Howard Nostrand

Biography Early life This 1974 magazine cover was Nostrand's first humorous horror art since his stories for Harvey Comics' Flip in the early 1950s. Howard Nostrand was born in Hoboken, New Jersey.

Nostrand left Powell in March 1952 and found work with Harvey Comics editor Sid Jacobson. "I think the first job I did for Harvey was a story called 'Man Germ', written by a fellow named Nat Barnett... about a trip through the interior of a person's body. Turns out this fellow as a germ, though, and the body expires. Cute." Nostrand also worked on Harvey's short-lived 3-D comics, as well as on such horror titles as Black Cat Mystery, Chamber of Chills, Tomb of Terror and Witches Tales.

He eventually found a staff position at the New York commercial art firm Penthouse Studios (no relation to Penthouse magazine) at Eighth Avenue and West 58th Street.

Comic strip With writer Ed Herron, he produced the 1959-60 syndicated comic strip Bat Masterson, based on the television series, on which he was assisted by artist Neal Adams.

In 1975, he returned to comic books with stories for Atlas/Seaboard Comics (Targitt), and Marvel (Vampire Tales), followed by more than a dozen contributions to Cracked. His last recorded comics work was the back-cover gag, "Great Moments in Technology: Marcus Bulovas Invents the Wristwatch", of Cracked #172 (October 1980).

In the 1980s, Nostrand returned to the EC swipe/Jack Davisesque style he had used in Harvey horror comics of the 1950s and did several parody stories for National Lampoon magazine, featuring characters like the Old Fag Hag.

Awards Nostrand won an award in the 1960s from the American Institute of Graphic Arts for his subway poster showing a cigar-puffing gangster.