In October, 1973, Marvel Comics’ muck-encrusted monstrosity, the Man-Thing — who’d first been introduced in the black-and-white Savage Tales #1 back in January, 1971, and had been holding down his own regular feature in Fear since July, 1972 — graduated into his own title at last.

But if anyone picked up this “Fear Fraught First Issue” expecting to get in on the ground floor of anything, they were likely disappointed once they turned past Frank Brunner’s excellent cover to find themselves smack dab in the middle of an ongoing storyline… and not exactly what you’d call a straightforward, uncomplicated storyline, either… 

Writer Steve Gerber, penciller Val Mayerik, and inker Sal Trapani picked up their story exactly where they’d left off at the end of Fear #19 — so if you’d missed that one back in September, 1973, you just had to hope that the expository text offered on the opening page was sufficient to bring you more or less up to speed.  (Truth to tell, if you were a typical comic-book reader of 1973, it probably was.) *  Naturally, however, as a reader of this blog, you should feel free to click on the link earlier in this paragraph to fill you in, or to refresh your memory, whenever you want.

Unfortunately for Korrek of Katharta, his exultation is premature — for hardly have the demon’s severed, hollowed body parts hit the ground then they leap up to attack him anew…

Howard the Duck had shown up in the final pages of Fear #19, but didn’t get an actual name until the next to last panel above.  Why “Howard”?  According to a 2002 interview with Steve Gerber published in Comic Book Creator #6 (Winter, 2014), he named the soon-to-be-famous waterfowl after a friend of his from high school “who used to go around imitating Donald Duck.”

This scene is the first time we readers have heard mention of “the dimension called Therea — home of the gods” — though we can infer it to be a realm in direct opposition to the earlier-referenced “dark domain of Sominus“, which has also been mentioned in previous stories.  (As best as your humble blogger has been able to determine, both names are original coinages of Steve Gerber.)

Would this absolutely insane two-panel cameo by Daredevil and the Black Widow been even more awesome if Gerber had managed to mirror it in the concurrently published issue of ol’ Hornhead’s own series (which he was also writing at this time, in case anybody didn’t already know)?  Maybe, but let’s be grateful for what we got, alright?

Jennifer Kale’s crack about Oral Roberts made me snicker in 1973, and still does.  (For those who only recognize the name as one belonging a private university in Tulsa, OK, be advised that Roberts was a famous preacher and faith healer who was on TV all the time in the Seventies — or at least he was in my home town of Jackson, MS.)

As we noted in our Fear #19 post, multiverse stories have become commonplace in 2023 — not just in comics, but throughout popular entertainment media.  Fifty years ago, however, the concepts being discussed above by Jennifer and Dakimh the Enchanter were probably novel ones to many readers.

Like virtually every other comics artist of his generation (and many later ones as well), Val Mayerik’s approach to the visual depiction of bizarre alien dimensions is strongly — and completely understandably — influenced by Steve Ditko’s work on “Doctor Strange” in the 1960s.

I can still recall how shocked I was by Howard the Duck’s sudden (apparent) demise, back in October, 1973; it just seemed like such a random, arbitrary event.  Naturally, it wasn’t Steve Gerber’s idea, as he told Marvel’s official fan club magazine FOOM in 1976: “I was asked to abandon him [i.e., Howard].  They were afraid that the appearance of the duck in the Man-Thing storyline was going to spoil the mood of that book, and so I killed him off about halfway into MAN-THING #1.”

Decades later, the writer provided further background details regarding Howard’s genesis as well as his abrupt exit in an interview published in Comic Book Artist #7 (Feb., 2000):

I really didn’t think about it at the time I plotted the story [for Fear #19], I just sent the plot out, and then the pages came back from Val, and I came into the office to get them so I could dialogue them, and I was looking at them, and I got this weird little grin on my face, and walked in to Don McGregor and Marv Wolfman’s office, and I said, “Roy [Thomas, Marvel’s editor-in-chief] is going to kill me!” [laughs]  They said, “Why?”  I said, “I put a duck in the ‘Man-Thing’ book!”  They said, “So what? It takes place in a swamp!” [laughs]  I said, “It’s not that kind of duck!” and I showed them the pages. [laughs]  They looked at them, and they said to me, “You’re right, Roy is going to kill you!” [laughter]  So, I figured I had better head off the problem, and I took the pages to Roy right away, and I said, “Look, I did this story with the multiple dimensions and reality… and this.”  And he said, “Okay, get it out of there as fast as you can.” [laughter]  And so, we did! Roy never actually said, “Kill the duck,” but he made it absolutely clear to me that he didn’t want him around by the middle of the next issue…  I complied, and we sent the duck spinning off into limbo. I never figured we’d bring him back.

