American comic artist Howard Bender was one of a small team who worked in the British department at Marvel Comics in New York for five years. There, he illustrated many of the original early Star Wars Weekly covers, working under Danny Fingeroth.
Earlier today, Howard thrilled fans of the long running weekly by sharing four covers he’s recently recreated, and fans should contact him directly if they would like to know more.
Back in the 1970s, the Marvel Comics British Department turned out six to eight books a week, doing paste ups and art and lettering production.
“During this time I was given the opportunity to grow as an artist by drawing new splash pages and covers for stories that were split in two to fit the weekly British format,” Howard has previously recalled on his Facebook page.
“During my time Marvel started production on the Star Wars comics months before the movie came out and was quick to move them into the British weeklies,” he explained in 2020. “Because the weeklies were printed only in black and white without color interiors I became the official Star Wars Weekly grey toner, using zipatone and I drew many of the new splash pages and many of the new covers to be inked by Tony DeZuniga, Tom Palmer, Frank Giacoia and others.”
“Whenever asked over the years by many British weekly researchers I have identified many, many of new art for splash pages and covers drawn by others at the time unidentified artists as Jeff Aclin and myself.”
Howard was puzzled to find that none of that documented information made it into Star Wars: The Marvel UK Collection Omnibus, published by Marvel in 2017 – including the book’s cover. (But we now know why, thanks to Marvel UK archivist and author Rob Kirby, outlined below).
His work included the cover art for Star Wars Weekly #13, inked by Tony Dezuniga, which sold for $$14,400 last year. The final cover as published was amended, the Close Encounters of the Third Kind poster dropped in favour of something more in tune with the title.
Before Howard Bender worked as a caricature artist, he was a professional comic book artist. He worked for Marvel, DC, Disney, Harvey, Archie and Heroic, drawing characters and titles that include Superman, Spider-Man, The Legion of Super-Heroes, Dial “H’” for Hero, Silverhawks, Flare, Ghostbusters, Micronauts, Casper, Richie Rich and many others.
He also co-created and drew his own original characters and titles: “Mr. Fixitt”, “The Sherlock Holmes Minute Mysteries” and his own strip “Billy & Pop”.
• Howard Bender is online at howardbenderart.com
Howard Bender’s Work for Marvel UK – A Checklist
Rob Kirby, author of the long in the works, much hoped for history of Marvel UK, From Cents to Pence!, kindly sent us an update on the post above about his work on Star Wars Weekly…
Howard Bender gave me a hugely useful overview of the British Bullpen in New York during the 1970s – that I was later able to fit lots of other information around – when he posted a cassette recording of his reminiscences to me during the mid-1990s.
When I first started to attempt writing about the history of Marvel in Britain it wasn’t easy. There were few reference books to help, with just a smattering of isolated, seemingly unconnected, nuggets of information hiding away in the pages of various fanzines from the preceding two decades. Worse, there was no internet. Thus, the letter pages of comics publications were vital tools to spread the word of what I was trying to achieve, and from various letters that featured in their pages, that response from Howard Bender was one of the first.
With the help of various experts, most notable Jason Schachter, we’ve been able to catalogue who exactly created what it came to the exclusive covers and posters produced for the British weeklies during the 1970s. It was much easier for me to catalogue what came after that, as most of the UK generated artwork that followed was either signed or properly accredited.
Unfortunately, these details were beyond the scope of the Star Wars: The Marvel UK Collection Omnibus – one of a number of volumes designed to collect strips created especially for the UK market that most US readers never got to see, and one for which I scanned a huge amount of material from the original comics housed in my collection (so I would happily have forwarded across such material for inclusion).
When From Cents to Pence! is completed, and that day is drawing much closer now, it will contain a Printography, detailing the creative credits of everyone, in America and the UK, who ever contributed material specifically commissioned for the Marvel’s line of UK comics. I thought you might like to see an example of Howard’s entry there by way of example…
BENDER, Howard –
As Penciller (Covers):
UK COMICS NO LONGER IN PUBLICATION
Super Spider-Man with the Superheroes (1973 Series) #174 only
Super Spider-Man (1973 Series) #281 only
Star Wars Weekly (1978 Series) #12, 13, 17 (with an un-credited background head redrawn by Tony DeZuniga), 28, 29, 35, 40, 41 and 45
Attributed as Penciller (Covers):
UK COMICS NO LONGER IN PUBLICATION
Dracula Lives (1974 Series) #28 only
Star Wars Weekly (1978 Series) #23 only
As Penciller (Posters):
UK COMICS NO LONGER IN PUBLICATION
Super Spider-Man and The Titans (1973 Series) #205 (Nick Fury), 209 (The Silver Surfer), 215 (Spider-Man), 216 (The Scarecrow), 218 (Daredevil) and 220 (Captain Britain).
The Avengers (1973 Series) #104 (Thongor), 105 (Solomon Kane) and 123 (Redwolf).
Dracula Lives (1974 Series) #65 (Werewolf by Night) and 76 (Dracula).
The Superheroes (1975 Series) #47 (Tales of Atlantis).
Attributed as Penciller (Poster):
UK COMICS NO LONGER IN PUBLICATION
Super Spider-Man (1973 Series) #255 (Marvel Heroes centrespread – Christmas greetings 1977).
• Check out Rob Kirby’s “Distant Beacon” blog for updates on his From Cents to Pence! project
- About the Author
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: British Comics, Comics, Creating Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, Film, Other Worlds, Star Wars
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Terrific. That cover to Star Wars Weekly #12 was note perfect, providing the duel we’d all hoped for when watching the film, but was still three years away for movie audiences. The UK Weekly covers for the original movie adaptation were so much stronger than the US ones, all action and lightsabers.
The cover to SWW #13 shown here was changed slightly before publication, the Close Encounters poster giveaway blurb was replaced by a Star Wars poster giveaway which was far (far) more on brand.