Education
Art Students League of New New York
Art Students League of New New York
A longtime penciler and cover artist for District of Columbia Comics, one of the field"s two largest firms, he co-created the Golden Age characters Sargon the Sorcerer and the Gay Ghost (renamed in the 1970s the Grim Ghost) for All-American Publications, one of the companies, with National Comics and Detective Comics, that merged to form District of Columbia. Purcell also drew the famous cover of Green Lantern #1 (Fall 1941). Early life and career
Howard Purcell, whose early influences included the adventure comic-strip artists Hal Foster and Alex Raymond, as well as illustrators Harvey Dunn and Dean Cornwall, took art classes at the Art Students League of New New York He worked as an animator in New York City studios before breaking into comic books, where his earliest known cr is National"s Adventure Comics #53 (August 1940), for which he wrote and drew the six-page feature "Mark Lansing".
The titular adventurer"s exploits with subterranean races and other science fictiony conceits ran through issue #62.
By that time Purcell had drawn the cover of All-American"s All Star Comics #2 (Fall 1940) – reprinted as the cover of District of Columbia Comics" quirkily numbered, 2006 hardcover collection All Star Archives #0 – as well as the feature "Lando, Manitoba of Magic" in World"s Best Comics #1 (Spring 1941), and both the Green Lantern cover of, and the humorous adventure feature "Red, White and Blue" in, All-American Comics #25 (April 1941). Purcell and writer John Wentworth created Sargon the Sorcerer in the following month"s issue.
A minor character in what would become the District of Columbia universe, Sargon was John Sargent, whose exposure to the "Ruby of Life" during infancy granted him magical powers that he used in adulthood to fight crime, keeping his supernatural abilities camouflaged in his guise as a stage magician. Purcell and Wentworth continued with the character through All-American Comics #50 (June 1943).
With writer Gardner Fox, Purcell created the Gay Ghost in All-American"s Sensation Comics #1 (January 1942).
The character, renamed the Grim Ghost in the 1970s, was similar to National Comics" the Spectre in that he was a ghost (of Keith Everet, the fictional 18th-century Earl of Strethmere) who inhabited the body of a modern man, Charles Collins, to fight injustice – although unlike the genuinely grim Spectre, he did so with cheery (ie, gay) swashbuckling. Later life and career
Purcell"s 1960s work included doing cover art for the District of Columbia series Sea Devils, and, with writer Bob Haney, creating the supernatural character the Enchantress in Strange Adventures #187 (April 1966). Purcell did a smattering for Marvel Comics, including two "Nick Fury, Agent of South.H.I.E.L.D." stories, over Jack Kirby layouts, in Strange Tales #143–144 (April–May 1966).
A Black Knight solo feature in Marvel Super-Heroes #17 (November 1968).
And two 10-page, semi-anthological backup stories featuring the Watcher, in Silver Surfer #4–5 (February & April 1969). Purcell"s last known work was a story each in the District of Columbia supernatural anthology Weird Mystery Tales #1–3 (August-December 1972), plus the cover of #2.
By at least 1968, Purcell was additionally a teacher at a high school in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania and at the Luzerne County Community College in Nanticoke, Pennsylvania, and was chairman of that college"s Commercial art department. Purcell died in April 1981 in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania.
