Trapped in a World He Never Made

Steve Gerber, a fringe player in the Marvel Universe who created a cult sensation with a cranky duck who didn’t like to wear pants – no, the other one – has died of pulmonary fibrosis at the age of 60. Gerber developed the Howard the Duck character, who had fallen to earth from his home planet, a planet where man evolved from ducks, in the late 1970s, first in guest appearances in Adventure into Fear, then getting his own comic. Howard takes up residence in Cleveland, doing battle with Phelch the Space Turnip and bedding Beverly, a human hottie. The comic was intended as a satire of the 1970s, with characters based on Anita Bryant and the Rev. Sun Myung Moon. He ran for president on the All Night Party ticket, losing to Jimmy Carter. Howard was resurrected in the 1986 movie that, Greg’s protestations notwithstanding, sucked. Gerber also produced the comics Omega the Unknown, Man-Thing, Foolkiller, Sludge and the craptastic Conan-in-space knockoff Thundarr the Barbarian cartoon.