Sgt. Rock, Jew Gangster and Rocky Balboa

Joe Kubert is a legend. And deservedly so. At 79, Joe is still turning out not just great drawings but great comics!

His recently published graphic novel, Jew Gangster, is getting great reviews and soon we’ll see Joe‘s return to one of his signature characters, Sgt. Rock, when the six issue mini-series, Sgt. Rock: The Prophet hits stands.

I had the good fortune to meet Joe Kubert in the early 80’s. He was Guest of Honor at one of Jim Ivey’s OrlandoCons. Joe was there to pick up his Ignatz award. At the time Mr. Kubert was also promoting a series that he was to write and draw for DC called The Redeemer. Sad to say it never appeared.

Another thing that Joe Kubert worked on that never appeared is, interestingly enough, a proposal for a Rocky Balboa newspaper strip. Mr. Kubert told me that he was approached to work on a daily newspaper strip and that he had in fact worked up character sheets, some daily samples, etc. Sadly the strip was never picked up.

You can imagine how excited I was to hear that JOE KUBERT had drawn Rocky Balboa. I asked Mr. Kubert if the art was available for sale, but it wasn’t. I then asked if I could buy Xeroxes but again, Mr. Kubert politely declined. Man, you just know that those pieces look great… maybe someday we’ll get the chance to see them in a treasury of his work…

At any rate, we can pick up Jew Gangster now and still have Sgt. Rock: The Prophet to look forward to.