Matt Howarth

Last updated

Matt Howarth
NationalityAmerican
Area(s) Cartoonist, Writer, Artist
Notable works
Those Annoying Post Bros
Savage Henry
Star Crossed
Bugtown
http://www.matthowarth.com

Matt Howarth is an American comic book writer/artist known for such series as Those Annoying Post Bros , Savage Henry , Star Crossed , and Bugtown.

Contents

Biography

Howarth's influences include writers Philip K. Dick and H. P. Lovecraft, comics artists Steve Ditko, Bernie Wrightson, Moebius, and Philippe Druillet, and progressive music. He was active in the field of fanzines from 1969, when he also co-founded Howski Studios. [1]

Career

Howarth, via Howski Studios, published a number of graphic novels and comics in the years 1976–1985.

Howarth's first ongoing series was Those Annoying Post Bros., about two fun-loving bad boys from the fictional Bugtown. In the early 1980s Heavy Metal introduced Post Bros as a continuing story, but they did not have their own comic book until Vortex Comics began publishing Those Annoying Post Bros. in 1985. It ran for 18 issues until 1990. In 1991, the title was taken over by Rip Off Press, which published an additional 20 issues until 1994. [2] MU Press picked up the title from 1994–1998, publishing 25 more issues, for a total of 63 issues.

While continuing to produce Those Annoying Post Bros. Howarth wrote and drew the six-issue limited series Particle Dreams for Fantagraphics in 1986–1987. In 1988, Fantagraphics also published Howarth's six-issue series Keif Llama: Xeno-Tech .

From 1987 to 1994, Howarth did the comic book series Savage Henry for Rip Off Press, about the adventures of a guitarist from an alternate reality. He is the lead guitarist for a fictional insect band called The Bulldaggers. Most issues of this series featured authorized guest appearances by real musicians, including The Residents, Hawkwind, Moby, Ash Ra Tempel, Klaus Schulze, Nash the Slash, Foetus, Yello, Wire, Steve Roach, Richard Pinhas, Ron Geesin, and David Borden. Conrad Schnitzler (an original member of Tangerine Dream and Kluster) was a regular guest in this series and several graphic novels. Howarth created album cover artwork for several releases on the Birdo'Pray record label. He also provided the illustrations for Dr. Adder by K. W. Jeter.

James Wallis of Hogshead Publishing designed a roleplaying game based on Howarth's Bugtown comics. [3] :304 Wallis brought his Bugtown game to Phage Press in 1992 to be produced, but Erick Wujcik had creative differences with Wallis so he pulled the deal from Phage in 1994. [3] :269 Wallis brought his Bugtown game to Wizards of the Coast, but was not successful there either, as Howarth was unable to come to an agreement with Wizards on royalties. [3] :304 In 1996, Wujcik was able to talk Howarth into licensing the Bugtown rights to him again, although Wujcik never actually published a game based on the comic. [3] :269 Howarth did write and draw a crossover between Bugtown and Amber titled "Amber Raves of Pain" which was published in Amberzine from issue #6 (February 1994) through #9 (January 1997). [3] :269

In 1994–1995, Antarctic Press published Howarth's four-issue series Konny and Czu . The MU Press imprint Aeon Press published Howarth's six-issue limited series Comix of Two Cities in 1996. The DC Comics imprint Helix released Howarth's three-issue limited series Star Crossed in 1997.

In the 2000s, Howarth published the six-issue series Bugtown and the second-volume of Keif Llama: Xeno-Tech (also six issues), both with MU Press.

Since 2008 Howarth has published a number of prose novels and short story collections through a print on demand service.

In 2012, Sonoluxe Records released Howarth's 110 page graphic novel The Last of the Neon Cynics as a PDF File on an Enhanced CD also featuring nine pieces composed by musician Bill Nelson as a soundtrack. Set in the 23rd century, the Science-Fiction Western features an intergalactic cowboy called Cassidy. The same year, Howarth contributed a comic to accompany Arthur Brown's CD The Magic Hat.

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gilbert Hernandez</span> American cartoonist

Gilberto Hernández, usually credited as Gilbert Hernandez and also by the nickname Beto, is an American cartoonist. He is best known for his Palomar/Heartbreak Soup stories in Love and Rockets, an alternative comic book he shared with his brothers Jaime and Mario.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Bagge</span> American cartoonist (born 1957)

Peter Bagge is an American cartoonist whose best-known work includes the comics Neat Stuff and Hate. His stories often use black humor and exaggerated cartooning to dramatize the reduced expectations of middle-class American youth. He won two Harvey Awards in 1991, one for best cartoonist and one for his work on Hate. In recent decades Bagge has done more fact-based comics, everything from biographies to history to comics journalism. Publishers of Bagge's articles, illustrations, and comics include suck.com, MAD Magazine, toonlet, Discover, and the Weekly World News, with the comic strip Adventures of Batboy. He has expressed his libertarian views in features for Reason.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alternative comics</span> Independent comic publications

Alternative comics or independent comics cover a range of American comics that have appeared since the 1980s, following the underground comix movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Alternative comics present an alternative to mainstream superhero comics which in the past have dominated the American comic book industry. They span across a wide range of genres, artistic styles, and subjects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barry Windsor-Smith</span> British graphic novelist (born 1949)

Barry Windsor-Smith is a British comic book illustrator and painter whose best-known work has been produced in the United States. He attained note working on Marvel Comics' Conan the Barbarian from 1970 to 1973, and for his work on the character Wolverine, particularly the 1991 "Weapon X" story arc. His other noted Marvel work included a 1984 "Thing" story in Marvel Fanfare, the "Lifedeath" and "Lifedeath II" stories with writer Chris Claremont that focused on the de-powered Storm in The Uncanny X-Men, as well as the 1984 Machine Man limited series with Herb Trimpe and Tom DeFalco.

