Howard Post (1926-2010)

Mark Evanier has reported the passing of Howard Post. Mark does a great job discussing Post’s prolific career in comics. I, too, was a huge fan of Howard Post’s work, not only in comics, but also of his brief stint as successor to Seymour Kneitel at the Paramount Animation Studio in 1964-1966. I got to interview him several times about that period (photo above is of me and Howard, at right, at the San Diego Comic Con in 2003).

Among the comic books Post drew, his work on Harvey’s Spooky and Hot Stuff in the 1950s and 60s is his most significant, and influential.

But Post did some unique little things during his brief time as the head of Paramount’s animation studio in the 1960s that are worthy of note. I like the Ronald Searle-esque The Itch, his adaptations of Jack Mendelsohn’s child p.o.v. comic strip Jacky’s Wacky World, and his ill-fated attempt to bring Bill Dana’s Jose Jimenez to the screen. He was required to fulfill a pre-existing order of Seymour Kneitel/Eddie Lawrence Swifty and Shorty series. With nothing to lose, in the last S&S cartoon, Post decided to do without Lawrence’s voice, painted the characters all in white and set them against impressionist background paintings. The end result, Les Boys (1965), is quite a treat – and a worthy tribute to a man who was always creative no matter the constraints.