Howard Eugene Day (1951-23 September 1982) was a Canadian comic book artist best known for Marvel Comics' Star Wars licensed series and Master of Kung Fu. He was considered a mentor by independent comic writer/artist Dave Sim.
Gene Day began his career with Canadian underground and independent comics, for which he published the short-lived title Out of the Depths in 1974, and collaborated with Dave Sim on Oktoberfest Comics #1 (Now and Then Publications, 1976). Day also penciled for Skywald Publications's horror-comics magazines Psycho and Nightmare, starting in late 1974, as well as the science fiction-oriented "Orb."
For Mike Friedrich's early independent-comics company Star Reach, in 1977 and 1978, Day variously wrote/drew stories for the namesake anthology title Star Reach and its sister magazines Imagine and Quack, the latter a funny animal comic. Other work includes "Cheating Time!", written by Mark Burbey, in Dr. Wirtham's Comix & Stories #4 (1979).
Graphic novel and Marvel Comics
In 1979, Day wrote and drew an early graphic novel, Future Day (Flying Buttress Press), a hardcover collection of seven stories that he called a "graphic album". Dave Sim was letterer. Day also did illustrations for the fantasy role-playing games Arena of Khazan: A Tunnels & Trolls Solitaire Dungeon (1979) and Call of Cthulhu (1981).
Day began his seven-year association with Master of Kung Fu by inking penciler Mike Zeck starting with issue #76 (May 1976). He began doing finished art over Zeck's breakdowns starting with issue #94 (Nov. 1980), and became series penciler from #102-120 (July 1981 - Jan. 1983), after having split the work with Zeck on the double-sized #100. Day inked Carmine Infantino on Marvel's 1977-1986 Star Wars sequel series, occasionally doing finished art over breakdowns, and penciling #69 (March 1983), which takes place at Boba Fett's ancestral homeworld of Mandalore. Day also had stints inking The Mighty Thor, and Marvel Two-in-One featuring the Thing.
From 1985 to 1986, Renegade Press published four issues of Gene Day's Black Zeppelin, an anthology series primarily featuring stories and painted covers Day completed before his death, as well new contributions by Dave Sim, Bruce Conklin, Augustine Funnell, and Charles Vess. It was edited by Gail Day and Joe Erslavas. More of his work appeared posthumously in Caliber Comics' anthology series Day Brothers Presents, which also featured the work of Day's comics-artist brothers, David Day and Dan Day.
In 2002, Sim and his Cerebus collaborator Gerhard created The Day Prize, an annual award given to a comic creator chosen by them from the exhibitors at SPACE (Small Press & Alternative Comics Expo) held in Columbus, Ohio. The Day Prize was awarded at SPACE through 2008. Sim explained,
In 2007, Gene Day was inducted into the Joe Shuster Awards' Canadian Comic Book Creator Hall of Fame. Two years later, with the consent of Day's brothers, the Joe Shuster Awards founded the Gene Day Award for Canadian Self-Publishing, which honors Canadian comic book creators who self-published their work during the previous calendar year. The first Day Award was presented on September 26, 2009 by David Day and James Waley to Jesse Jacobs for his self-published mini-comic Blue Winter, Shapes in the Snow.
