| Howard Post | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1926-11-02)November 2, 1926 New York City, United States |
| Died | May 22, 2010(2010-05-22) (aged 83) Hackensack, New Jersey, United States |
| Area | Writer,Penciller,Inker |
| Pseudonym | Howie Post |
Notable works | The Dropouts Anthro |
| Awards | Inkpot Award (2003)[1] |
Howard Post (November 2, 1926[2] – May 21, 2010)[3][4][5] was an Americananimator,cartoonist, andcomic strip andcomic bookwriter-artist.
Post is known for his syndicated newspaper comic stripThe Dropouts which had a 13-year run and for creatingDC Comics'Anthro.
Born in New York City, Post grew up in theConey Island andSheepshead Bay neighborhoods ofBrooklyn and then inThe Bronx.[6] In a 1999 interview, he recalled his start in drawing and his father's influence:
I may have started rather early; just to entertain myself drawing these things. I could have been four or five. I used to draw on a piece of paper while lying on the floor, and my father would come home from work and he'd squat down next to me and say, "The lion's jaw is broader than that, y'know?"... After his passage I found a book of his full of dress designs he had made himself. He was in the fashion business, mostly in furs; he was a cutter. What he had drawn were his own designs for coats and dresses, and they were just exquisite. He never ever let on that he could draw like that; we never knew he had that in him. He was busy making a living, as hard and fast as he could. We're talking about bringing up a family in Depression days.[6]
As a teenager, Post attended the Hastings School of Animation, in New York City. When he was age 16 or 17, his father was stricken withtuberculosis and hospitalized, making Post the primary breadwinner for a family of four. AtParamount Pictures' animation studio,Famous Studios he earned $24 a week as an in-betweener.[6]
To supplement what even then was considered a meager income, Post broke intocomic books—first being rejected by theL. B. Cole studio on 42nd Street and then successfully selling work to artistBernard Baily on West 43rd.[6] Post's earliest confirmed comic book art appeared in 1945: the cover of publisherPrize Comics'Wonderland Comics #2, and the five-page "3-Alarm Fire!", starring Hopeless Henry, inCambridge House Publishers'Gold Medal Comics #1. Credited as Howie Post,[7] he soon began drawing for the company that would becomeDC Comics, including the features "Jimminy and the Magic Book" inMore Fun Comics,[8] "Rodeo Rick" inWestern Comics, "Presto Pete" inAnimal Antics, "Chick 'n Gumbo" inFunny Folks, and "J. Rufus Lion" inComic Cavalcade, among other work. During the 1950s, he drew many humorous stories for the satirical comicsCrazy,Wild, andRiot, fromMarvel Comics' 1950s forerunner,Atlas Comics, as well as occasional stories in that publishershorror comics, includingJourney into Mystery,Uncanny Tales, andMystery Tales.[9] As Howie Post, he drew the three-issue run of Atlas'The Monkey and the Bear (Sept. 1953 - Jan. 1954).[7]
By 1961, Post was drawing adventures of suchHarvey Comics’ characters asHot Stuff the Little Devil,Spooky the Tuff Little Ghost,Wendy the Good Little Witch, and theGhostly Trio in such comics books asCasper's Ghostland andTV Casper & Company, starringCasper the Friendly Ghost. Post was the head ofParamount Cartoon Studios, as well as a key director, succeedingSeymour Kneitel from 1964 through 1965.[4]
He later went up to director and writer position at Famous Studios, and created and designed a character named Honey Halfwitch (voiced byShari Lewis), who is half-wizard, half-girl. Post pitched the character to the highest brass at Paramount.[10] In June 1966,Shamus Culhane, the penultimate head of Famous Studios, took over the series, and the character was given a new design and voice in the last 4 cartoons. The final cartoon,Brother Bat, was the last cartoon with Post's involvement as a writer, which was released in August of 1967, four months before the studio shut down.[11][12]
In the late 1960s, as Howie Post, he created, wrote and drew the prehistoric-teen comic bookAnthro forDC Comics, which ran six issues (Aug. 1968 - Aug. 1969) after debuting inShowcase, with the last issue in the series inked byWally Wood andRalph Reese.[7]
The Dropouts was a comic strip created by Post and was syndicated byUnited Features Syndicate from 1968 to 1981. Post began the strip at the same time his comic bookAnthro was canceled.[4] The premise ofThe Dropouts was a variation on the "stranded on a desert island" gag. The two main characters, Alf and Sandy, were indeed castaways, but the island is hardly deserted: One of the strip'srunning gags was how closely the natives' society resembledWestern civilization. Other characters, all natives, included a one-man police force, a doctor, and a chef running a cafe with inedible food. There were other Western characters, including a religious zealot, an angry feminist and a disheveled alcoholic, Chugalug.[13]
In the mid-to-late 1980s, Post drew for theStar imprint ofMarvel Comics, on titles such asHeathcliff[14] andCare Bears.[15] He was also an editor onLooney Tunes Magazine andTiny Toons Magazine forDC Comics.[16]
In later years, Post taught art and illustration privately and at New York'sSchool of Visual Arts.[4]
A long-time resident ofLeonia, New Jersey, he was survived by his companion of 24 years, Pamela Rutt, and two daughters, Andee Post and Glynnis Doda. His wife Bobbee predeceased him in 1980.[4]
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