Howard Post a.k.a. Howie Post 1926 - 2010 At the right: Howie going over his comic strip.

TODAY'S FEATURE - Blog #3161:

The passing of Howard W Post, a.k.a. 'Howie Post' on May 21st slipped by my blogging notice. I want to correct that oversight here today...

First a brief 'bio' on Howie, then my thoughts:

Howard Post was born November 2, 1926 in New York City. By the time he passed away on May 21st of 2010, he had been at different periods of his life: an animator, cartoonist and a comic strip and comic book writer and artist.

Howard started in art at an early age. It was as a teenager that he attended the Hastings School of Animation, which was located in New York City.

Due to his father being stricken with tuberculosis and hospitalized, Howard as a teenager became the primary breadwinner for the family of four.

As did several others that later entered the comic book industry, Howard started as an in-betweener.  His first work was at Paramount Pictures' animation studio, Famous Studios.

Howie's earliest confirmed comic book art appeared in 1945. He then had several features in National (DC) Comics. It was in the 1950's that illustrated several 'funnybook' series, both for DC and Atlas (Marvel) Comics. 

However, he also illustrated in a few other genres, including westerns, and HoRRoR comics. For Atlas that included Journey into Mystery, Uncanny Tales, and Mystery Tales.

During the ups and downs of the comic book industry, Howie also worked for Harvey Comics and Dell Comics.  His career extended into the 1980's where he worked for Atlas' successor, Marvel Comics.

At one time during all of this, Howie became the head of Paramount Cartoon Studios. So Howie definitely kept busy throughout his long career.

I took a look at what was posted about Howie since his passing.  Although it kept being brought up that he is known for his syndicated newspaper comic strip "The Dropouts" which had a 13-year run, it is for his comic book work that I most knew about him...

If all credits had been posted  back when I was first reading comics, I would have recoginzed him first for his Harvey Comics work on 'Hot Stuff'.

But for me, it was his credits on the 'Anthro' comic book series that I best knew of his work. 

Unfortunately, where I was at, the bi-monthly DC comic book was not well distributed. 

Which come to think of it, most of those bi-monthly DC titles with new characters didn't get well distributed at my 7-11s where I usually shopped at back then...

Anthro had started in Showcase #74, as pictured here, back in May of 1968.  His own series ran for six issues, from August of 1968 to August of 1969. It was really different, probably too different for the time.  Plus it didn't fit in with the rest of the DC Universe of the time.  Unlike the Marvels that I was mostly reading during that time period, where everything seemed to be interconnected, or guest cameos in each other's books!

I mentioned 'Hot Stuff' above.  I would have posted a cover here, but Howie didn't produce any covers with Hot Stuff that I could find in either of the two databases that I use for reference.

However, I did find a unique series from Atlas Comics, that probably portrayed his art style during that time period. 

The title was 'The Monkey and the Bear', of which the 1st issue is shown to the left.

This series ran from September of 1953 to January of 1954. Quite honestly, I've never held an issue in my hands, even though I deal in comics.

(Note for collectors: The 1st issue in NM is $45, while issues #2 & 3 in NM are $28, if You can find them. Currently, out of 1,757,708 comic listing on eBay, Not one of these 3 issues are listed..)

My daughter would know him best for his work on the 'Care Bear' series from Marvel Comics.

That series ran for 20 issues, from November of 1985 to January of 1989.

Other titles that he worked on as 'Howard Post' are listed here.

Titles that he worked on as 'Howie Post' are listed here.

As you can see from those links, Howie had worked quite a few years in the comic book industry.

His work on the comic strips I won't discuss here, as the strip he is most known for, 'The Dropouts', just wasn't carried by newspapers in my area of Southern California. (LA Times & San Diego Union-Tribune.)  Except maybe on a insertion basis, but I just don't remember that strip.

This blog is posted as a 'tribute' blog post to Howie's memory.

~ Michael D Hamersky @ ComicBookCollectorsBlog.com

Note: Our online comic book store carries many of the titles of comics that Howie Post worked on, which can be found at:

http://www.comicbookscircus.com/

 

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