[2][1] Drawing since childhood, he had his first professional job in comics while in high school, illustrating public-service pamphlets put out by the city of Cleveland, "stuff like how to keep rats out of your trash cans.

[2] Howard contributed to comics fanzines in the mid-1960s, and had a poem published in Fantastic Four #22 (Jan. 1964), for which the editor jocularly declared him "Poet Laureate of Yancy Street".

With writer Cuti, he contributed the backup feature "Travis: The Dragon Killer" in the cult-hit superhero series E-Man #3 (June 1974).

[6] Howard's most notable legacy is providing the precedent for comic-book "created by" credits, which became common years later beginning with DC's Vertigo imprint.

This ranged from horror host Professor Coffin, The Midnight Philosopher, and his niece, Arachne — who in a twist on the horror-host convention would themselves star in a story each issue — to the notion of having each issue be themed: "One time it would be blob monsters, and I wrote three stories about blob monsters, and another time it was vampires ... and that sort of thing".

[6] The critic Mark Andrew observed of Midnight Tales, Old dude and his sexy niece traipse across the countryside, bumping into oddball characters who invariably have a story to tell.

[6] For the industry leader Marvel Comics, he inked Rich Buckler's cover and Ross Andru's pencil art adapting Harry Bates' short story "Farewell to the Master" in the science-fiction anthology Worlds Unknown #3 (Sept. 1973); Gil Kane's Spider-Man / Sub-Mariner story in Marvel Team-Up #14 (Oct. 1973); Val Mayerik's "Thongor!

Warrior of Lost Lemuria" feature in Creatures on the Loose #26 (Nov. 1973); and a Syd Shores story in the black-and-white comics magazine Haunt of Horror #4 (Nov.