Essential Howard The Duck
by Steve Gerber
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Book Summary Information
Author: Steve GerberEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2002-03-11
ISBN: 0785108319
Number of pages: 592
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Book Reviews of Essential Howard The Duck
Book Review: "Life's too far in the future to think about. Right now, I could use a good cigar."
Summary: 5 Stars
In a strange and very perverse sense, it might just be appropriate that the appallingly awful HTD movie is Howard's predominant image in the public eye. Why, you ask? Well, I reply, because Howard himself was never really understood or appreciated by the world around him; that's the entire point. (And yeah, I wish the movie had been better, too. I'm just choosing to enjoy the irony.)
The tag-line for Steve Gerber's magnum opus was "Trapped in a world he never made!" and that pretty much sums it up. Howard is the epitome of anyone from one world mistakenly tranplanted into another. Visually, imagine if one of the myriad cartoon characters from the kiddie reels somehow got injected into a Martin Scorcese film. How would D***** Duck (pick your fave) react to a world of junkies, street thugs, dehumanizing media figures and stupid, indifferent politicians? Granted, there are assorted super-villain types and the occasional super-hero guest star here and there (it's a Marvel comic, after all), but they're not really the point, any more than the predictable parodies of at-the-time crazes like Kung Fu, Star Wars or the Exorcist. Underneath the slapstick, the thankfully abbreviated battles and the wry wisequacks -- er, wiseCRACKs, that is -- there's a substantial amount of insightful social commentary and genuine angst.
Of the assorted artists involved, Gene "the Dean" Colan remains the definitive HTD artist; who else could so convincingly merge the gothic banality of Cleveland streets and New York alleyways with the evolution-defying cartooniness of Howard's anatomy? WHo else could portray despair, madness, cynicism and just plain rage writ large across the face of a feathered critter who goes "BOOOIIINNNGGG!!" when he charges (reluctantly) into the fray? Let alone make a giant sea serpent wearing a top hat look scary?
But even Colan's excellent work takes a back seat (if only just barely) to Steve Gerber. Val Mayerik and other artists also turned in fine work on the series, but Gerber's writing could not be replaced. Possibly no other comic series of the '70's could have afforded this opportunity to break out of the genre's formulaic conventions, and possibly no other writer of the time could have made the most of such an opportunity anyway. If it helps, recall what Quentin Tarantino did for movies in the '90's, and then imagine the same sort of thing in comics, twenty years earlier. Then again, if that's too weird a notion to wrap your head around, don't sweat it; you'll still find a lot of humor to enjoy. Where else will you find a hero who flies across the world to his abducted girlfriend's rescue by winning a radio contest? ("I dunno...Grant, I guess.")
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