Robert Bartow Lubbers was an Americancomic strip and comic book artist best known for his work on such strips as Tarzan, Li'l Abner and Long Sam.
Biography
Born Robert Bartow Lubbers in 1922, he began as an illustrator for his school newspaper. In his teens, he played trombone in a big band five nights a week while studying during the day with George Bridgman and other instructors at the Art Students League. He entered the comic book field when he was 18 years old, as he recalled: For Centaur, Lubbers drew such features as the Arrow, Reef Kincaid, Red Riley and the Liberty Scouts. After Centaur folded in 1942, he signed on as art director at Fiction House, where he drew Firehair in Rangers Comics, Camilla in Jungle Comics, Señorita Rio in Fight Comics, Captain Wings in Wings, plus such features as Space Rangers, Rip Carson, Flint Baker and Captain Terry Thunder. Remembering his first, pre-World War II employment at Fiction House, Lubbers recalled "a young teenager who'd come in now and then to show a little sample book he'd made up called Panther Lady. We could see this kid had the right stuff. He had no luck selling it to Fiction House, but it was just as well. Frank Frazetta has become a glittering star in the world of fine art." After World War II, he returned to comic books. Fiction House "welcomed me back and features and covers poured out until 1950, when my mentor Ray Van Buren led me to UFS and Tarzan and NCS membership."
Comic strips
In 1950, he began his association with Tarzan, continuing on that strip for the next four years. In 1954, he first did work at the Al Capp studio and entered, as he put it, Capp's "star-studded world of movers and shakers". He began drawing The Saint in 1959, and he also worked on Big Ben Bolt. Frank Godwin's Rusty Riley was running in more than 150 newspapers when Godwin died of a heart attack in 1959 at his home in New Hope, Pennsylvania. The final Rusty Riley strips were drawn by Lubbers, who recalled, "In 1959, Frank Godwin, the artist who did Rusty Riley, died. Sylvan Byck at King Features asked if I'd do the last two weeks in Godwin's style to end the series. I admired his book illustrations and was honored to have the privilege to do it." In 1960–1967, he drew Secret Agent X-9, and he contributed to Li'l Abner during the 1970s. Lubber's own strips were Robin Malone and Long Sam, created by Al Capp and syndicated by United Feature Syndicate from 1954 to 1962. Initially written by Capp, who soon turned the duties over to his brother, Elliot Caplin; Lubbers eventually assumed the writing duties himself in the strip's final phase. Long Sam was, like Li'l Abner, a hillbilly strip, though based on a female character. The title character, Sam, was a tall, voluptuous, naive mountain girl who had been raised in a hidden valley away from civilization by her Maw, who hates men and wishes to protect her daughter from them. The stories deal with Sam's inevitable discovery of the world and its discovery of her. Lubbers concluded Robin Malone in an ambiguous manner that left the survival of the protagonist unresolved.
Comic books
In addition to DC Comics' "The Vigilante" feature in Action Comics, he drew Westerns for Pines comics in the 1950s. He briefly drew comic books for Marvel Comics including work on The Defenders #61 and The Human Fly #16–17. Lubbers is sometimes mistakenly said to have drawn for DC Comics during the 1980s. A young inker named Bob Lewis did work for DC during that period, but he was not Lubbers using a pseudonym.
In 1998, Lubbers was honored with the at Rome's Expo Cartoon Festival. Lubbers received an Inkpot Award in 2002. Sunday strips by Lubbers were displayed in 2003 at the Tarzan! exhibition at the Musée du quai Branly in Paris. Lubbers died on July 8, 2017 at the age of 95.
