Early life and career

Ernie Hart was part of the Timely Comics "animator" bullpen ... separate from the superhero group producing comics featuring the Human Torch, the Sub-Mariner and Captain America ... along with others including Vincent Fago, Jim Mooney, Mike Sekowsky, and future MAD Magazine cartoonists Dave Berg and Al Jaffee, creating such movie tie-in and original funny-animal comics as Terrytoons Comics, Animated Funny Comic-Tunes and Mighty Mouse.

Super Rabbit, squarely in the Mighty Mouse tradition of an animal superhero in lighthearted children's adventures, debuted in Comedy Comics #14 (March 1943). Hart also worked on "Pookey the Poetical Pup" and "Ding-a-Ling the Little Bellboy" in Krazy Komics; "Wacky Willie" and "Andy Wolf & Bertie Mouse" in Terrytoons Comics; "Skip O'Hare" in Comedy Comics; and the heroic-adventure feature "Victory Boys" for Timely. Other Golden Age comics work includes "Egbert and the Count" and "Marmaduke Mouse" for Quality Comics' Hit Comics.

Later life and career

Hart remained on staff for Marvel Comics' 1950s predecessor Atlas Comics, and briefly freelanced for Marvel during the 1960s Silver Age. His '60s scripts, some of them from plots by editor-in-chief Stan Lee, included the feature "The Human Torch" in Strange Tales #110-111 (July-Aug. 1963); feature "Ant-Man" in Tales to Astonish #44-48 (June-Oct. 1963); and the single comic Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #8 (Jan. 1969). Hart's work also appears in the "nudie cutie" comic, The Adventures of Pussycat (1968), a one-shot that reprinted some strips of the same-name feature that appeared in Marvel publisher Martin Goodman's line of men's magazines.

Hart, occasionally signing his work "EHH", also did stories for Charlton Comics, including writing and drawing issues of the horse series Rocky Lane's Black Jack in 1959.

He made his residence in Clearwater, Florida at the time of his death, though his death certificate was issue in Connecticut.

Al Jaffee: "Ernie was a very lively guy; very funny and fun to be with. He was an editor with Don Rico, and the two of them shared an office. Both men could write and draw.... Ernie did humor work and Don edited certain titles. This was all post-World War II. One day, Stan called me in and said, 'I want you to edit the teenage books.' That may have been because Ernie left the company, because I do not recall Ernie editing anything but teenage and humor".