Wayne Howard
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Wayne Wright Howard (born March 29, 1949) is an African-American comic book artist best known for his 1970s work at Charlton Comics, where he became comics' 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".[1]
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Career
Wayne Howard attended Wesleyan University and contributed to comics fanzines in the mid-1960s. He joined the Long Island, New York studio of legendary comics artist Wally Wood in 1969, as an assistant, and made his credited 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).
That story marked his first collaboration with Nicola Cuti, a writer and eventual friend who soon afterward became Charlton Comics' managing editor. Howard began freelancing for that Derby, Connecticut-based publisher — an established niche-magazine outfit whose comic-book line was traditionally low-paying but allowed its writers and artists great creative freedom — with "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 Dr. Graves, and an issue each of Beyond the Grave and Creepy Things, and 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).
He 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).
[edit] 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, where such writers and artists as Neil Gaiman and Mike Dringenberg began receiving similar "created by" credits.
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".[2] 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.
[edit] Personal
George Wildman, Charlton Comics' editor during the 1970s, described the artist as, "sort of shy. Easy come, easy go",[3] and said Howard had married the sister of one of Wildman's early secretaries. Howard's friend and frequent collaborator 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...."[2] The magazine Comic Book Artist in 2001 attempted to contact Howard for an issue devoted to Charlton Comics, and reported that, though he "apparently still resides in Connecticut", that "a third party indicated the artist/writer had no interest in delving into the past".[1]
[edit] 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".[4]
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ a b Cooke, Jon B., "Lest We Forget: Celebrating Four that Got Away": Comic Book Artist #12 (March 2001), p. 112
- ^ a b Nicola Cuti interview, Comic Book Artist #12 (March 2001), p. 41-42
- ^ George Wildman interview, Comic Book Artist #12 (March 2001), p. 24
- ^ "Comics Should Be Good" (column of March 3, 2006), by Mark Andrew
