Howard Eugene Day was a
CanadianCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
comic bookA comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
artistAn artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
best known for
Marvel ComicsMarvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
'
Star WarsStar Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
licensed series and
Master of Kung Fu. He was considered a mentor by independent comic writer/artist
Dave SimDavid Victor Sim is an award-winning Canadian comic book writer and artist.A pioneer of self-published comics and creators' rights, Sim is best known as the creator of Cerebus the Aardvark, a comic book published from 1977 to 2004, which chronicles its main character in a 6,000-page self-contained...
.
Early career
Gene Day began his career with Canadian underground and independent comics, for which he published the short-lived title
Out of the Depths in 1974, and collaborated with
Dave SimDavid Victor Sim is an award-winning Canadian comic book writer and artist.A pioneer of self-published comics and creators' rights, Sim is best known as the creator of Cerebus the Aardvark, a comic book published from 1977 to 2004, which chronicles its main character in a 6,000-page self-contained...
on
Oktoberfest Comics #1 (Now and Then Publications, 1976). Day also penciled for
Skywald PublicationsSkywald Publications is a 1970s publisher of black-and-white comics magazines, primarily the horror anthologies Nightmare, Psycho, and Scream. It also published a small line of comic books and other magazines....
's horror-comics magazines
Psycho and
Nightmare, starting in late 1974, as well as the science fiction-oriented "Orb."
For
Mike FriedrichMike Friedrich is an American comic book writer and publisher best known for his work at Marvel and DC Comics, and for publishing the anthology series Star*Reach, one of the first independent comics...
's early independent-comics company
Star ReachStar Reach was an influential, American science fiction and fantasy comics anthology published from 1974 to 1979 by Mike Friedrich...
, in 1977 and 1978, Day variously wrote/drew stories for the namesake anthology title
Star Reach and its sister magazines
Imagine and
Quack, the latter a
funny animalFunny animal is a cartooning term for the genre of comics and animated cartoons in which the main characters are humanoid or talking animals, with anthropomorphic personality traits. The characters themselves may also be called funny animals...
comic. Other work includes "Cheating Time!", written by Mark Burbey, in
Dr. Wirtham's Comix & Stories #4 (1979).
Graphic novel and Marvel Comics
In 1979, Day wrote and drew an early
graphic novelA graphic novel is a narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using sequential art in either an experimental design or in a traditional comics format...
,
Future Day (Flying Buttress Press), a hardcover collection of seven stories that he called a "graphic album".
Dave SimDavid Victor Sim is an award-winning Canadian comic book writer and artist.A pioneer of self-published comics and creators' rights, Sim is best known as the creator of Cerebus the Aardvark, a comic book published from 1977 to 2004, which chronicles its main character in a 6,000-page self-contained...
was letterer. Day also did illustrations for the
fantasyFantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
role-playing games
Arena of Khazan: A Tunnels & Trolls Solitaire Dungeon (1979) and
Call of Cthulhu (1981).
Day began his seven-year association with
Master of Kung Fu by
inkingThe inker is one of the two line artists in a traditional comic book or graphic novel. After a pencilled drawing is given to the inker, the inker uses black ink to produce refined outlines over the pencil lines...
penciler
Mike ZeckMike Zeck is an American comic book illustrator.-Biography:Zeck was born in Greenville, Pennsylvania to Michael and Kathryn Jean Zeck...
starting with issue #76 (May 1976). He began doing finished art over Zeck's breakdowns starting with issue #94 (Nov. 1980), and became series penciler from #102-120 (July 1981 - Jan. 1983), after having split the work with Zeck on the double-sized #100. Day inked
Carmine InfantinoCarmine Infantino Carmine Infantino Carmine Infantino (born May 24, 1925, in Brooklyn, New York is an American comic book artist and editor who was a major force in the Silver Age of Comic Books...
on Marvel's 1977-1986
Star Wars sequel series, occasionally doing finished art over breakdowns, and penciling #69 (March 1983), which takes place at
Boba FettBoba Fett is a character in Star Wars. A bounty hunter hired by Darth Vader to find the Millennium Falcon, he is a minor villain in both Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi....
