Up in my Attic

 

A good friend sent me this email:

To: Jack Dumpert
Subject: Any of this in the attic? 

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/26/arts/artsspecial/spider-man-among-comic-art-up-for-auction.html?module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3Ar%2C%7B%222%22%3A%22RI%3A17%22%7D

This was my reply:

No, but up in my attic I do have the first issues of a tabloid sized comics publication written drawn and published by legendary comic artist Joe Kubert.

Kubert’s style was unique and I greatly admired it from my earliest encounters with his work, principally his work on Sgt Rock which appeared first in DC comics way back when I was in high school. Then in the early sixties I was totally blown away by his artwork reviving Hawkman. When I started this email I looked around online for examples of Kubert’s art. There are lotsa reproductions of his comic book cover art but very little of his interior pages which is where he really shined. This is the best I could find:

Check the amazing perspective and unique use of blacks…Kubert inked all his work himself.

Around the time he founded the Kubert School in the mid-seventies he began to independently publish that tabloid comic. It could only be had by subscription and I was a subscriber from day one. Alas, it only survived for five or six issues. Then I received a letter from Kubert to subscribers announcing its cancellation. In the letter Kubert apologized as the tabloid ran several continuing stories none of which would now ever be concluded. To make up for that Kubert included a small portfolio of his original art. That, along with all of the issues that were published I still have and treasure to this day.

I’m not sure if they’re worth anything although I suspect they may be as they are quite rare. I couldn’t help but notice that they’re not even mentioned in the Wikipedia Kubert bibliography.

Sorry to go one like this. It just one of those topics that opens the floodgates…

 .Jack.