Joe Kubert Presents #6 – Review

By: Too many to list—check out the review.

The Story: Sit back, relax—Joe Kubert’s got a whale of a tale to tell.

The Review: Some of you may have read about a week or so earlier a much-discussed blog post from Jerry Ordway, longtime DC artist.  In the post he mused on the trajectory of his career, about how, in contrast to his lauded and prolific days during the Death of Superman era of DC, he’s finding it harder and harder to get work.  It’s an honest and sincere bit of personal writing, and there are no easy responses to it, but his post does offer some good food for thought.

The sad fact is that commercial art, more than any other kind of art, is subject to the whims of the audience and thus vulnerable to ever-changing popular trends.  It’s not that the artist lost his skill or touch; it’s just that people’s tastes change.  Whether for good or ill, everyone has a right to prefer what they prefer and seek out the new over the old.  Unless an artist can reinvent himself to keep up, he is unfortunately doomed to be marginalized within his niche, and I’m afraid that’s what happened to artists like Ordway.*