Howard Ferguson

Howard Ferguson was primarily a letterer who worked in the American comic book industry in the 1940s and 1950s. He is most remembered for his work with Simon and Kirby at several publishers, including Fox and Timely. He came to New York in the late 1930s from Detroit where he'd been working for an ad agency. He was noted as an inveterate smoker and coffee drinker, which are presumed to be the cause of his death in 1957. The exact day and place of his death are unknown, but he was presumed to be living in the New York City area. Ferguson had three marriages, none of which lasted long. He had two daughters, one with each of his first two wives. Ferguson was known to have done support work as a letterer for Archie [MLJ] during the 1940s; Avon from 1949 to 1950; Bailey Publications during 1944; Charlton from 1955 to 1956; DC from 1942 to 1944; Feature [Crestwood] from 1947 to 1948; Fox Comics in 1940; Gilberton during 1949; Harvey from 1946 to 1947; Hillman from 1947 to 1948; J. C. Penney Company in 1947; Mainline from 1954 to 1955; Marvel Comics from 1940 to 1942; Novelty in 1941, Prize from 1941 to 1957 with work published as late as 1959; Seaboard Publishing / Famous Authors Illustrated in 1950; Stanley Morse from 1952 to 1955; and St. John in 1951. His work also appeared in reprints for Vintage Features in 1979 and Pure Imagination from 1997 to 1998 among many others. The Who's Who also lists pencil and ink credits for Ferguson for Pines [Better] with filler stories, from 1940 to 1941, and promotional house advertisements in 1941; pencil and ink credits DC on various features; filler story pencil and ink work for Feature during the 1940s; and pencil and ink-backup story work for Harvey in 1942, possibly under the signature of Ferg.