Yesterday news got out that legendary comic book artist Joe Kubert had passed away.  I never met the man even during my convention years, but I always admired the hell out of his work.

Most fans today may know him for either his work on Hawkman or Sgt. Rock, both for DC Comics.  But he did plenty more.  His career started at a very young age (10 or 13 years old!) back in the “Golden Age” of comics in and around 1938.

I first encountered Mr. Kubert’s artwork in the early 1970’s and was absolutely blown away by the many war book covers he made.  I can’t tell you how often I’d see one of his incredible covers on a book and grab it, only to be disappointed that Mr. Kubert’s work on the book proved to be just the cover illustration.

Still, his sequential art, of which there are mountains of such work, was every bit as good as his cover work.  Perhaps my favorite all time work he illustrated was 1961’s first silver age Hawkman story, which featured space police officer Katar Hol and his wife Shayera and their pursuit of the shape shifting Byth.  There were so many classic panels in that twenty five page story, and one had the sense Mr. Kubert was having a ball depicting the many shapes Byth made of himself, from the monstrous to the very small.

Rest in peace, Mr. Kubert, and my condolences to his friends and family.