Matt Howarth

Matt Howarth was born in 1954, according to his official website, which gives his dates as 1954 to 2026 (the Lambiek Comiclopedia lists 1953, and Bleeding Cool reported he was 72 at his death). In a 2014 interview with Festivale he said he was born "at some point in the 1950s, somewhere on the East Coast of the United States," adding that he seemed to have "more of an affinity with the future and outer space" than his current locale. The French database Bedetheque names Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as his birthplace. As a young fan he was once briefly trapped in an elevator with Bill Gaines, the publisher behind EC Comics, an encounter he later recalled with delight. In 1969 he co-founded Howski Studios and became active in science fiction and comics fandom.

Howarth described himself as "completely self-taught" and said he never had an art teacher to push him toward new techniques. He was never comfortable with a brush and preferred technical pens because they gave him more control, which is why he drew hair with dotted lines and built his pages from thousands of tiny strokes. His real schooling came from the writers and artists he admired: Philip K. Dick, H. P. Lovecraft, Hunter S. Thompson and J. G. Ballard among writers, and Steve Ditko, Bernie Wrightson, Moebius and Philippe Druillet among artists. Details of his formal schooling have not been made public.

Howarth started in fanzines and self-publishing. Through Howski Studios he produced comedy comics for the International Star Trek Conventions in the early 1970s, work for the fanzine Alternatives (1973), and from 1976 a run of graphic novels and comics including Afternoon in the Sun (1976), Sand Scripts (1977), Rock Horror (1979), The Hoobi Yaps Artifact (1983) and the Fire Shrine trilogy. In 1977 he collaborated on a graphic story with Hal Clement, and in 1979 he drew a strip with Gong's Daevid Allen for the Planet Gong Newspaper.

His experimental serial Changes appeared in Heavy Metal in 1980 and 1981, and its characters became the stars of Those Annoying Post Bros., published by Vortex Comics from 1985 to 1990, Rip Off Press from 1991 to 1994 and MU Press from 1994 to 1998, for 63 issues in all. Savage Henry (1987 onward) followed a guitarist from an alternate reality and featured authorised appearances by The Residents, Hawkwind, Moby, Ash Ra Tempel, Klaus Schulze, Nash the Slash, Foetus, Yello, Wire, Steve Roach, Richard Pinhas, Ron Geesin, David Borden and Conrad Schnitzler. For Fantagraphics he created Particle Dreams (1986 to 1987) and Keif Llama: Xeno-Tech (1988 to 1989). He drew two issues of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for Mirage Studios (1991 to 1992), the Jello Jack story in Dark Horse's The Residents' Freak Show (1992), Konny and Czu for Antarctic Press (1994 to 1995), The Comix of Two Cities for Aeon (1996) and Star Crossed for DC's Helix imprint (1997). In the late 1980s he spent six years drawing comics for a local newspaper.

In the 2000s he returned to Bugtown with a six-issue Bugtown series and a second Keif Llama volume for MU Press, while self-publishing more than 100 digital comics and over fifteen prose novels through bugtownmall.com. AdHouse published his slice-of-life graphic novel The Downsized in 2011, and his strip Stalking Arr ran in Heavy Metal that January. In 2021 he illustrated Discover Cold Fusion, written by Ruby Carat. From about 2021 he worked closely with Eli Schwab's Cosmic Lion Productions, which reprinted The Termite Mound and published A Slice of Spy and Meat, written by Stuart Moore. At his death he was drawing The Flip, a two-part science fiction comic created in alternation with British artist Smuzz.

Music was the thread through all of Howarth's work. In the early 1980s he began reviewing records in comic strip form for Heavy Metal, then drew a weekly music review strip for a local newspaper that grew into Sonic Curiosity. He later switched to prose reviews, and the Sonic Curiosity website launched in 1998. From 2000 to 2001 he wrote a weekly music column for Space.com. He drew album covers for Conrad Schnitzler, the Nightcrawlers, the Muffins, Scornflakes and the University of Errors. After years of being told by publishers to talk to record labels and by labels to talk to publishers, digital media let him put comics on CDs as PDF files with the music acting as a soundtrack. He made such projects with Bill Nelson (The Last of the Neon Cynics, 2012), Arthur Brown (The Magic Hat, 2012), Klaus Schulze, Hugh Hopper, Legendary Pink Dots, Radio Massacre International, Quarkspace, Conrad Schnitzler, Fanger and Schonwalder, Galactic Anthems, Ozone Player, Syndromeda and Bernhard Wöstheinrich (Undesirable Creatures, 2022). He also wrote Enriched Visions, short stories inspired by the music of Robert Rich.

