Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Howard the Duck MAX by Steve Gerber Comic Book / Howard the Duck. Howard The Duck is one of the strangest comic book characters ever published by Marvel Comics, best known today because of its movie adaptation, believed by many to be one of the worst films ever made; this is unfortunate, as the comic was both funny and full of social criticism, and was one of Marvel's best known titles during the 1970s. While not an underground comic in of itself, Howard the Duck is widely cited as an example of the underground comix movement's influence on mainstream media. The character was apparently created as a sight gag; in "Adventure into Fear " #19 (December, 1973), in a Man-Thing story involving the "Nexus of All Realities" characters from several universes appeared, many of them being obvious homages to fictional characters such as Conan the Barbarian and (in Howard's case) Donald Duck. However, writer Steve Gerber, known for both his love of strange characters and playing with readers' expectations, decided to continue using Howard, and convinced Marvel to give the character his own series. Although Marvel had to strike a deal with Disney in order to use the character, including such things as requiring Howard to wear pants , the character proved popular, most likely due to Gerber's writing. Gerber had the "duck" accidentally transported to Cleveland, where the "hairless apes" (as Howard always refers to them) refused to believe he was anything but a midget in a duck costume and treated him as a weirdo. "Trapped in a world he never made" (the series' catchphrase) Howard tried to live a normal life (and got a series of jobs, such as driving a taxi) but kept running into bizarre people and creatures and ended up having to confront them. The vast majority of these were just wannabe supervillains with silly names and goals such as "Doctor Bong" or humorous menaces like a vampiric cow. More importantly, the series used the short-tempered and sarcastic duck as a way to snark on modern human society. At one point, Howard even runs for President of the United States (!) only to retire after a false accusation of having sex with his friend, a human woman named Beverly Switzler. Howard, despite running into superheroes occasionally, was no superhero himself, and had no superhuman powers (other than the occasional unexpected skill such as "Quack Fu") though he still did end up helping people, directly or indirectly, mostly because of Beverly. The character's popularity led to his being adapted into the live-action movie, but since other than the Beverly/Howard romance, nothing from the comics made it in, especially not the humor, fans of the character hated it. It was universally poorly-received among critics and fans alike, and was a major flop for Marvel, seemingly killing any chance of more stories involving Howard. Thankfully, time has been kind to him and he makes a cameo appearance in The Stinger of the hit and critically acclaimed film Guardians of the Galaxy , confirming him as a canon part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe continuity. He even got a new ongoing series —his first since The '80s— starting in March 2015, with Chip Zdarsky and Joe Quinones at the helm. Howard was also the cause of a legal dispute between Marvel and Gerber, who claimed to own the character. This caused Gerber to leave the company and led to many years of legal wranglings; in the end, the situation was settled with Marvel keeping ownership of Howard. Howard has appeared occasionally in various Marvel titles since the 1970s, and a few years ago starred in a miniseries (again by Gerber) that made open references to his sexual relationship with Beverly (it was part of Marvel's adult-oriented MAX line, which may not be a canonical part of the Marvel Universe.) He was one of the major parodied characters in the Amalgam Universe , merged with DC Comics's Lobo as Lobo The Duck . Seriously. He appeared again as an agent of the dimensional-patrolling agency ARMOR in the "Marvel Zombies" comics, starring alongside various heroes such as Aaron Stack, the Machine Man, and also had an appearance in the LEGO Marvel Superheroes game as an unlockable character. More on Steve Gerber, Howard the Duck, and Omega the Unknown. I was going to do this in the comments to Brad Curran's post from yesterday, but I felt like reminding everyone that I have posting privileges here. So. As I said in that thread, I strongly sympathize with Steve Gerber's attempts to gain some measure of control over the characters he created while working for Marvel, including Howard the Duck and Omega the Unknown. Of course, I'm a little biased. Gerber is my favorite writer to work in the comics factory system, ever, period, full stop. And, on the other hand, I don't have any particular attachment to Marvel as a brand. I like plenty of Marvel product, from Joe Maneely's stuff back in the fifties to Supervillain Team-Up: Modok's 11, but I certainly dig plenty of Marvel's characters. But I don't have any particular loyalty to Marvel Comics. So now that I got my cards on the table, lemme provide some context, starting with this summation of Steve Gerber's Howard the Duck lawsuit. This is coming from estimable comics historian and writer Mark Evanier, so it carries a little more weight than anything I could say. Link here.As to the results of the lawsuit: Well, there was a court decision, and Gerber does not own Howard the Duck. On the other hand, Marvel is supposed to put "created and written by Steve Gerber" in all books featuring Howard. And that's pretty much all we know: The exact details of the arrangement between Marvel and Gerber have never been disclosed. And just to muddy the waters a bit, artist Frank Brunner claims to have co-plotted Howard the Duck for a few issues, and I've never heard his claim disputed. So Gerber claiming to be sole writer seems to be untrue. Moving on: Gerber's Moral argument is a little more complicated. This was originally printed on the Howard the Duck Yahoo Group, and reprinted in Rich Johnson's Lying in the Gutters. As best I can tell, Jonathan is a very nice guy who was acting with the best of intentions. His interest in reviving OMEGA comes out of passion for the material, not purely monetary considerations. "I misjudged him, and I offer my sincerest apologies. "That doesn't change my mind about the OMEGA revival itself, however. I still believe that writers and artists who claim to respect the work of creators past should demonstrate that respect by leaving the work alone -- particularly if the original creator is still alive, still active in the industry, and, as is typically the case in comics, excluded from any financial participation in the use of the work. "Over the last decade or so, it's become the trend in the industry for creators just to let these things slide. By lodging even an informal protest, a creator always risks appearing pathetic and whiny to the fans or threatening to a current employer. No one wants to be thought of that way. "Remaining silent, however, would implicitly condone the comic book industry's business practices up through the early 1980s and the means by which publishers claim to have procured ownership of characters and story material in those days. "Remaining silent would also perpetuate the fiction promulgated by publishers that 'we all knew' what rights we were supposedly giving up by signing our paychecks. (In those days, the publishers' favored instrument for acquiring rights to material was a one-party 'contract' printed or stamped on the back of a writer or artist's paycheck. This so-called 'agreement' set forth terms of employment that were rarely if ever agreed to by the writer or artist prior to the start of work.) The truth is, we didn't all know. Most of us had no idea, until the Siegel & Shuster case came to light again in the late 1970s. (In fact, there are serious questions regarding the ownership of 'Omega The Unknown' that Marvel has probably never thought to ask.) "When a writer of Jonathan's stature agrees to participate in a project like this, he also, intentionally or not, tacitly endorses the inequities of the old system. I've tried for a couple of decades now to convince the rest of the industry that those inequities will end only when writers and artists -- whether celebrities from other fields, like Jonathan, or longtime comics professionals, like myself -- say 'no' to projects that make no provision for the original creators. I've failed. I find that endlessly frustrating. This post is a follow-up to his original diatribe, which was impassioned but came off as rather silly, even to a huge Gerber-booster like me. (Gerber calls Lethem's actions "unforgivable" and states that he has "made an enemy for life.") In a recent interview with Wizard Magazine, Gerber says: So, look-coming at this in a very general way-it would just be really nice if, in the case of a character created by someone who is still living and still active in the industry, the publisher would think to approach the that person and say, "Hey, we'd like to do something new with this character. Would you like to try it again?" How much effort does that take? How much does it cost in editorial pomp and self-importance, especially weighed against the good will it would create?*SNIP* Now, the Omega matter happened slightly differently.