Number 769


Two by Kubert: six guns to rayguns


I don't have to list Joe Kubert's bona fides...he's been in the comic book industry as a working artist since he was 16-years-old, and has drawn war, western, superheroes, even cavemen, among other genres.

Kubert drew the Western, "Alabam," for Avon's Cow Puncher Comics in the January, 1947 issue. At this point in his career Kubert's work is distinctive, but still a bit crude. It wasn't long before he was much more practiced and professional, as seen in this "Kenton Of the Star Patrol" strip from Strange Worlds #1, 1950. The scans for the Kenton story came from its printing as a comic book insert in the pulp magazine, Avon's Out Of This World Adventures #2, a short-lived two-issue experiment done in the twilight of pulp magazines.

"Kenton" was written by Gardner Fox, who wrote the Hawkman stories Kubert illustrated so well, and I enjoyed so much, a dozen years after "Kenton" appeared.