By Todd Allen
Joe Kubert continues to be pretty active over at DC. Currently inking his son, Andy, on Before Watchmen: Nite Owl, Joe’s going to be having his own anthology at DC. Joe Kubert Presents is slated to have a six issue run, debuting on Halloween. Joining Kubert for the anthology are Brian Buniak and Sam Glanzman.
Don’t feel bad if Buniak’s name doesn’t sound familiar to you. He’s a Humor and Caricature teacher at The Kubert School. They have him listed as doing work for Mad and Cracked, as well as Thunderbunny and The Limbaugh Letter. He’s doing an Angel and the Ape story for the first issue.
Sam Glanzman is war comics royalty, and will be adding another installment of his long running accounts of life on the U.S.S. Stevens, on which he served during WWII. Oddly, the U.S.S. Stevens material has appeared in both DC’s war titles and as original graphic novels for Marvel.
The first issue will be 48 pages. It isn’t immediately clear what the ongoing page count will be or what other guest artists will be appearing in future issues. If future line-ups are like the first issue, this could be a very interesting and unusual series.
Official PR:
This fall, don’t miss the start of a far-ranging collection of stories from comics legend Joe Kubert (BEFORE WATCHMEN: NITE OWL) and other great talents. A six-issue anthology mini-series, JOE KUBERT PRESENTS kicks off on October 31st.
The inaugural issue spans 48 pages and includes a Hawkman epic written and illustrated by Kubert, a tale of Angel and The Ape from writer/artist Brian Buniak, and a return to comics for writer/artist Sam Glanzman with a new tale of the U.S.S. Stevens.
“I’ve been given the privilege to design the kind of comic book that I would enjoy reading and one in which I’d like to participate,” Kubert told THE SOURCE. “This is it. I’ll be doing Hawkman, Spit, The Redeemer, Sgt. Rock and The Biker in this 6-issue anthology. In addition, the book features the wonderful talents of Sam Glanzman and Brian Buniak. I had a blast doing it. I hope it blows you away.”
If DC would gather together all the USS Stevens material, I’m sure it would win a bunch of awards. They are truly great.
A couple of years ago I was at a show and I saw Joe Kubert standing at a table. I had never spoken or had any contact with Joe Kubert, and he was talking with some other fellow – and when her was done I had no idea what I could possibly saw to “Joe Kubert” so I just said, “can I shake your hand”, and Kubert gave me a good, firm handshake, and I gave him one back. When we where done, he, I guess alerted by the firmness of my handshake, looked at me for an instant like: “that WAS all you REALLY wanted from me” – and I nodded like..”"Yup”. And he nodded, and I walked away.
When I was younger, I encountered other guys I revere, like Art Carney and Robert Altman, with whom I couldn’t manage any dialogue, and I’m haunted by my in-action. If only I had had the nerve to ask those guys for the same simple handshake I received from Joe Kubert .. but I didn’t.
Later I thought about cutting off my Joe Kubert shaken hand and putting it in the freezer.. but I didn’t.
David – they’d need to include the two GNs Glanzman did for Marvel. And did Charlton print any of those stories, too?
Don’t think the Stevens appeared in any of Glanzman’s Charlton stories, but it does appear on at least one cover he did for Dell’s war comics. There were also a couple of stories Glanzman did for the 1980s SAVAGE TALES b&w magazine for Marvel, with at least one unpublished from that era.