As we discussed in last December’s post about the second issue of Marvel Comics’ Howard the Duck, the departure from the series of artist Frank Brunner — who, along with having drawn the first two Howard solo strips (published as backups in Giant-Size Man-Thing #4 and #5), and the first two issues of the Duck’s own title, had also contributed to the plotting of HtD #1 — was less than entirely amicable. Among the complaints later aired by Brunner in an article published in The Comics Journal #51 (Nov., 1979), the “Master of Quack Fu” parody featured the third issue was his idea as well — though he received no credit in the book itself, nor was he remunerated so much as “a thin dime” (his own words) for his contribution.
One can easily see why Brunner might have been annoyed about that. On the other hand, given that he and writer Steve Gerber had already parodied the horror genre in GSMT #5, sword-and-sorcery in HtD#1, and both superheroes and science fiction in HtD #2, the martial arts genre would seem a logical next step for skewering. On the other other hand, given the dearth of obvious media parodies in the next several issues of the series, it seems quite possible that Gerber was generally less interested in that sort of thing than Brunner had been. So there’s that.
In any event, the concept ultimately made it to press without any direct evidence of further involvement by Brunner; although the artist noted in his Comics Journal piece that he’d worked up a cover layout that incorporated the “Master of Quack Fu” phrase, he didn’t claim that Marvel had actually used his design. So, lacking any evidence to the contrary, let’s assume that the cover shown above is wholly the work of the two artists who signed it — i.e., Rich Buckler and Steve Leialoha, the latter of whom had come on board as the series’ interior inker with issue #1, and who would remain in that capacity for another year.
As to the question of who’d be pencilling the book’s interior pages in the wake of Brunner’s exit, a new regular artist would be in place by issue #4; in the meantime, this third installment would be illustrated by Marvel’s premier pinch-hitter in such situations, John Buscema. Obviously, you could do a lot worse.
While probably just about everybody remembers this story by its cover title, its actual “official” title is derived from the American title of a popular 1972 Hong Kong martial arts movie; meantime, the subtitle calls back to an even better-known film, 1973’s Enter the Dragon, starring Bruce Lee in his final complete screen performance prior to his untimely death.
Sonny Chiba (1939-2021) was a Japanese martial artist and film star, whose American breakthrough had come with a movie released a couple of years prior to this comic —The Street Fighter (1974), which, incidentally, was the first film to be rated “X” in the United States solely on the basis of violence and gore.
“Somehow I never pegged you as an intellectual, Ducky,” remarks Beverly. “Don’t call me names, Toots,” Howard replies. “You don’t gotta take out a mortgage on an ivory tower to recognize stupidity when you see it!” Stepping into a nearby diner, the duo continue their discussion…
Count Macho is an interesting figure in several respects. The “Macho” part of the name clearly comes from the Spanish and Portuguese word that had, by the mid-1970s, entered the popular lexicon of American English as a term for what today is often called “toxic masculinity”; implying a glorification of male dominance and aggression, it’s simply another way for Gerber to let us know what he finds objectionable 
about the martial arts fad. But the use of the aristocratic title “Count” almost certainly derives from Count Danté — an Irish-American martial artist from Chicago who billed himself as “the Deadliest Man Alive”, and whose full-page ads offering to teach all us nerdy comic-book readers “The World’s Deadliest Fighting Secrets” were, for a couple of years in the early ’70s, virtually ubiquitous in American comics. (The real Count Danté, born John Keenan, had died of a bleeding ulcer in May, 1975, though there’s no reason to suspect Gerber was aware of that fact.) All that said, in purely visual terms our story’s antagonist doesn’t suggest Count Danté nearly as much as he does a less brawny, more brutish Conan the Barbarian (although Conan never sported so much chest hair, at least not as rendered by Big John Buscema); a resemblance that may or may not have been intentional on either Gerber or Buscema’s parts.
Beverly tells Howard that she took a first aid course the summer she worked as a lifeguard, so it’s at least possible she might be able to help the boy if she could get to him — so Howard goes into action, first elbowing his way into the center of the crowd, and then attempting to clear space for “Nurse” Switzler through the sheer force of his personality…
The title of one of the periodicals in the spinner rack in the last panel above — “Carlin’s Wild Night” — appears to be another friendly jab at Steve Gerber’s longtime friend (and occasional Crazy magazine contributor) Bruce Carlin.
The name “Master C’haaj” is a play on “Master Charge” — which, for the young’uns among you (those who missed my explanation of a similar bit back in Howard the Duck #1, anyway), is what MasterCard used to be called in ye days of olde.
The tragic demise of the stabbing victim had a basis in reality, as Steve Gerber recalled for Gary Groth in an interview published in The Comics Journal #41 (Aug., 1978):
There was a real-life incident that stimulated the story in Howard #3. Originally, I’d planned to do a parody of the Master of Kung Fu book, with Howard doing the first-person narration, and so on. Then, Mary Skrenes and I were sitting in The Market diner at 44th Street and 11th Avenue in New York, trying to work out that plot and a couple of others, when some sort of incident took place out on the sidewalk. We couldn’t even see clearly what was happening, but by the time we got up and left our seats to see what sort of insanity was going on out there, a kid came staggering into the diner, his face bloodied, stab wounds all over his body, and collapsed on the floor. We were told by one of the waitresses the next day that he had died. It was at that point, after that incident, after walking up and down and 9th Avenue and Times Square in New York and seeing the kids play with nunchaku sticks as if they were squirt guns, that I decided a story like “Four Feathers of Death” had to be done.
