A few months ago, Howard Porter had given up drawing. The artist who made the battles of Keystone City come alive during Flash: Rogues War and drew a world-conqueuring Darkseid for Grant Morrison in JLA had put down his pencil and decided to walk away from being a comic book artist. For good.
He was driving a school bus instead.
Comic book readers simply saw the name Howard Porter disappear from
solicitations a couple years ago. But for the artist, the last year has
been a gradual climb out of a low point that threatened to end his
creative career, an injury making it impossible for him to even feel a
pencil in his hand.
This week sees the return of the name Howard Porter to comics with the release of DC Universe: Decisions #2, the artist doing interior work on the comic before becoming the regular penciler on Titans in November. Newsarama talked to Porter about the injury and what got him back to drawing.
Newsarama: Howard, it's been mentioned a few times that you had a hand injury that sidelined you from comics for awhile. What happened?
Howard Porter: I cut my thumb on broken glass.
NRAMA: How did it happen?
HP: Well, the kind of long version is, a friend of mine came
over on a Sunday, and I was trying to cheer him up because he was down.
So I said to him and my wife, let's make some steaks, I'll make some
martinis, and we'll watch a movie. But when I was making a martini, the
shaker broke. The martini shaker we had was glass with a metal top. So
when I put the top on it, the glass shattered and my hand came down on
all the broken glass.
It cut the inside of my thumb, right where you would hold a pencil, so
that it looked like a Pac Man mouth in the side of my thumb. I
immediately looked at it and said, "Oh, that's not good."
NRAMA: You were working on Trials of Shazam when this happened, right? You were unable to finish it?
HP: Yeah. That's a low point for me. My work there. It started
out OK, but then the pressures of having to produce in that format were
pretty overwhelming. The task of doing all the art and the deadlines,
without the inker and the colorist... it was tough. And the injury
didn't help, obviously. I ended up having to get someone to help me
with the colors. I was working in a cast. My whole hand was in a cast.
NRAMA: What exactly happened to your hand as a result of the injury?
HP: It turns out I severed the nerve and almost the entire
tendon. There was a little tendon still hanging on. So I had to have an
operation to repair all that. And in the meanwhile, I have no feeling
on the inside of my thumb. I cut the nerve that goes to the side of my
thumb that would hold a pencil, so I have no feeling there.
NRAMA: So you can't even feel the pencil in your hand?
HP: Not really. It's like it's numb, like it fell asleep or as if there's Novacaine in there.
I was going through physical therapy, and the scarring caused around
the tendon doesn't allow me full movement of my thumb because it's
restricting the tendon. And I have what they call trigger finger
because there's a knot in it, and it will snap every once in a while,
like clench up or something. It's painful. But you know, worse things
could have happened.
NRAMA: But it was bad enough that you decided to quit drawing?
HP: I was initially told it would be back at 100 percent after I
healed. It takes about six months for the nerve to re-grow. And at
about six months, when my thumb was still numb, I was pretty
distraught. And I was going to physical therapy, so I asked if the
movement was going to get any better, and they said no, this is
probably where it's going to be. So I thought, why am I going to
physical therapy? So I quit.
And I tried to draw, but I couldn't really hold the pencil correctly.
And I got pretty depressed. And I just gave up. I just said, I'm not
going to draw anymore. And it took a couple of months for me to accept
that, to accept that I wouldn't be able to do this for a living. And
then, after just sitting around going nuts, playing video games, I knew
I couldn't do that anymore either. I had to get out of the house and be
productive in some manner. And so I searched for a job. I wanted to do
something that, I don't know, something that would make me feel like I
was helping people, because I was in such a low place. So I applied to
the Humane Society and didn't get that job. But I ended up taking a job
as a school bus driver.
NRAMA: You don't have kids of your own, do you?
HP: No. But I have plenty of nieces and nephews and god-children.
NRAMA: But now you have the kids on your bus!
HP: Oh yeah. Seventy of them. Around 60 or 70, depending on the day.
NRAMA: How many months were you working as a bus driver?
