Comic book artist Wayne Howard has died. One of the few African-American comic book artists at the time he broke into the field, Howard learned his craft in the fanzines of the sixties and at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. But he told me he learned most of what he knew about comics from his brief time assisting Wally Wood from 1968 to 1969. (Some sources say '69 but you can see Wayne's name hidden all throughout the backgrounds of Captain Action #1, which Wood and his crew produced in 1968.)

I only knew Wayne from a couple of phone calls in 1970, shortly after he left Wood. When Jack Kirby left Marvel to edit his own comics for DC, Wayne kept phoning Jack and also me, hoping he could draw or at least ink something for the new projects. Unfortunately, DC didn't want Jack employing other artists so there was nothing there for Wayne. At one point, Jack arranged for him to take his samples in to show Carmine Infantino, who was the head guy at DC.

A few days after the scheduled appointment, I asked Jack if he'd heard how Howard's work was received. Jack replied, "Carmine thought he wasn't ready yet so he sent him to Connecticut."

I didn't understand the response so I asked Jack to explain. "I said Carmine sent him to Connecticut," Kirby replied.

Again, I didn't get it. "Are you saying that Carmine looked at his work and said, 'I don't like the way you draw. Go to Connecticut!'?"

"Yes," Jack insisted. "Carmine told him to go to Connecticut."

It took a few minutes but I figured it out. Charlton Comics, the lowest-paying company in the business, was based in Derby, Connecticut. I asked Jack, "Are you saying Carmine told him to go try and get work from Charlton?"

Jack, a bit exasperated with me, said, "Yes, Carmine sent him to Connecticut!" To Jack, "Charlton" and "Connecticut" were interchangeable.

Howard did go to Charlton and did get work there...a lot of work, though he occasionally managed to get a job here and there for DC, Marvel or Gold Key. I remember he inked one issue of Marvel Team-Up over Gil Kane pencils and did — I thought — a better job than a lot of folks who, unlike Wayne, got more work there. I have here the original art to an unpublished mystery story he did for DC over Mike Sekowsky pencils that wasn't very good, though.

Wayne's most notable work for Charlton was the mystery title, Midnight Tales, which he created and drew most of and often wrote, as well. As Charlton cut back on publishing, Wayne's career in comics pretty much went away and he freelanced here and there until around 1982, whereupon he stopped working in comics altogether. Someone told me once that he'd become a policeman but I don't know if that's true or if the person was confusing him with Pete Morisi, another Charlton mainstay who did work as a cop. Whatever, sources are reporting that Wayne Howard died yesterday from a heart attack. He was 59.