Comic Strips Obituary

Howard King – RIP

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D. D. Degg Published: March 11, 2026 Updated: March 11, 2026 1 minute 0 comments

Teacher, principal, superintendent, musician and cartoonist Howard King has passed away.

From the obituary:

Through the years, he also went on to earn his Master’s Degree in Education Administration from the University of Southern California and then to pursue a career in Education. Beginning his teaching career first as a teacher at University Place, he moved up through the ranks to Vice Principal to Principal, and on to becoming a Superintendent in several school districts…

Throughout those years, Howie became a self-taught musician who played piano/keyboards, guitar, and bass guitar and then played in country bands who traveled to play not only in Washington, but other states as well as Canada and even once in Nashville. He was known to many for writing and performing his many wonderful original song…

But here we will remember Howard as a cartoonist.

From the obituary:

Howie graduated from Joel E. Ferris High School, after which he moved to Seattle to attend the University of Washington, where he earned his Bachelor of Arts Degree. He was a fun and talented cartoonist for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer for a number of years, which led to a nationally syndicated cartoon strip entitled “The Wheelers.”

The Free Wheelers ran in The Tacoma News Tribune from August 5, 1991 to February 15, 1992.

The newspaper ran an introduction to the cartoonist who took on the name “Howie” as his nom de dessinateur.

Kathleen Merryman describes King’s cartooning background up to 1991:

In the mid-1970s after a time with KTW Howard began working for The Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

For a time frame Ray Collins left The Post-Intelligencer in 1979.