Steve Gerber’s Howard the Duck
HOWARD THE DUCK began his comic book life as a mere background character in an issue of Marvel’s MAN-THING series. He was one of a disparate group of outcasts plucked from alternate worlds to help save the universe. He apparently plunged to an ignominious death before the story’s end and that was supposed to be the full extent of his story. Rabid fans bombarded Marvel with mail demanding the return of this wonderfully original character.
Some months later the waters were tested with a short back up strip featuring Howard in the pages of GIANT-SIZE MAN-THING. The fans still clamored for more so the next step was to put HTD into his own comic. HOWARD THE DUCK #1 soon appeared on newsstands all over North America and caused a huge sensation. The books disappeared from the racks in no time and soon copies of #1 were commanding huge prices in the collectors’ market. (It has been cynically opined that it was collectors themselves who bought up every copy of this book that they could in the hopes that they would soon be quite valuableâÂ?¦ somewhat of a self-fulfilling prophesy.)
First drawn by Frank Brunner and later by the more prolific Gene Colan, HTD quickly went from bi-monthly to monthly. Not only that but Gerber and Colan also began a syndicated newspaper strip (both dailies and Sundays) starring Howard. Perhaps a bit too esoteric for the funny pages, the strip was not to last for long. The comic book itself continued to enjoy a modicum of success until editorial interference put the final nails into the coffin.
Gerber’s battles with the editors over the content of “his” book created some bad blood and the stories became less and less interesting. The social satire and offbeat characterizations soon gave way to more superhero-ish nonsense. Other Marvel heroes made special guest appearances for no especially good reason. (“The Son of Satan”? “The Ringmaster”?) Gerber lost interest in his writing and fans lost interest in reading it. After 20-some issues, Gerber was pulled off the book and replaced with less capable scribes. The book limped along in sales until its 31st issue and was unceremoniously cancelled.
Incensed at their treatment by corporate comics Gerber and Colan invented a new character named STEWART THE RAT and had it published at Eclipse Comics (where they retained ownership and copyright). The story and art were analogous to their work on HTD but they were able to be a bit freer and looser with the material. They no longer had to cater to a pre-determined “kiddie market” and dumb down the material for a younger readership. It was a no-holds-barred social satireâÂ?¦ the kind of book HTD could have been had they gotten carte blanche in the first place.
Gerber took Marvel to court to assert his moral ownership of the character that he created. He maintained that as the actual originator the character he should own the copyright and be allowed to take the character with him when he left Marvel. Marvel stuck by their nefarious “work-for-hire” policies, which asserted that anything and everything an employee created while in their employ, becomes company property. Gerber and Jack Kirby collaborated on DESTROYER DUCK, a superhero parody that satirically lampooned his travails as a Marvel employee. The revenue generated by the sales of that first issue were to help finance his court case.
The case dragged on for a while and was soon settled out of court. The exact settlement terms were undisclosed but the upshot of it all was that Marvel maintained their copyright on the character and Gerber went away quietly. DESTROYER DUCK carried on for 8 or 9 issues but after that first issue it never seemed to go anywhere. Gerber’s writing was never as sharp as it was in HTD’s best stories and DD faded into obscurity. Soon after he gave up on comics altogether, putting all his energy into creating Saturday morning cartoons.
HTD eventually re-appeared in a brand spanking new incarnation, a black and white bi-monthly magazine that could feature more “adult” material than a regular Comics-Code-approved book. Unfortunately the concept of “adult” only extended as far as Howard’s co-star Beverly appearing topless. The stories turned out to be even more puerile and simplistic than ever. Once again, Gerber had nothing to do with the book and it cruised on, uninspired and directionless, for eight issues.
George Lucas, of all people, suddenly took an interest in the cartoon fowl and felt that the character would translate well to film. It’s unknown if Lucas was entranced by the earlier, well-written Gerber series or the later limp and lifeless versionâÂ?¦ but judging from the film you can make a pretty good guess. The film is truly awful in every aspect and it pretty much ended any commercial viability for the continuation of HTD in any form.
Steve Gerber returned to the world of comics briefly in 1996. He wrote a SAVAGE DRAGON/DESTROYER DUCK team-up comic in which he asserted his copyright on a character named LEONARD THE DUCK (ostensibly it was HTD with a name change and slight physical make-over). He claimed that the “soul” of the original HTD was now residing in the “body” of LTD and that he was now wholly the property of Gerber. To confuse the matter even more Gerber returned to write another six-issue HOWARD THE DUCK mini-series for Marvel’s Max Comics imprint in 2002. Perversely he transformed Howard into a rat in the first issue and kept him in that form until the story’s conclusion.
There’s no telling if HOWARD THE DUCK has any sort of future in comics or any other medium but one thing is for certainâÂ?¦ it will be interesting.
