Comic Book Cats, number 27: Portia Prinz of the Glamazons #3, penciled by Carmine Infantino and written, inked & lettered by Richard Howell, published by Eclipse Comics in April 1987.
Yesterday I mentioned Richard Howell, so I felt it would be appropriate to showcase some cat-centric artwork that he himself worked on. Portia Prinz of the Gamazons was Howell’s fantasy soap opera that he originally self-published in the late 1970s, and a decade later revived as a six-issue miniseries published by Eclipse. Issue #3 contained “Secret Sorrows,” a four-page back-up story guest penciled by Silver Age legend Carmine Infantino.
The cat in this story is almost superfluous, basically just there to startle Lenore de Bar. I strongly suspect that Howell included a cat in this short simply because he is a huge cat lover. But that’s fine with me because I obviously love cats too.
I’m not sure how much of this is actually Infantino, since later in his career he usually just did layouts. Nevertheless, the collaboration between Infantino and Howell results in some genuinely beautiful artwork.
Regarding the cat, Howell informed me “Nathaniel’s cat Meredith was the likeness of my late, beloved Eustacia…who was still alive and draining blood from unfortunates at that point!” ????
I’m going to try to find an example of Howell’s penciling for a future Comic Book Cats installment.
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