Twiggy due to our universal respect for Joe Kubert’s work?
Cheers!
Steven Willis
XOWComics.com
Jules Feiffer inked his strip with a sharpened stick for many years.