Wayne Howard

Wayne Wright Howard (March 29, 1949 – December 9, 2007cite web|url=http://www.funeralplan2.com/hullfh/obituaries?id=115850|title=Wayne W. Howard obituary|accessdate=2007-12-13|publisher=Ralph E. Hull Funeral Home] ) was an African-American comic book artist best known for his 1970s work at Charlton Comics, where he became American comic books' first known cover-credited series creator, with the horror-anthology "Midnight Tales" blurbing "Created by Wayne Howard" on each issue — "a declaration perhaps unique in the industry at the time".Cooke, Jon B., "Lest We Forget: Celebrating Four that Got Away": "Comic Book Artist" #12 (March 2001), p. 112]

Biography

Early life and career

Wayne Howard was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of Sherman and June (Monroe) Howard. attended Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, where he earned a bachelor of arts degree. He contributed to comics fanzines in the mid-1960s before becoming an art assistant at the Long Island, New York studio of legendary comics artist Wally Wood in 1969.

Howard made his credited comics debut as penciler and inker with writer Marv Wolfman's three-page story "Cain's True Case Files: Grave Results" in DC Comics' "House of Mystery" #182 (Oct. 1969). He went on to contribute to later issues, as well as to Major Publications' black-and-white horror-comics magazine "Web of Horror" #1 (Dec. 1969).

Charlton Comics

That story marked his first collaboration with Nicola Cuti, a writer and eventual friend who soon afterward became managing editor of Charlton Comics, a Derby, Connecticut-based publisher whose comic-book line was traditionally low-paying but allowed its writers and artists great creative freedom. Howard began freelancing for Charlton with the story "A Winner's Curse", almost certainly written by uncredited staff writer Joe Gill, in the horror anthology "Ghost Manor" #4 (April 1972). Over the next five years, up through the cover and two stories of "Haunted" #32 (Oct. 1977), Howard, with a style strongly reminiscent of mentor Wood's, penciled / inked roughly 200 covers and stories — primarily for such supernatural series as the aforementioned and "Ghostly Haunts", "Ghostly Tales", "The Many Ghosts of Doctor Graves", and an issue each of "Beyond the Grave" and "Creepy Things", and of the gothic horror romance anthology "Haunted Love". With writer Cuti, he contributed the backup feature "Travis: The Dragon Killer" in the cult-hit superhero series "E-Man" #3 (June 1974).

"Midnight Tales"

Howard's most notable legacy is providing the precedent for comic-book "created by" credits, which eventually became common years later beginning with DC's Vertigo imprint.

Charlton writer-editor Cuti described Howard's credit for the horror anthology "Midnight Tales" being granted since "it was his idea, his concept, his everything". This ranged from the Andy Warhol-esque horror host Professor Coffin, The Midnight Philosopher, and his niece, Arachne — who in a twist on the horror-host convention would themselves star in a story each issue — to the notion of having each issue be themed: "One time it would be blob monsters, and I wrote three stories about blob monsters, and another time it was vampires ... and that sort of thing".Nicola Cuti interview, "Comic Book Artist" #12 (March 2001), p. 41-42] Howard penciled and inked every cover and virtually every story, and occasionally scripted a tale. The three-issue reprint series "Prof. Coffin" #19-21 (Oct. 1985 - Feb. 1986) retains the "created by" credit.

Other work and later career

Howard seldom ventured to other publishers. Howard penciled a story in Gold Key's TV-series tie-in "The Twilight Zone" #46 (Nov. 1972), and inked one story each for Warren Publishing's black-and-white magazines "Creepy" and "Eerie". He inked the horror-host pages of DC's "House of Mystery" #256-257 (Feb.-April 1978) plus a story each in "Weird War Tales" #53 (May 1977) and "Secrets of Haunted House" #13 (Sept. 1978), and the sword-and-sorcery title "Warlord " #64 (Dec. 1982), his last known original comics work. His only major-publisher penciling was a story in DC's "Weird Mystery Tales" #4 (Feb. 1973).

For industry leader Marvel Comics, he inked Rich Buckler's cover and Ross Andru's pencil art adapting Harry Bates' short story "Farewell to the Master" in the science-fiction anthology "Worlds Unknown" #3 (Sept. 1973); Gil Kane's Spider-Man / Submariner story in "Marvel Team-Up" #14 (Oct. 1973); Val Mayerik's "Thongor! Warrior of Lost Lemuria" feature in "Creatures on the Loose" #26 (Nov. 1973); and a Syd Shores story in the black-and-white comics magazine "Haunt of Horror" #4 (Nov. 1974).

Howard died at age 58 at the Griffin Hospital in Derby, Connecticut. He lived in Oxford, Connecticut at the time, married to Carol (Zavednak) Howard.

Personal

George Wildman, Charlton Comics' editor during the 1970s, described the artist as, "sort of shy. Easy come, easy go", [George Wildman interview, "Comic Book Artist" #12 (March 2001), p. 24] and said Howard had married the sister of one of Wildman's early secretaries. Howard's friend and frequent collaborator Nicola Cuti said the heavy-smoker artist "always wore the same outfit: a white shirt, a kind of tan bush jacket, black hat, black pants and black tie. ...I was over at his apartment, and he opened up his closet, and there were 20 white shirts, 20 bush jackets, 20 black pants...." The magazine "Comic Book Artist" in 2001 attempted to contact Howard for an issue devoted to Charlton Comics, and reported that while he "apparently still resides in Connecticut", "a third party indicated the artist/writer had no interest in delving into the past".

Quotes

Mark Andrews on "Midnight Tales": "Old dude and his sexy niece traipse across the countryside, bumping into oddball characters who invariably have a story to tell. ... Sadly, since Charlton didn't want to do anything that'd offend your average 9-year-old, you can "feel" this book fighting against the uber-restrictive comics code. Kinda sad, really. What "is" good, however, are the artists in this book, easily the equal of anyone workin' at Marvel or DC at the time. You got Wayne Howard ... probably the most deft practitioner of the Wally Wood school ever". [ [http://goodcomics.blogspot.com/2006/03/nine-things-i-read-this-week-hopefully.html "Comics Should Be Good" (column of March 3, 2006), by Mark Andrew] ]

ee also

*List of African-American firsts

Footnotes

References

* [http://lambiek.net/artists/h/howard_wayne.htm The Lambiek Comiclopedia: Wayne Howard]
* [http://www.comics.org The Grand Comics Database]