38 / ’southern
FEATURES
ComicCreator
HOWARD CRUSE ’68
j
HowardCruse
credits his BSC
immersion in
stagecraft for helping
himdevelop the rich
andmulti-faceted
characters that have
become ahallmark
of his comic book
work for thepast 40
years.
“The theatre-
related classes I took
as adramamajorwere enlightening,
but itwas thepractical experience I
received through the stagingof oneplay
after another that served as themost
enriching influenceon the life I’ve led,”
saysCruse, a resident ofWilliamstown,
Mass. “Several ofmyBirmingham-
Southernprofessors andmentors
were terrific in their individualways;
however, [lateProfessor of Theatre]
Dr. ArnoldPowell decisively shaped
myperspectivebothduring and after
college.”
After graduating fromBSC, Cruse
was awarded aplaywriting fellowship
toPenn StateUniversity, butwas
unfocusedon grad school at the time.
He evendabbled inprofessional acting
beforebeginninghiswork as a freelance
cartoonist in the 1970s. His cartoons
started attractingnationwide attention
andhavebeenmass produced for
numerous books andmagazines.
His original comic artworkhas
been included in gallery exhibits in
Birmingham,NewYork, andother
American cities aswell as overseas.
In the 1990s, hepublished an
internationally acclaimed graphic novel,
Stuck Rubber Baby
, which tells the story
of a youngman growingup in the
South in the 1960s andbecoming aware
of his ownhomosexuality alongside
society’s racial injustice.
Crusedescribes this image, which
hedrew for use as an award at the
2003 International Comics Festival
inAngouleme, France, as a “deity-
like guy” dripping cartoons fromhis
pen “Creativity.”
Crusehasworked as a cartooning
instructor at theNewYork School
of Visual Arts and theMassachusetts
Collegeof Liberal Arts. Althoughhe
no longer teaches, he is periodically
invited to speak andpresent slideshows
about hiswork atU.S. colleges and
universities.
Cruse
Creativity
byHowardCruse
)
