Joe Kubert Interview on TCJ

The Comics Journal is usually a little high brow for me, but after some clicking yesterday and this morning I have come across this wonderful interview with the late, great Joe Kubert.  Kubert goes into great detail about his career, including getting started asa pre-teen working for MLJ and Harry "A" Chesler.  

The following passage is what made me decide to share this interview:

Because comic books is rather singular in that it allows you to take chances. It allows you to make mistakes. In a 16-page story, all of it doesn't have to be perfect. You can really go out on a limb and take chances. And, sometimes, those chances work great! And that makes you feel good. If it fails, fine. The majority of the effort does work OK. So it encourages you to take more chances and a lot of guys were able to do exceptionally good work in that way. Comic books also gives you a bigger canvas upon which to work. 'Cause when you're doing syndication or advertising, there are six guys sitting on your back giving their suggestions. "Turn this a half an inch," or, "Move this figure to the-left about three inches." That's what they' re getting paid for and that's what they're gonna do. But there isn't enough time for those small changes in comic books. So you had more freedom. To let your imagination run. I find that there is no other area in commercial art that allows you this kind of freedom. To design pages. To design complete books. To generate emotion into a story.

It's a long read but definitely worth your time.  

Image: Panel from The Brave & The Bold #36, 1961, Joe Kubert.