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View The Joe Kubert Collection.

Joe Kubert began his remarkable career in comics in 1938 as a precocious pre-teen apprentice at Harry "A" Chesler's shop and MLJ . So began one of the comic field's longest and most stellar careers.

Not just an illustrator, Kubert proved himself to be a triple-threat as an editor-writer-innovator when he became the managing editor of St. John Publications, where he and his friend Norman Maurer produced the first 3-D comic book ever, Three Dimension Comics #1. While there Kubert also created the fan-favorite character, Tor, the prehistoric hero, who debuted in 1,000,000 Years Ago.

Though perhaps most celebrated for his work at DC from the early fifties onward, on such stand-out characters as Hawkman, Viking Prince, Sgt. Rock, Enemy Ace, and Tarzan, Kubert has drawn stories for virtually every major publisher over his seven decades in the field — a phenomenal record, matched by few others.

Kubert's collaborations with DC writer Robert Kanigher, as the fabled 'K-K team' of the sixties set the "gold standard" for dramatic war-torn, yet humanistic stories that remain unparalleled in their scope and quality. The tough-as-nails editor Kanigher once wrote about the critical importance of Kubert to the Sgt. Rock saga, " I picked Kubert because I knew he had the talent to take an ordinary man, without super powers of any kind and who worked in the Pittsburgh steel mills and fought in small-time boxing clubs to support his family after his father was killed in an accident, and depict him as the Rock — battered, tattered, exhausted, yet refusing to give up...slogging along, always facing the enemy. Easy was his family and he was the Rock of Easy. The Sergeant Generals would like to be."

Always up for new challenges and ready to explore new creative outlets, Kubert also tried his hand at the syndicated newspaper strip field with Tales of the Green Beret. Later he created the acclaimed graphic novels, Abraham Stone, Fax From Sarajevo, Yossel: April 19, 1943, and Jew Gangster. All through these years he remained at DC, establishing himself as one of their top cover artists, and he has created well over 800 stand-out covers for the company.

In 1976, remembering his own start as a young tyro, and committed to passing on his years of invaluable experience in the graphic arts to future generations, Kubert, along with his wife Muriel, founded the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art in Dover, New Jersey. Naturally, students from around the world have flocked to the school, since few comic book artists are more admired than Kubert, both for his talent and his rock-solid professionalism. A devout family man who has been an inspiring role model, Joe's talented sons Adam and Andy have carried the Kubert name and into a second generation of comic creators, while Joe continues to build on his own legacy in the new millennium.

- Don Mangus