The auction is set to take place Friday, November 20, 2009 at Heritage Auction Galleries in Dallas, and we expect the results will prove very interesting. Kubert has only rarely parted with his work, and on the open market it generally commands a premium price.

“I don’t know any other words that will as quickly put a fellow artist into that zone that exists between pure fandom and the cold sweats as the mention of writer, artist, editor, and educator Joe Kubert. In an industry predisposed to overuse words like ‘legend,’ Mr. Kubert truly is one,” wrote writer-artist Billy Tucci in his text accompanying Kubert’s entry into The Overstreet Hall of Fame in The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide #39.

“He started working in the business at age 12 in 1938 and to this day is still looking for ways to push himself and the medium for all its worth. While he is no doubt best known for his work on Sgt. Rock, he also poured his efforts into DC’s other iconic war titles such as G.I. Combat, Our Army at War (and characters like Enemy Ace and the Haunted Tank), his art also graced titles like Hawkman and Tarzan, all of which would be enough for any artist. Not him. He founded the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art in 1976, wrote and illustrated Tor, Abraham Stone, Fax from Sarajevo, Yossel: April 19, 1943, and still has more on the way, “ wrote Tucci, who has recently followed in Kubert’s footsteps on Sgt. Rock. “To put it bluntly, he is my biggest influence and my comic book hero!”

When Heritage’s Hector Cantu offered Scoop the chance to run his interview with this master artist, which previously appeared in Heritage Magazine, we were happy to do so, along with showcasing some of the art for sale:

Here's what Hector had to say:

One of comics’ legendary artists and creators was barely 12 years old when he began working in the business, going on to work on some of comics’ most popular characters. But ask Joe Kubert about the most satisfying part of his career and he won’t mention his work on Sgt. Rock, Hawkman, the Flash, Tarzan, Enemy Ace, or Batman.

“The most satisfying work is the work on my table right now,” Kubert says from his studio in New Jersey. “The more I can get into the work I’m doing, the more satisfaction I get from the work.”

On cue, Kubert (who was born in1926) tells how his latest work - a graphic novel about a Special Forces team fighting in Vietnam - was born, starting with the soldier he met decades ago while working on the Tales of the Green Berets newspaper comic strip to true Vietnam war stories that “made the hair on my neck stand up.” The DC Comics book is due in stores in early 2010.

It’s the latest accomplishment in a storied career. “It’s funny,” Kubert says, “but I got into this business thanks to pure, unadulterated luck.”

It began with typical classroom drawings. One of Kubert’s junior high friends liked the art and said he should show it to a relative who worked at MLJ Publications, a pulp and comic book house whose most successful title would be Archie.

“It was an entirely different world and business at that time,” Kubert says. “Comics were 10¢ a piece with 64 pages of material. They needed a lot of stuff coming through, and that gave guys like me an opportunity. I made some drawings, pencil sketches, and took the subway into New York went up to MLJ. They were very kind. They gave me some real art paper to work on and said, ‘Come back again and we’ll take another look.’ After a year or so, I got my first work. It was a six-page story that paid me $5 a page, which was a heck of a lot! It was more than my father made!”

 Over the decades, Kubert would work for DC Comics, EC, Harvey and Timely, drawing, writing, editing, inking and coloring some of the biggest characters in comics. In 1976, he founded the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art. He completed the acclaimed graphic novels Abraham Stone, Fax From Sarajevo, Jew Gangster, and Yossel: April 19, 1943. He was inducted into the Harvey Awards’ Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1997, and the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 1998.

“Anyone who was a kid from the 1940s through the 1980s will recognize Kubert’s distinctive style at a glance,” says Jared Green, Vice-President of Business Development at Heritage Auctions. “He drew almost every Sgt. Rock story for decades and the cover to almost every DC war comic. Not only is he a favorite among fans, but when other comic book artists talk about their influences and whom they admire, his name is invariably mentioned.”

 Now, Kubert is sharing with fans artwork from his personal collection. Pieces of original Kubert art will be featured in Heritage Auctions’ comics and comic art auction scheduled for February 25-26, 2010.

For Kubert, it’s a way to reward comic fans. After all, he says, he’s an artist, a writer, an editor, a teacher - though not necessarily a collector.

“I would be doing what I’m doing even if I wasn’t getting paid,” Kubert says. “It’s something I have to do. I have two sons in the business now, Adam and Andy, and they are doing very well. To have them feel the same way about their work . it’s a miracle. It’s the cherry on top of the whip cream.”