Swampy's Florida

One of the legends of comic books, Joe Kubert died Sunday, August 12th, Joe was not born, did not live, or draw about Florida. However, Swampy’s handler, Rob Smith, Jr., me, did go to Joe’s school, The Joe Kubert School of Cartoon & Graphic Art (Now named The Kubert School). I’ve been looking for a reason to post the artwork above and this is not the reason I was looking for.

While at the school Joe gave my class the project of drawing a comic book page illustrating a story of some sort. I decided to “borrow”, Florida author, John D. MacDonald’s famed salvage consultant, Travis McGee. MacDoanld wrote 21 novels about Travis McGee . the McGee character lived on his houseboat, The Busted Flush at Slip F-18 in the Bahia Mar marina in Fort Lauderdale. McGee would help those in distress who have lost something of value and get it back… for half the value. Each story pretty much sprung from that. Then the action and adventure would begin. Through about two thirds of the books McGee would get help from his economist pal. Meyer.

I wrote a page that had McGee in one of his battles with bad guys out to get some lost McGuffin. Meyer was part of it also. I then set about drawing the page with the action scene as best I could. Joe came over to my drawing table to look over my efforts. He asked me what I was trying to depict. I explained McGee and the scene. He then asked if he could have a seat. I quickly gave up the seat as Joe took his pencil and went over my drawing of McGee. Explaining along the way the best way to get an action shot, how folds in the clothes should be, a better way to show the character coming at you on the page. The drawing by Joe is above.

That one lesson is one I still refer to today. I learned more than I can express from Joe and all of those professionals (Hy Eisman, Greg Hildebrandt, Joes Delbo, Milt Neil, Stan Kay, Mike Chen, Tex Blaisdell, etc) he brought in to teach at the school. But it is that one lesson, of which I have Joe’s drawing hanging in my studio, that I remember most of my years at the school. A lesson that combined the legendary artist Joe Kubert and legendary Florida author John D. MacDonald.

Below is the last time I saw Joe at the 2010 National Cartoonists Society annual Reuben Awards Weekend in New Jersey.
I assembled a larger tribute with a bunch of Joe’s artwork on my blog which you can see by clicking here.