Wayne Howard

Wayne Wright Howard (March 29, 1949 – December 9, 2007) was an American comic book artist. He is best known for his 1970s work at Charlton Comics. Although many other artists had signed their cover artwork, he became American comic books' first series creator known to be credited by the publisher on covers, with the horror anthology Midnight Tales announcing "Created by Wayne Howard" on each issue — "a declaration perhaps unique in the industry at the time".

Biography Midnight Tales #6 (Nov. 1973), with industry-first cover credit "Created by Wayne Howard" (lower left). Cover art by Howard.

Early life and career Wayne Howard was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of Sherman and nurse June (Monroe) Howard.

Howard made his credited comics debut as a 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 contributed 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, 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" 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 his mentor Wood, 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. He 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). and said Howard had married the sister of one of Wildman's early secretaries. Howard's friend and frequent collaborator Nicola Cuti said the artist, a heavy smoker, "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".