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American Jewish comic artist and legendary figure of the comics industry, Joe Kubert, will visit Israel together with his son Adam Kubert in August 2011.
Joe Kubert’s visit to Israel will be accompanied by a comprehensive exhibition of his work at the Israeli Museum of Caricature and Comics. The exhibition will also include works by Kubert’s sons, Adam and Andy, comic artists who are internationally known in their own right in the global comics industry.
It all began in October 2010 when I visited the “Comic Con” festival in New York.
I paid a quick visit to my old school (the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art) to say hello to everyone, including Joe of course. I entered his office and we began to chat.
He was very warm and interested in everything we are doing in the field of comics in Israel. Naturally, I told him about the great strides we have been making and about the international recognition achieved by Israeli comic artists and we talked a lot about the Israeli Museum of Caricature and Comics, the range of exhibitions, the archives and the meticulous, professional method used to preserve works of art.
At the end of our enthusiastic talk, I asked Joe to consider the idea of visiting Israel.
He admitted that he had never visited Israel…. since he had never had the opportunity.
I asked him to seriously consider the idea – and, if he did decide to come, I would try and arrange an exhibition in his honor.
He nodded with a broad smile and thus we parted.
The next day, I received a call from his secretary requesting me to come immediately to his office.
Naturally I had no idea what was it was all about. When I got to Joe’s office, he was standing in front of me, smiling, and proceeded to inform me that he and his son Adam were coming to Israel…
I was speechless and tried to hide the fact that I wanted to shout and faint at the same time, out of sheer emotion!
The first person I called as I traveled back by train was Yuval Sharon – who also could hardly believe the news – the Kuberts were coming to Israel!!!
In addition to the wonderful news that Joe Kubert himself was coming to Israel, I succeeded in persuading him to donate part of his works to the archives of the Israeli Museum of Caricature and Comics.
After extensive persuasion, Joe agreed to donate the original manuscript of “Yossel” – the graphic novel which he wrote and illustrated.
And the final treat was that I was given the opportunity to curate the Joe Kubert exhibition.
Since the scope of the exhibition was enormous – Joe has been creating cartoons for nearly 70 years – the most natural thing was for Yuval Sharon to curate the works of Adam and Andy.
Yuval is a Kubert buff – as a kid, he grew up on the works of the Kubert family and is a true comics geek.
In March, Yuval and I made a ten-day intensive trip together to gather the material for the Kubert exhibition. In the course of the trip, we scanned a large numbers of works, filmed lots of video clips, interviewed Joe, Adam and Any – all of which will be on display shortly…
This is the first time that Joe is visiting and exhibiting in Israel and he is very excited about the project.
His visit will mark a high point in the calendar of the entire comics community of Israel.
With many thanks to:
The Holon Municipality
The Israeli Cartoon Museum
The American Embassy in Israel
Mishkenot Sha’ananim in Jerusalem
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