<i>Amazing Heroes</i> Magazine about the comic book medium

Amazing Heroes was a magazine about the comic book medium published by American company Fantagraphics Books from 1981 to 1992. Unlike its companion title, The Comics Journal, Amazing Heroes was a hobbyist magazine rather than an analytical journal.

Donna Barr is an American comic book author and cartoonist. She is best known for The Desert Peach and Stinz.

Roberta Gregory is an American comic book writer and artist best known for the character Bitchy Bitch from her Fantagraphics Books series Naughty Bits. She is a prolific contributor to many feminist and underground anthologies, such as Wimmen's Comix and Gay Comix.

<i>The DNAgents</i> Comic book title published by Eclipse Comics.

The DNAgents is a comic-book series created by writer Mark Evanier and artist Will Meugniot and published by Eclipse Comics from 1983. The series centers on a team of superheroes created through genetic engineering by the Matrix Corporation to act as superhuman enforcers for the head of the company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terry LaBan</span> American cartoonist

Terry LaBan is an alternative/underground cartoonist and newspaper comic strip artist. He is known for his comic book series Cud, and his syndicated strip Edge City, created with his wife, Patty LaBan, a couples and family therapist.

<i>Savage Henry</i>

Savage Henry is the title of a comic book series written and illustrated by Matt Howarth. The stories center on Savage Henry, lead guitarist of the "insect rock" band the Bulldaggers. Howarth regularly drew "guest appearances" by real world musicians in the comic book, including The Residents, Moby, Foetus, Hawkwind, Nash the Slash, and others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rip Off Press</span> Comic book mail order retailer and distributor

Rip Off Press Inc. is a comic book mail order retailer and distributor, better known as the former publisher of adult-themed series like The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers and Rip Off Comix, as well as many other seminal publications from the underground comix era. Founded in 1969 in San Francisco by four friends from Austin, Texas — cartoonists Gilbert Shelton and Jack Jackson, and Fred Todd and Dave Moriaty — Rip Off Press is now run in Auburn, California, by Todd.

<i>Doomsday + 1</i> American comic book series

Doomsday + 1 is an American post-apocalyptic comic-book series that was published by Charlton Comics in the 1970s.

<i>His Name Is... Savage</i>

His Name Is... Savage is a 40-page, magazine-format comics novel released in 1968 as a precursor to the modern graphic novel. Created by the veteran American comic book artist Gil Kane, who conceived, plotted and illustrated the project, and writer Archie Goodwin, who scripted under the pseudonym Robert Franklin, the black-and-white magazine was published by Kane's Adventure House Press, and distributed to newsstands.

<i>Lowlife</i> (comics)

Lowlife is a semi-autobiographical comic book series written and drawn by Ed Brubaker, originally published by Caliber Comics and later Aeon Press. Collected editions were put out by Aeon and Black Eye Books.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vortex Comics</span> Canadian independent comic book publisher

Vortex Comics is a Canadian independent comic book publisher that began operation in 1982. Under the supervision of president, publisher, and editor Bill Marks, Vortex was known for such titles as Dean Motter's Mister X, Howard Chaykin's Black Kiss, and Chester Brown's Yummy Fur, the last of which was a pioneer of alternative comics. Vortex also earned a reputation for publishing Canadian comic book creators such as Brown, Ty Templeton, Ken Steacy, and Jeffrey Morgan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dennis Eichhorn</span> American writer (1945-2015)

Dennis P. Eichhorn was an American writer, best known for his adult-oriented autobiographical comic book series Real Stuff. His stories, often involving, sex, drugs, and alcohol, have been compared to those of Jack Kerouac, Ken Kesey, and Charles Bukowski.

James Wallis is a British designer and publisher of tabletop and role-playing games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MU Press</span> Defunct US independent comic book publisher

MU Press was an independent comic book publisher based in Seattle, Washington, which operated from 1990 until c. 2006. MU Press was one of the industry's most prolific "furry" comic publishers, while its mid-1990s imprint Aeon Publications specialized in alternative fare. MU Press was founded by writer/editor Edd Vick. Notable creators associated with MU/Aeon included Donna Barr, Ed Brubaker, Matt Howarth, Milton Knight, David Lasky, Colin Upton, Taral Wayne and Nicola Cuti.

<i>Those Annoying Post Bros</i> Comic by Matt Howarth

Those Annoying Post Bros. is an independent comic mostly by Matt Howarth about two fun-loving bad boys, Ron Post and Russ Post, from the fictional Bugtown. Equally inspired by H. P. Lovecraft, Philip K. Dick, and ambient electronic music, the series ran for 63 issues from 1985–1998, making it one of the longest-running indy comics titles.

<i>Amberzine</i>

Amberzine is a magazine that was published by Phage Press that covered The Chronicles of Amber books, the Amber Diceless Roleplaying Game, and associated material.

References

  1. Howarth entry, Lambiek Comiclopedia. Accessed December 7, 2016.
  2. "Post Bros. Moves to ÆON", p. 39. The Comics Journal , Seattle, May 1994.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Shannon Appelcline (2011). Designers & Dragons. Mongoose Publishing. ISBN   978-1-907702-58-7.
  4. "Matt Howarth's Attic". www.matthowarth.com. Retrieved November 24, 2024.