We sit down with veteran comics artist Howard Simpson (who also works under the pen name Poppy) to explore his diverse career that began after earning his BFA from Tyler School of Arts and working as a commercial artist during the 1980s for major clients including Action News, Bantam Books, Sony, and various Fortune 500 companies. Howard shares his transition from commercial work and fanzine contributions to breaking into professional comics with DC, working on titles like Green Lantern, The Outsiders, Secret Origins, and Young All-Stars, as well as inking Dark Horse's Captain Crusader. We dive into his prolific 1990s work across multiple publishers including First Publishing's Grimjack and Munden's Bar, Heroic Comics' Captain Thunder and Blue Bolt, Icicle, and League of Champions, Topps' Ray Bradbury Comics: Martian Chronicles, and his extensive contributions as penciller, inker, and background artist for Acclaim's Valiant imprint series like Turok, plus his work illustrating Timon and Pumbaa stories for Disney Adventures. Howard discusses the differences between commercial art and comics, working across so many different publishers and genres, the craft of inking versus pencilling, and how the comics industry evolved from the 80s through the 90s.

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