View source for Howard Post

{{short description|American cartoonist}}

{{Infobox comics creator
| image         = Howardpost.jpg
| imagesize     = 300
| caption       =
| alt           =
| birth_name    =
| birth_place   = New York City, United States
| death_place   = [[Hackensack, New Jersey]], United States
| cartoonist    =
| write         = y
| art           =
| pencil        = y
| ink           = y
| edit          =
| publish       =
| letter        =
| color         =
| alias         = Howie Post
| signature     = <!-- very optional -->
| signature_alt =
| notable works = ''[[The Dropouts]]''<br />''[[Anthro (comics)|Anthro]]''
| awards        = [[Inkpot Award]] (2003)<ref>[https://www.comic-con.org/awards/inkpot Inkpot Award]</ref>
| website       =
| birth_date={{Birth date|1926|11|2}}
| death_date={{Death date and age|2010|5|22|1926|11|2}}
}}
'''Howard Post''' (November 2, 1926<ref>''[[Comics Buyer's Guide]]'' #1636 (December 2007); Page 135</ref> – May 21, 2010)<ref name=ap>{{cite news |title='Dropouts' cartoonist Howard Post dies in NJ at 83 |agency=Associated Press|date=May 24, 2010 }} Alternate source: "'Dropouts' cartoonist Howard Post dies in NJ at 83", Associated Press via ''[[The Washington Post]]'', May 24, 2010</ref><ref name=record>{{cite news |first=Jay |last=Levin |author-link=Jay Levin |url=http://www.northjersey.com/obituaries/052410_The_Dropouts_cartoonist_Howard_Post_83_dies.html |title='The Dropouts' cartoonist Howard Post, 83, dies  |work=[[The Record (Bergen County)|The Record]] |date=May 24, 2010 |access-date=May 25, 2010 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100527085126/http://www.northjersey.com/obituaries/052410_The_Dropouts_cartoonist_Howard_Post_83_dies.html | archive-date=May 27, 2010 | url-status = live}}</ref><ref name=tcj>{{cite web |first=Tom |last=Spurgeon |author-link=Tom Spurgeon |url=http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/howard_post_1926_2010/ |title=Howard Post, 1926-2010 |publisher=[[The Comics Reporter]] |date=May 24, 2010 |access-date=May 25, 2010 }}</ref> was an American [[animator]], [[cartoonist]], and [[comic strip]] and  [[comic book]] [[Comic book creator|writer-artist]].

Post is known for his syndicated newspaper comic strip ''The Dropouts'' which had a 13-year run and for creating [[DC Comics]]' ''[[Anthro (comics)|Anthro]]''.

==Early life and career==
Born in New York City, Post grew up in the [[Coney Island]] and [[Sheepshead Bay]] neighborhoods of [[Brooklyn]] and then in [[The Bronx]].<ref name=cba>Howard Post interview, [http://www.twomorrows.com/comicbookartist/articles/05post.html "Country Boy from the City"], ''[[Comic Book Artist]]'' #5 (Summer 1999)</ref> In a 1999 interview, he recalled his start in drawing and his father's influence:

{{blockquote|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.<ref name=cba />}}

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 with [[tuberculosis]] and hospitalized, making Post the primary breadwinner for a family of four. At [[Paramount Pictures]]' animation studio, [[Famous Studios]] he earned $24 a week as an in-betweener.<ref name=cba />

==Comic books==
To supplement what even then was considered a meager income, Post broke into [[comic book]]s—first being rejected by the [[L. B. Cole]] studio on 42nd Street and then successfully selling work to artist [[Bernard Baily]] on West 43rd.<ref name=cba/> Post's earliest confirmed comic book art appeared in 1945: the cover of publisher [[Prize Comics]]' ''Wonderland Comics'' #2, and the five-page "3-Alarm Fire!", starring Hopeless Henry, in [[Cambridge House Publishers]]' ''Gold Medal Comics'' #1. Credited as Howie Post,<ref name=gcdhowie>{{gcdb|type=credit|search=Howie+Post|title=Howie Post}}</ref> he soon began drawing for the company that would become [[DC Comics]], including the features "Jimminy and the Magic Book" in ''[[More Fun Comics]]'',<ref>[http://toonopedia.com/jimminy.htm "Jimminy and the Magic Book"] at [[Don Markstein's Toonopedia]]. [https://archive.today/20240527235118/https://www.webcitation.org/6l6wLG4Sj?url=http://toonopedia.com/jimminy.htm Archived] from the original on October 8, 2016.</ref> "Rodeo Rick" in ''[[Western Comics]]'', "Presto Pete" in ''Animal Antics'', "Chick 'n Gumbo" in ''Funny Folks'', and "J. Rufus Lion" in ''Comic Cavalcade'', among other work. During the 1950s, he drew many humorous stories for the satirical comics ''Crazy'', ''Wild'', and ''Riot'', from [[Marvel Comics]]' 1950s forerunner, [[Atlas Comics (1950s)|Atlas Comics]], as well as occasional stories in that publishers [[horror comics]], including ''[[Journey into Mystery]]'', ''[[Uncanny Tales (comics)|Uncanny Tales]]'', and ''[[Mystery Tales]]''.<ref name=gcdhoward>{{gcdb|type=credit|search=Howard+Post|title=Howard Post}}</ref> As Howie Post, he drew the three-issue run of Atlas' ''The Monkey and the Bear'' (Sept. 1953 - Jan. 1954).<ref name=gcdhowie />

