Number 1086


The good "bad" artist


What struck me about this 1960's Spooky story from Harvey's Casper and Nightmare #27 is that artist Howie Post is supposed to show Spooky as a bad artist. In "Pencilman" Post draws what are supposed to be bad drawings. They are charming, instead. Post was too good at what he did.

Howard Post began working in comics in the mid-'40s, and was very prolific over the next few decades. In comic books he drew mostly children's comics, although he worked in other genres, even for a time in animation. He created and drew Anthro for DC, and had a 13-year stint on a syndicated comic strip, The Dropouts. But I think most of his large body of comic book work appeared anonymously in Harvey Comics. Like the lead Harvey artist, Warren Kremer, Howie Post's distinctive style stands out. Harvey stopped publishing new comics in the 1980s. Post died at age 83, in 2010.











I found this original art posted on Heritage Auctions. It's from Spooky Spooktown #23, 1968.






This penciled page by Post, also found at Heritage, effectively shows his drawing skill in pencil form.