Howarth lived for decades in the Philadelphia region, describing himself in 2014 as a happy recluse "chained to my work desk." In a 2011 CBR interview he mentioned his wife, Stasy, and recalled nursing her cat through a stroke in the 1990s by setting up a special spot in his studio, an episode that inspired The Downsized. He called himself a lifelong smoker who was comfortable with his vices. He listened to music constantly while working, naming Tangerine Dream, Hawkwind, the Cure, Heldon, Bill Nelson, Frank Zappa, Wire, Magma, Gong, Miles Davis, Front Line Assembly, King Crimson, Can, Cocteau Twins and Front 242 among his mainstays. Friends such as Stephen Bissette remembered long phone calls fuelled by his "encyclopedic knowledge" and passion for almost everything.

Howarth said the most important thing he wanted from his work was "to entertain, to expand the readers' outlook on life." He was drawn to strangeness over realism, explaining that the laws of physics and social conventions acted as limiting parameters, and that he loved getting lost in alien worlds and unrealistic scenarios. He was openly impatient with people who pushed their own choices on others, calling himself "very intolerant of well-intentioned advice," and said the person he would least like to be trapped in a lift with was "someone with a narrow-minded, intolerant outlook." In his tribute, collaborator Smuzz wrote that Howarth wanted it known that he believed DOGE and ICE had compromised his healthcare.

Howarth is remembered as the epitome of the independent comics artist. Eli Schwab wrote that his contribution "will forever be heralded as a singular and visionary chapter in comics history." Publisher Bill Cunningham said Howarth's small ads for his self-published comics in the late 1970s and 1980s opened his eyes to how comics could be made. Author Shawn M. Garrett argued that Rick and Morty "owes tons to Howarth" and his Bugtown work, and Dove Square Comix publisher Caleb Collins called him a true "cartoonist's cartoonist." Phil Foglio wrote: "If there is any justice, his comics will endure." His Bugtown comics inspired a roleplaying game developed by James Wallis, and in 1992 his work was the subject of a thesis published in a semiotics textbook by University Press of America.

No major industry awards for Howarth have been documented in the sources reviewed. His recognition came instead from peers and readers: authorised appearances in his comics by dozens of musicians, a 1992 academic thesis on his work published in a semiotics textbook, a planned Bugtown roleplaying game, and tributes from creators including Stephen Bissette, Phil Foglio and Rich Johnston after his death.

Comics and graphic novels: Afternoon in the Sun (1976); Sand Scripts (1977); Rock Horror (1979); Changes (Heavy Metal, 1980 to 1981); Those Annoying Post Bros. (63 issues, 1985 to 1998); Particle Dreams (1986 to 1987); Savage Henry (33 issues, 1987 to 2004); Keif Llama: Xeno-Tech (1988 to 1989, 2005 to 2006); The Contaminated Zone (1991); Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (two issues, 1991 to 1992); Konny and Czu (1994 to 1995); Those Annoying Post Bros.: Stalking Ralph with Lou Stathis (1995); The Comix of Two Cities (1996); Star Crossed (DC/Helix, 1997); Caroline: Circles vs. Squares (1998); Bugtown (2004 to 2005); Anubis Horn (2005); The Downsized (AdHouse, 2011); The Last of the Neon Cynics with Bill Nelson (2012); Storms on the Homefront (2020); Discover Cold Fusion with Ruby Carat (2021); The Termite Mound and A Slice of Spy (Cosmic Lion); Meat with Stuart Moore (Cosmic Lion, 2025). Prose: Bugtown novels including Secondhead Godhead (2008), Induced Labor, Poisonous Circles and Sneakernet. Collections: My Name Is Lesion and Western Promise. Contributions: The Dune Encyclopedia (1984), Taboo, Transmetropolitan, Graphic Classics, Amberzine.

Howarth's death at the age of 72 was announced on 5 October 2026 by Eli Schwab of Cosmic Lion Productions on Instagram and Facebook, and reported the same day by Rich Johnston at Bleeding Cool. The exact date and place of death have not been made public. In a tribute published by downthetubes.net on 6 October 2026, British comics artist and collaborator Smuzz wrote that Howarth died of complications following a triple bypass, and that his illness had delayed their joint comic The Flip, expected to be released later. Bleeding Cool reported that more unpublished work was planned for release.