==Harvey Comics and later career at Famous Studios==
By 1961, Post was drawing adventures of such [[Harvey Comics]]’ characters as [[Hot Stuff the Little Devil]], [[Spooky the Tuff Little Ghost]], [[Wendy the Good Little Witch]], and the [[Ghostly Trio]] in such comics books as ''Casper's Ghostland'' and ''TV Casper & Company'', starring [[Casper the Friendly Ghost]]. Post was the head of [[Paramount Cartoon Studios]], as well as a key director, succeeding [[Seymour Kneitel]] from 1964 through 1965.<ref name=record/>

He later went up to director and writer position at Famous Studios, and created and designed a character named Honey Halfwitch (voiced by [[Shari Lewis]]), who is half-[[Wizard (fantasy)|wizard]], half-girl. Post pitched the character to the highest brass at Paramount.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/paramount-cartoons-1965-1966/|title=Paramount Cartoons 1965-1966|date=2015-11-16|access-date=2021-12-24|last=Beck|first=Jerry}}</ref> In June 1966, [[Shamus Culhane]], the last 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. The series would continue until August of 1967, 4 months before the studio shut down.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/paramount-cartoons-1966-67/|title=Paramount Cartoons 1966-1967|date=2015-11-23|access-date=2021-12-24|last=Beck|first=Jerry}}</ref><ref>[https://www.bcdb.com/cartoon/16163-Brother-Bat Brother bat - BCDB]{{dead link|date=January 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>

==''Anthro''==
In the late 1960s, as Howie Post, he created, wrote and drew the prehistoric-teen comic book ''[[Anthro (comics)|Anthro]]'' for [[DC Comics]], which ran six issues (Aug. 1968 - Aug. 1969) after debuting in ''[[Showcase (comics)|''Showcase'']]'', with the last issue in the series inked by [[Wally Wood]] and [[Ralph Reese]].<ref name=gcdhowie />

==''The Dropouts''==
[[File:Dropouts72070.jpg|right|thumb|550px|Howard Post's ''The Dropouts'' (July 20, 1970)]]
''The Dropouts'' was a comic strip created by Post and was syndicated by [[United Features Syndicate]] from 1968 to 1981. Post began the strip at the same time his comic book ''[[Anthro (comics)|Anthro]]'' was canceled.<ref name=record/> The premise of ''The 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's [[running gag]]s was how closely the natives' society resembled [[Western culture|Western 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.<ref>[http://www.toonopedia.com/dropouts.htm ''The Dropouts''] at ''[[Don Markstein's Toonopedia]]''. [https://archive.today/20240525215115/https://www.webcitation.org/66tXOxb7q?url=http://www.toonopedia.com/dropouts.htm Archived] from the original on April 13, 2012.</ref>

==Later life and career==
In the mid-to-late 1980s, Post drew for the [[Star Comics|Star]] imprint of [[Marvel Comics]], on titles such as ''[[Heathcliff (comic strip)|Heathcliff]]''<ref>[http://www.comics.org/issue/210697/#1067358 ''Heathcliff's Funhouse'' #1 "Karate Kitty"] at the [[Grand Comics Database]].</ref> and ''[[Care Bears]]''.<ref>[http://www.comics.org/issue/210376/#945430 ''Care Bears'' #4 "The Scare Bear"] at the Grand Comics Database.</ref> He was also an editor on ''Looney Tunes Magazine'' and ''Tiny Toons Magazine'' for [[DC Comics]].<ref>[http://www.comics.org/issue/832608/ ''Tiny Toon Adventures Magazine'' #6] at the Grand Comics Database.</ref>

In later years, Post taught art and illustration privately and at New York's [[School of Visual Arts]].<ref name=record/>

A long-time resident of [[Leonia, 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.<ref name=record/>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*{{IMDb name|0692827}}
*{{comicbookdb|type=creator|id=5138|title=Howard Post}}
*[http://www.newsfromme.com/archives/2010_05_25.html ''Post Scripts'' by Mark Evanier] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100528115345/http://www.newsfromme.com/archives/2010_05_25.html |date=2010-05-28 }}
* {{discogs artist|Howie Post}}

{{Inkpot Award 2000s}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Post, Howard}}
[[Category:1926 births]]
[[Category:2010 deaths]]
[[Category:American comic strip cartoonists]]
[[Category:American animators]]
[[Category:American comics writers]]
[[Category:American comics artists]]
[[Category:Artists from Brooklyn]]
[[Category:People from Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn]]
[[Category:People from Crown Heights, Brooklyn]]
[[Category:Artists from Leonia, New Jersey]]
[[Category:Famous Studios people]]
[[Category:Inkpot Award winners]]