Howard Cruse (1944-2019) was the first openly gay cartoonist of the 1970s and 1980s, and the first to introduce realistic gay themes into his work. He is best known from his 1995 graphic novel ; the comic strip , published in from 1983 to 1989; and his work as the founding editor of Kitchen Sink Press's (1980-1984).

Howard Russell Cruse was born in Birmingham, Alabama, on May 2, 1944 to Clyde and Irma Russell Cruse. He attended Indian Springs School and Birmingham-Southern College, where he studied art and theater. After graduating from Birmingham-Southern in 1968, Cruse studied playwriting at Pennsylvania State University for a semester. He then returned to Alabama, where he worked as an art director and puppeteer at a television station in Birmingham and drew the comic strip for the . Cruse's was also published in underground comix by Kitchen Sink Press beginning in 1972. was the first of Cruse's comics to include a gay character, Headrack; the 1976 strip "Gravy on Gay," in which Headrack vents about his experiences with homophobia, was the beginning of Cruse's career as an openly gay comics artist.

Cruse moved to New York City in 1977. He art directed magazine until 1978, when he became a full time freelance cartoonist and illustrator. Denis Kitchen, of Kitchen Sink Press, asked Cruse to edit in 1980. Cruse agreed on the condition that be evenly divided between gay and lesbian artists. In addition to editing the series' first four issues, Cruse's contributions to included "Billy Goes Out" (1980) and "Jerry Mack" (1981). In 1983, he began to draw the comic strip , which was published in from 1983 until 1989. He was a friend and mentor to the comics artists Alison Bechdel and Jennifer Camper, among others.

Cruse's comic strips and humorous illustrations appeared in and numerous other national magazines. Five books were published compiling Cruse's own comic strips and stories from underground comix and elsewhere during his lifetime: (1986); (1987); (1989); (1990); and (2001).

Cruse's graphic novel was published in 1995 by Paradox Press, a division of DC Comics. won Eisner and Harvey Awards as well as a United Kingdom Comic Art Award and a British Comics Creators Guild Award. Andreas Knigge's translation, won a Luchs literary award in Germany, and Jean-Paul Jennequin's French translation won the 2002 Prix de la Critique at the Angouleme International Comics Festival. Cruse's seventh book, a collaboration with Jeanne E. Shaffer, was published by Prometheus Books in April 2004. Cruse also self-published a children's book, in 2008.

Cruse was a committed advocate for LGBTQ+ rights—for which he and his partner, Ed Sedarbaum, shared the 1993 Stonewall Award—as well as issues related to freedom of expression and parody. His 1981-1983 column "Loose Cruse" addressed the Walt Disney Productions v. Air Pirates legal battle. He also contributed to the 2000-2004 Little Sisters Book and Art Emporium v. Canada censorship case: a Vancouver, British Columbia Commission of Customs and Revenue official refused to import two comics which Little Sisters bookstore had ordered from the United States, and on the grounds that the works' contents were obscene. The bookstore filed suit in Canadian court. Cruse provided expert witness testimony in his capacity as a comics artist on the bookstore's behalf.

Don Higdon (1950-1993), an actor, was Howard Cruse's first long term partner. They lived together in Birmingham, Alabama, and Atlanta, Georgia, from 1969 until the end of their relationship in 1973. Higdon died in 1993 in Los Angeles, California. In 1979, Cruse met and began a relationship with the community organizer Ed Sedarbaum in New York City. Cruse and Sedarbaum lived together in Jackson Heights, Queens, for 25 years. They then moved to Williamstown, Massachusetts, where they were married in 2004.

Howard Cruse died of lymphoma in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, on November 26, 2019.