Roy Thomas gave his side of the story for a Gerber/Howard respective in Back Issue #31 (Nov., 2008):

I had been the editor when I sort of had [Steve] kill off the character…  He could always bring him back if it turned out that people wanted him.  I wanted to get him out of there because I didn’t know how readers would take it.  They had a tendency, in the past, to get almost hostile about humorous characters, like the Impossible Man a few years earlier.

As it turned out, people did want him — Howard, that is.  We’ll have more to say about that a bit later on, but for now, on with our story…

Just in case you’re wondering, the panel shown directly above appeared in print as a vertically-oriented full-page splash, rather than as a double-page spread.  As for “the Gerber curse“… well, rather than lose track of the current story’s plot entirely, let’s take that up in a footnote, OK?**

The Overmaster orders Dakimh to clear out of the way; in reply, the Enchanter taunts him, declaring that his conquest is incomplete until he defeats his “ultimate enemy… the Man-Object!”  To which the Overmaster responds by reaching up to clutch at his scalp, and then pulling…

Yes, it’s the Netherspawn — aka Thog — whom we first met in Fear #11, and then again two issues later, in Fear #13.

Thog closes with the Man-Thing, and as they struggle, we’re treated to captions telling us how the Netherspawn’s power of flame “destroys — but it can also part the curtains of darkness and ignorance,” depending on the wielder.  Meanwhile, the Man-Thing applies his power of brute strength to the Overmaster’s automobile, “the vehicle which as come to symbolize man’s material lust“, hurling it at Thog and apparently crushing him.  Afterwards, we’re confidently assured that “the brief scene we have just witnessed is pregnant with philosophical implications.”  Um, if you say so, Steve.

Following this is a one-page scene of two barbarian minions of the Overmaster attempting to tackle the Man-Thing on their own, and then quickly finding it to be a really bad idea.  It feels like filler — or maybe someone just wanted to make sure that no new reader would finish this comic without first having learned that “whatever knows fear, burns at the Man-Thing’s touch!!”  Anyway, you already know the drill, so we’ll just note that Manny gives the guys very painful chest-burns but doesn’t kill them — and then move on to the next bit, as the Netherspawn rises up out of the melted slag of his car, none the worse for wear…

In 1973, my sixteen-year-old Southern Baptist self couldn’t — or, at least, didn’t — accept the metaphysical implications of Gerber’s “gods”.  Even so, I still could appreciate how groundbreaking it was for this sort of subject to be discussed in a standard, color, Code-approved comic book at all.  As a religious person, I thought that was pretty cool.

And in 2023?  Well, I haven’t subscribed to any kind of meaningful faith in God, or gods, in many years.  On the other hand, I do believe in dogs…

Second half of a two-parter or no, Man-Thing #1 got the muck-monster’s new title off to a strong start.  For your humble blogger, “Battle for the Palace of the Gods” still stands as one of the best stories of this feature’s original run, which (counting the Fear issues) ultimately lasted three years.

Perhaps I wouldn’t feel that positively, had the loss of Howard the Duck been final.  But, as things played out, I wouldn’t have to mourn the mouthy mallard forever.  Evidently, the calls to bring Howard back started early, and only grew stronger over time… something which came as a real surprise to Steve Gerber.  As the writer told FOOM in 1976:

My own feeling was that I wished he could be brought back, but I truly felt he was lost, and I figured the readers would probably not respond to this at all.  Everytime you try to do something a little outrageous — or, at least, at that time — something outside the normal bounds of Marvel reality, you got letters protesting and saying, “Why are you being silly with our funny books?” (Laughter.)  “Don’t you know funny books are supposed to be serious!”  And this time must have been the exception that proves the rule, y’know.  People were taken with him immediately.  The office was flooded with letters; there was the one wacko who sent a duck carcass from Canada.. saying, “Murderers, how dare you kill off this duck?”  There was the incident at a San Diego Comics Convention where somebody asked Roy, I believe, who was speaking there, whether Howard would ever be coming back, and the entire auditorium stood up and applauded.  [Marvel publisher] Stan [Lee] was being asked about it everyplace he went on the college circuit.  It was decided as a result of those incidents to give Howard another shot…

Even with such popular demand, it would take a while — sixteen months, to be precise — before Howard the Duck’s long, long fall finally ended in a safe (?) landing.  But when it finally did, it proved well worth the wait.  I look forward to re-living that moment in your company, come February, 2025.

 

 

 

*Marvel actually semi-apologized on the letters page of Man-Thing #1 for launching the title with the second half of a two-part story; saying that they’d have preferred not to do it that way, but “schedules will be schedules”.

**In November, 1973 — a month after the release of Man-Thing #1 — the letters column of Daredevil #108 led off with a special message.  Below at left, you’ll find that message as it actually appeared in print; below at right, you’ll find its mirror image:

As you may recall, we addressed those “blue surface-men” in a Sub-Mariner post some months back — but since your humble blogger’s post regarding DD #105 skipped that comic’s infamous seventh page completely, here it is for your reference: