TRAPPED IN A WORLD HE NEVER MADE
REMEMBERING STEVE GERBER

Hello folks. While attending a Jack Kirby tribute panel [hosted by Mark Evanier] at Wonder-Con this year [2008] in San Francisco—I was reminded that Steve Gerber passed over to comic writer heaven on February 10th, and it got me thinking of all the great comics that Mr. Gerber wrote, created, or just graced the pages of with his unique creative spin.

After you get past the initial: “Oh yeah, that’s the guy that created Howard the Duck …” you quickly realize Steve Gerber was a good deal more than just the guy who gave the world a cigar-smoking duck. The more comics I thought of in terms of what I actually bought and read from the local liquor store comic rack in the 1970s … the more Steve Gerber titles that popped up. He must have been writing at least a third of the comic books I read at the time. They include:

Captain America (1978)

Chamber of Chills (what a great title!)

Crazy

Creatures on the Loose (another great one!)

Daredevil (1973 to 1975).

The Defenders (I don’t care what anyone says; I loved The Defenders).

Howard the Duck.

Iron Man (1973).

Man-Thing.

Marvel Comics Super Special No. 1: [featuring the rock band] Kiss.

Marvel Spotlight: Son of Satan (some of the best comics of that time period)

Metal Men (1976)

Mister Miracle

Shanna the She-Devil (Don’t knock it ‘till you’ve tried it)

Tales of the Zombie

And he popped up randomly on other titles as well, but what does any of this have to do with Jack Kirby?

Kirby is often cited as the creator of Thundarr the Barbarian, but it was actually Steve Gerber who created the Thundarr concept for Joe Ruby’s Ruby-Spears Productions in 1980. Alex Toth then created the initial character designs and Jack Kirby stepped in and spiced the whole thing up with additional characters, Kirby magic, etcetera. Kirby also contributed to Gerber’s Destroyer Duck project that helped fund Gerber’s case against Marvel Comics, concerning rights pertaining to ol’ Howard the Duck.

Howard was an actual pop phenomenon for a short time in the 1970s. I clearly remember non-comic book reading people talking about Howard the Duck and buying the comic as it had reached the level of a strange and cool pop culture curiosity, sort of like the Marvel pet rock for a few months. I bought the first issue because it had Spider-Man on the cover … but soon found that Howard didn’t even need Spidey’s web to hold his reality together, just a man named Steven Gerber with an artist named Val Mayerik. Those guys were definitely thinking with the door wide open, and we’re all of course a little better off with Howard here on Earth: “trapped in a world he never made.”

Of course we probably could have done without the Howard the Duck film … but let’s blame that one on George Lucas.

Some great Steve Gerber titles recently released in the Marvel Essentials line of reprints are: The Defenders, Howard the Duck, and Man-Thing. I just picked up my Man-Thing Volume 1 today, so now you know where I’ll be for the next few nights before going to sleep—in a mysterious swamp full of monsters and a whole lot of imagination.

Oh yeah, and a brief appearance by a cigar-smoking duck.

Bradley Mason Hamlin

-brad@retrocrush.com

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