Fresh from the Digital Comics Museum comes a set of movie comics from the late forties from one of my favorite comic artists of the fifties and sixties. Bob Lubber's style has always been very attractive to me. Maybe because his brand of realism is very similar to some of the favorite French artists of my youth, most notable Albert Uderzo (of Asterix fame). He drew a semirealistic adventure strip about two fighter pilots called Tangy et Laverdure I very much enjkoyed. It blended a stark, almost Milt Caniff influenced realisme with a Disney inkline and a great sense of caricature. I see the same style in the work of Bob Lubbers, Ross Andru and even Will Eisner. Even if they are not very similar they have the same sensibillity. If I wanted to give that style a name I would call it 'caricatured realism'. You can see it in Lubbers' work on Tarzan, where it took the form of idealized realism rather than the more satirical form of his later Long Sam. In his work on the Siant, Secret Agent X-9 (as Bob Lewis) and Robin Malone, he pulled the satire back a bit. I knew he had worked for Fiction House on their pilot and jungle titles, but those stories of planes, hunters and pretty gils were always to serious for me. But apparently he also was the lead and cover artist on all four issues of Movie Comics, where you can see the full force of his talent even in his early years. If you like this, check out the books at the DCM. Each issue also has a Matt baker story and a text piece illustrator by Mike Peppe.
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