One of comics' legendary artists and creators was barely 12 years old when he began a career that would lead to work on some of comics' most popular characters. But ask Joe Kubert about the most fulfilling part of his journey and he won't mention his work on Sgt. Rock, Hawkman, the Flash, Tarzan, Enemy Ace, or Batman.

"The most satisfying work is the work on my table right now," Kubert, 83, says from his studio in New Jersey. "The more I can get into the work I'm doing, the more satisfaction I get from the work."

On cue, Kubert tells how his latest work -- a graphic novel about a Special Forces team fighting in Vietnam -- was born, starting with the soldier he met decades ago while working on the Tales of the Green Berets newspaper comic strip to the true Vietnam war stories that "made the hair on my neck stand up." The book from DC Comics is due in stores in early 2010.

It's the latest accomplishment in a storied career. "It's funny," Kubert says, "but I got into this business thanks to pure, unadulterated luck."

It began with typical classroom drawings. One of Kubert's junior high friends liked the art and said he should show it to a relative who worked at MLJ Publications, a pulp and comic book house whose most successful title would be Archie.

"It was an entirely different world and business at that time," Kubert says. "Comics were 10 cents apiece with 64 pages of material. They needed a lot of stuff coming through, and that gave guys like me an opportunity. I made some drawings, pencil sketches, and took the subway into New York went up to MLJ. They were very kind. They gave me some real art paper to work on and said, 'Come back again and we'll take another look.' After a year or so, I got my first work. It was a six-page story that paid me $5 a page, which was a heck of a lot! It was more than my father made!"

Over the decades, Kubert would work for DC Comics, EC, Harvey and Timely, drawing, writing, editing, inking and coloring some of the biggest characters in comics. In 1976, he founded the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art. He completed the acclaimed graphic novels "Abraham Stone," "Fax From Sarajevo," "Jew Gangster," and "Yossel: April 19, 1943." He was inducted into the Harvey Awards' Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1997, and the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 1998.

"Anyone who was a kid from the 1940s through the 1980s will recognize Kubert's distinctive style at a glance," says Jared Green, vice president of business development at Dallas-based Heritage Auctions. "He drew almost every Sgt. Rock story for decades and the cover to almost every DC war comic. Not only is he a favorite among fans, but when other comic book artists talk about their influences and whom they admire, his name is invariably mentioned."