HP: I started up in January. You have to get a license and go
through training and all that. So then I finished out the whole rest of
the year with the kids. And then I worked through the summer as well,
with special needs children. But while I was driving, after awhile, I
just decided to start carrying a sketchbook with me. I was trying to
draw with the pencil held between my first finger and my ring finger.
NRAMA: So on the other side of the pointer finger?
HP: Yeah. I was holding the pencil that way. And finally, I
graduated to holding it with my thumb. And things got a little better
and a little better.
And over the summer, [DC editor] Mike Carlin called up and asked if I'd be able to finish up this Jonny Quest
book that I'd started years ago. So I did finish up the second issue,
which I was working on, but they put the book on hold. I don't know
what's going to happen with that. But from there, I did some covers and
things. And I worked on the Decisions mini-series. And things
were going pretty well. So toward the end of the summer, I told my bus
driving boss that I wasn't going to be able to work all the hours
because I'm going to be doing more drawing.
NRAMA: But you're still driving?
HP: Yeah, I'm just working there in the afternoons while I draw
in the mornings and evenings. I actually love driving the bus. At first
it was very stressful. And now I'm pretty comfortable driving it and
being aware of what's around me. I'm able to pay attention to
everything and still hear what the kids say, and they say the funniest
things and do the funniest things. I've got tons of stories. My wife
says I should write them all down and do a book. I had this one kid who
pulled out this thing he'd made that looked like a comic book. It had
crayon on the cover and it said, "Star Wars!" in red and black crayon.
I was like, "Wow, dude, that is so cool!" So he sits down on the bus,
but as he's getting off and walking to his parents, I said, "May the
force be with you." He steps dead in his tracks, and he turns around,
his eyes wide and his mouth open, and he says, "May the force be with
YOU." And then he puts his hand to his chest and says, "Always."
[laughs] I remember being like that.
NRAMA: Do the kids know you draw comic books?
HP: No.
NRAMA: You should tell them!
HP: Nah, they don't care about me. They just want to talk with
their friends. But I'll bring in the Johnny DC books, 'cause I still
get my comps. So I'll give them comics every once in awhile.
This is a long, boring story. Nobody's going to want to hear this.
NRAMA: We'll figure out a way to make it good.
HP: Put a karate fight in the middle of it. That always makes a movie better.
NRAMA: Snakes. We need snakes. Snakes on the bus. And zombies.
HP: [laughs] Yeah, zombie snakes work.
NRAMA: What covers have you done?
HP: I did a War That Time Forgot cover. And Titans. I did issues #2 and #4 of Decisions. This was all fairly recently. I've only been drawing again for a couple months.
NRAMA: Are you pretty happy with the way your art looks now? It's got to look different, doesn't it?
HP: I don't think it looks different because of my hand. I think
everything you draw comes from your head, not your limb. It's up in
your noggin. I mean, there are people who draw using their mouths and
whatever. But it looks different because I haven't drawn for so long.
And I'm rusty. But the rust is coming off. And I inked a lot of it
myself. I don't know if I'm going to continue doing that or not.
NRAMA: And you're the regular penciler on Titans now, right?
HP: Yeah. I'm going to be doing at least a couple story arcs
coming up. And I'm working with Judd [Winick] again. I enjoy his
scripts. And there's a JLA vs. Titans story that's coming up, so that
will be neat. I'll get to draw the JLA again.
NRAMA: Let's go back for a second to when you first picked up
that pencil again, Howard. You had a sketchbook there with you for
whenever you weren't driving?
HP: I took it with me in the bus. There's time that you're just
sitting there waiting to be called to get in line to pick up the kids.
NRAMA: You couldn't stay away from drawing.
HP: I guess not. That's my first love. But it was frustrating at
first. I tried holding the pencil different ways. I even tried using
one of those brace things, but it didn't feel right. So I opted to go
with a little pain.
NRAMA: Holding the pencil is painful?
HP: Yeah, but the more I do it, the less it hurts.
NRAMA: Let's hope you do it so much that it never hurts again.
HP: That would be great.
