Perhaps best known as the writer/artist of the "Those Annoying Post Bros." comic book series, Matt Howarth has many outlets for his twisted creativity. And all of them are notoriously "strange".
During his career of three decades, Matt has authored and drawn a variety of unconventional comic books and graphic novels, and contributed graphic fiction to numerous publications in the field of comics and science fiction...and music. For, among all of Matt's creative outlets, there runs the insidious influence of alternative and electronic music. He has found several ways to achieve this crossover of diverse genres.
From 1987 to 1994, Matt did a comic book series called "Savage Henry" (about the wacky adventures of a guitarist from an alternate reality). Most issues of this series featured authorized guest appearances by real musicians; among them: the Residents, Hawkwind, Moby, Ash Ra Tempel, Klaus Schulze, Nash the Slash, Foetus, Yello, Wire, Steve Roach, Richard Pinhas, Ron Geesin, David Borden, and more. Conrad Schnitzler (an original member of Tangerine Dream and Kluster) was a regular guest in this series and several graphic novels.
In the early 1980s, Matt did a minicomic series entitled "The Comix of Two Cities", based on lifeforms created by the Residents in the band's "Mark of the Mole" trilogy of albums. In the late 1990s, these stories were reprinted as a comic book series.
In 1979, Matt collaborated with Gong's Daevid Allen on a short comic strip which was published in the Planet Gong Newspaper, a free giveaway in conjunction with Gong's debut USA Tour.
Musical elements consistently play vital roles in his other works too, from the naming of alien species in his science fiction tales to musical subplots. He has even written text novels featuring guest appearances by real musicians in outrageous, fictitious roles.
Perhaps one of his strangest creation is Matt's "Konny & Czu" series, chronicling the antics of a pair of interstellar con artists. Besides Matt's innovative storytelling and meticulous art, what makes these strips unique is that they feature absolutely no human beings or any remotely terrestrial lifeforms. Even in this hard science, deep space science fiction tales, Matt's musical predilections creep in, witnessed by the names of the two protagonist characters: Konny being derived from the name of German electronic music producer Konny Plank, and Czu being inspired by Can's bassist Holger Czukay.
Matt has done cover art for numerous independent musical releases (cassette tapes, albums, and compact discs); among them: Conrad Schnitzler, the Nightcrawlers, the Muffins, and Scornflakes. Since 1986, Matt's art has graced the advertising for Cuneiform Records.
In the early 1980s, Matt began doing music reviews in comic strip form for Heavy Metal magazine. Soon after, he began a weekly music review comic strip for a local newspaper, which evolved into his Sonic Curiosity comics. These comic strip reviews were widely published and internationally reprinted during the 1980s and 1990s, gaining him quite a reputation. Some time in the 1990s, Matt switched over to doing straight text music reviews, claiming that prose allowed him deeper opportunities to describe the music in question. In 1998, the Sonic Curiosity website was created to distribute Matt's relentless music reviews. From 2000 to 2001, Matt wrote a weekly music column for Space.com.
Recently, Matt has done a 10-page comic strip for Klaus Schulze's "Contemporary Works 2" five CD set. He has also worked with the USA space rock band Quarkspace, ex-Soft Machine bassist Hugh Hopper, and Canadian rocker Nash the Slash on projects that fuse the graphic medium with music in a unique fashion: the music is a soundtrack for Matt's comic strip which comes in the CD's booklet. Matt is also working with musician Robert Rich on writing a series of short stories based on Rich's ambient soundscapes.
It is plainly evident that Matt Howarth is obsessed with strange music, and he is not about to stop incorporating such things into his creative efforts.
Among Matt's notable non-musically related works are: two issues of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" (the adult edition); scripts for DC Comics' "Justice League of America"; doing comedy comics for the International Star Trek Conventions in the early 1970s (before the fans coined the term trekkies); doing illustrations for several novels by SF author Philip K. Dick; crafting several horror strips for Steve Bissette's "Taboo" anthologies; work on Harlan Ellison's "Dream Corridor" series; illustrations for Warren Ellis' "Transmetropolitan" series; fiction for Amberzine, a publication devoted to Roger Zelazny's Amber series, an original graphic story collaboration in 1977 with SF Grand Master Hal Clement; numerous illustrations for the 1984 Dune Encyclopedia; a short strip for Donna Barr's "Desert Peach" series; "Tryxxx", an erotic SF graphic novel; a strip for Steve Moncuse's "Fish Police" series; collaborations with SF artist Ferret; strips for the SubGenius Church; collaboration with award winning horror author Nancy A. Collins in his "Those Annoying Post Bros." series; work for Phil Foglio's "Xxxenophile" series; and--believe it or not--even more.
In 1992, Matt's work inspired a thesis which was published in a Semiotics textbook by the University Press of America.
Recently, he has done graphic adaptations of stories by award winning authors Greg Bear and Vernor Vinge for the World Science Fiction Conventions. As well as adapting the works of Arthur Conan Doyle, H.P. Lovecraft, and Jack London for the "Graphic Classics" book series.
He is currently working on a new "Bugtown" series, a new "Keif Llama: Xenotech" book, and arranging the digital reprinting of the original Keif series. And writing his weekly music column for the Sonic Curiosity website.
(Copies of many of these publications are available from the bugtownmall)
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