Master C’haaj addresses Howard as “pondhopper” — a nod to the frequent flashback scenes in the 1972-75 TV series Kung Fu in which the young Kwai Chang Caine was called “grasshopper” by his teacher, Master Po.
Not too many pages earlier, Gerber had Howard railing against the notion of misrepresenting an ancient philosophy and packaging it as violent entertainment for a youthful audience… but the writer kind of seems to have gone in for the whole package himself, now, hasn’t he? Should we fault Gerber for being inconsistent? Or would that be unfair, given that the context is a satirical comic-book story about a talking cartoon duck. and not a realistic drama?
Steve Englehart, the co-creator of Marvel’s Shang-Chi, stated that his Master of Kung Fu’s name should be translated “the rising and advancing of a spirit”. As best as I can determine, Steve Gerber has derived “Op” from the Cantonese word for “duck”, 鴨, which does sound something like “op” (or maybe “nop”) when pronounced. (Further linguistic analysis from someone who actually knows what they’re talking about will be more than welcome.)
Howard almost falls off the construction platform to his death, but manages to save himself at the last moment by grabbing hold of its edge. As he drags his body back onto its surface, he recalls the words of Master C’haaj: “Pain is a condition of the mind… It can be overcome by concentration, if need be.”
Four months after the original publication of this story, in Howard the Duck #5, the letters column (“Wise Quacks”) led off with the following missive and response:
Setting aside the business of crediting Stan Lee as the sole creator of Tomazooma, et al, which hasn’t aged well, this is a very interesting artifact. For one thing, it’s the only instance I know of where someone has seriously compared Stan Lee to Albert Camus (and, yes, I do think that Gerber was serious — mostly, anyway). For another, it begs the question of just what it was about “Four Feathers of Death! Or: Enter: the Duck!” that made the Man so envious. I mean, I certainly agree that it’s a very well-written comic-book story; but then, I’m not the comics publisher who’d jumped on the martial arts bandwagon a couple of years earlier with a black-and-white magazine, Deadly Hands of Kung Fu, that featured about as many text-with-photos pages about the movies of Bruce Lee, etc., as it did the comics-format adventures of Shang-Chi, the Sons of the Tiger, and Iron Fist. Did Lee feel some regret over Marvel’s contribution to the fad? Or did he simply shrug off Gerber’s implicit critique? All these years later, we’ll probably never know.
One thing that was very clear after the publication of Howard the Duck #3, however, was that Steve Gerber was at least as interested in social satire as he was in genre parody — and probably more so. That might not have proved altogether congenial to Frank Brunner, based on the artist’s later solo duck-related output — but it seemed to work just fine for the artist who’d be joining the creative team with issue #4, considering that he’d remain on the book for the rest of its run. I hope you’ll return to this space in two months for the Howard the Duck debut of Gentleman Gene Colan, as he joins Steves Gerber and Leialoha to bring us “The Sleep… of the Just!”
As a thirteen-year-old, bedazzled by the martial arts craze, the perspective taken here proved to be a real eye-opener, with its unflinching examination of the consequences of violence. This remains one of my all-time favourite comics.
(And a great demonstration of John Buscema’s versatility.)
Steve Leialoha really doesn’t get enough credit. He managed to keep HTD looking visually consistent even though there were three different artists across the first four issues. Going from Brunner to Buscema to Colan didn’t feel at all jarring. Each artist was instantly identifiable, but Leialoha’s inks kept them all tethered to the same basic HTD look so the issues flowed seamlessly. Leialoha managed to be simultaneously unobtrusive and authoritative, letting each artist be individualistic while still making them toe the line.
Very funny stuff! On a par with the Harvey Kurtzman era Mad comics reprints which were in the Super Specials at the same time as this.
Gerber was certainly *not* comparing Stan Lee with French existentialist author Albert Camus, but was just being hilarious (again).
I wonder if Robert Crumb ever voiced any opinions of Gerber’s run on Howard?
It certainly was popular craze when in School in the UK, but we were all too young to see the actual films so it was mostly by imagination though the Kung fu tv series was broadcast on Sunday afternoons – the slow moment sequences somehow reducing any violent action to a kind of slightly pretentious adversarial ballet.
All those fascinating but dubious “Learn to Kill a man with one finger” type ads between the panels was maybe also a case of the comics slightly biting the hand that once fed it.
Count Dante’s clearly photo-retouched eyebrows and angular facial hair never ceased to delight in those old advertisements. 🤣
Alas, I hadn’t yet gotten a taste of Geber’s Duck when this issue was new on the racks but I did get it later and regard it as a classic of genre parody and social commentary and satire. I never got into martial arts but my brother Terry (10 months my junior) got into it in a big way, regularly watching martial arts films and taking karate classes – and, amusingly enough, his instructor’s last name was Bates. Of course, the joke was, someone may have made snide references to Master Bates once, but they didn’t do it twice!