's ancestral homeworld of Mandalore. Day also had stints inking
The Mighty ThorThor is a fictional superhero who appears in publications published by Marvel Comics. The character first appeared in Journey into Mystery #83 and was created by editor-plotter Stan Lee, scripter Larry Lieber, and penciller Jack Kirby....
, and
Marvel Two-in-OneMarvel Two-In-One was an American comic book series published by Marvel Comics that featured the Fantastic Four member, the Thing, in a different team-up each issue with a different character. The series continued from the team-up stories starring the Thing in the final two issues of Marvel...
featuring the
ThingThe Thing is a fictional character, a founding member of the superhero team known as the Fantastic Four in the Marvel Comics universe. He was created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee in The Fantastic Four #1...
.
Day died of a
coronaryHeart disease, cardiac disease or cardiopathy is an umbrella term for a variety of diseases affecting the heart. , it is the leading cause of death in the United States, England, Canada and Wales, accounting for 25.4% of the total deaths in the United States.-Types:-Coronary heart disease:Coronary...
in his sleep.
Legacy
From 1985 to 1986,
Renegade PressRenegade Press was an American comic book company, founded by Canadian Deni Loubert, that operated from 1984 to 1988. Notable titles published by Renegade include Flaming Carrot, Ms...
published five issues of
Gene Day's Black Zeppelin, an anthology series primarily featuring stories and painted covers Day completed before his death, as well new contributions by
Dave SimDavid Victor Sim is an award-winning Canadian comic book writer and artist.A pioneer of self-published comics and creators' rights, Sim is best known as the creator of Cerebus the Aardvark, a comic book published from 1977 to 2004, which chronicles its main character in a 6,000-page self-contained...
, Bruce Conklin, Augustine Funnell, and
Charles VessCharles Vess is an American fantasy artist and comic-book illustrator who has specialized in the illustration of myths and fairy tales. His illustrations are strongly influenced by the work of artists and illustrators such as Arthur Rackham and Alphonse Mucha...
. It was edited by Gail Day and Joe Erslavas. More of his work appeared posthumously in
Caliber ComicsCaliber Comics or Caliber Press was an American comic book publisher founded in 1989 by Gary Reed. Featuring primarily creator-owned comics, in the next decade Caliber published over 1300 comics and ranked as one of the America's leading independent publishers...
' anthology series
Day Brothers Presents, which also featured the work of Day's comics-artist brothers, David Day and Dan Day.
In 2002, Sim and his
Cerebus collaborator Gerhard created The Day Prize, an annual
awardAn award is something given to a person or a group of people to recognize excellence in a certain field; a certificate of excellence. Awards are often signifiedby trophies, titles, certificates, commemorative plaques, medals, badges, pins, or ribbons...
given to a comic creator chosen by them from the exhibitors at SPACE (Small Press & Alternative Comics Expo) held in
Columbus, OhioColumbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...
. The Day Prize was awarded at SPACE through 2008. Sim explained,
In 2007, Gene Day was inducted into the
Joe Shuster AwardsThe Joe Shuster Awards are given out annually for outstanding achievements in the creation of comic books, graphic novels and webcomics by Canadians, there are additional awards for Retailers and Publishers. The full name is the Joe Shuster Canadian Comic Book Creator Awards.The Joe Shuster Awards...
' Canadian Comic Book Creator Hall of Fame. Two years later, with the consent of Day's brothers, the Joe Shuster Awards founded the Gene Day Award for Canadian Self-Publishing, which honors Canadian comic book creators who self-published their work during the previous calendar year. The first Day Award was presented on September 26, 2009 by David Day and James Waley to Jesse Jacobs for his self-published mini-comic
Blue Winter, Shapes in the Snow.
Future Day
Day's work in his 1979,
graphic novelA graphic novel is a narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using sequential art in either an experimental design or in a traditional comics format...
-like story collection:
- "Gifts Of Silver Splendor" (6 p.)
- "Hive" (6 p.)
- "Days Of Future Past" (6 p.)
- "Gauntlet" (6 p.)
- "Paper Dragon" (5 p.)
- "War Games" (10 p.)
- "Black Legion" (text story, 7 p.)