Back to the story, many aspects were pretty ridiculous, such as Howard stopping the knife thrown at him with his fingers, but rather par for the course for the genre from what I’ve seen, so, yes, ridiculous but apt. And none of that takes away from the seriousness of Gerber’s tale which remains entirely relevant today, IMO. And, hey, martial arts films are still big business. Aspects of its faddishness may have faded but martial arts haven’t gone away. Nor has toxic masculinity and brutish behavior. Alas again.
I remember this issue of HtD well and found it very funny, despite the absense of Frank Brunner.
My own experience with “karate,” was at the local community center in my home town at the hands of two overly-exuberant off-duty cops who wanted to be called “Sensei.” My enthusiasm quickly waned, however, once I realized we were expected to actually hit one another, almost from the beginning, without any real grounding in the basics of what we were doing. I lasted about a month. I guess there should have been a disclaimer that said, “Slow-motion violence not included.”
I agree that Leialoha did a good job maintaining an artistic consistency from penciller to penciller. Gerber’s sense of humor at times clashed with his sense of social outrage, but over-all it was a good story that cast an unpleasant light on the attraction American men have always had to violence.
The other thing I noticed, having recently re-read HtD #2 is the way in which Big John dialed back the sexuality that had permeated Brunner’s first two issues of the book. Granted, a lot of that was predicated by the story, but Buscema even dressed Bev more conservatively, without the exposed mid-drift prevalent in her previous appearances, and there were certainly no scenes of her and Howard in bed. I’m sure my 18-year-old self noticed that first thing.
All in all, a great issue in a great series that I too, stuck with right up until Gerber left. Mantlo might’ve been great for Micronauts, but he was not ready for Howard. Thanks, Alan!
Speaking of Frank Brunner, doing my conversation with Steve Englehart back in 1988, his response when I complimented Brunner’s art was that he “stole everything he did, but was sincere about it.” That remark never made sense to me. I could tell that Rich Buckler lifted Kirby all the time and that John Bryne paid homage to that same artist in much of his work. But I could never quite see what Brunner had “stolen.” I’m not being critical of Englehart and am interested in being further educated on that assessment.
Actually, Alan and I had an offstage conversation a little while back when discussing Brunner’s Dr Strange, where I showed him a fair few examples of Brunner’s swipes of Adams, Buscema and even Starlin. I always thought he had a very good polish to his work, but a lot of his figures and layouts were ‘borrowed’.
Now that you mention it, I can think of some “Starlin” aspects to his work. I’ll have to give Brunner some greater scrutiny. I knew I came to the right place. 🙂 Thanks!
If you trawl through the Silver Dagger Doc storyline, there’s a shot of him brooding in a chair, which Big JB did much better for the splash of Silver Surfer #4, with Loki, just as an example.
Frank Brunner pencilled “Pride of the Fleet” in Alien Worlds no. 6 back in 1982. I was visiting Al Williamson the following year and he was really upset about that story. Brunner had swiped a dozen or so female figures from AW which he had photographed of his wife for a story of his own.
Williamson himself was no stranger to photo reference and even swiping a figure from another artist here and there, but not to that degree. You can see scans of the original pages here, inked by Mike Mignola:
https://www.comicartfans.com/galleryroom.asp?gsub=7666
Here’s a link showing Brunner swipes of Williamson in Howard the Duck no. 1:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1B6SvrEZbe/
Here’s Brunner swiping Neal Adams:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1FePLqGFLz/
Yes, there’s a lot more out there.
I don’t know if this will work but here’s the word doc I sent to Alan:
frank brunner swipes.docx
It didn’t work
Yeah, I’m afraid that there’s not really a good way to upload files for sharing on WordPress (at least, I don’t know of any). I think you’d have to upload it to some sort of third-party site like Google Drive, then share the URL.
Not to pile on, but there’s also the unpublished P. Craig Russell “Dr. Strange” piece that Brunner saw in the Marvel offices, and then appropriated for the opening splash of DS #1: https://50yearoldcomics.com/2024/03/16/doctor-strange-1-june-1974/#russell
I guess I really didn’t pay that much attention to his art – only seeing it in DS #1-5 and the HtD stories. But all of you’ve now answered a question that’s lingered in dark recesses of my mind for nearly 38 years. Thanks again!
Not sure about actual swipes (though others seemed to have documented them!), but the Adams influence was strong in Brunner – made especially noticeable when Dick Giordano inked those Dr. Strange stories.
I dunno that Big John completely dialed back the sexuality here, as the bondage scene of Beverly with her hands tied above her head pretty clearly taps into the seedy vibe of the magazine rack Howard flips through earlier in the story. It’s not just violence that was exploited for titillation by the kung-fu or superhero genres of the 1970s.
“Pick a lane and stay in it.”
That’s my immediate response to this issue. It’s either a spoof of the martial arts genre which was all the rage at that time or it’s a commentary on mindless violence that had grown too prevalent as well (and sadly continues today). Given that the lead character is an anthropomorphic duck (Wonder if he’s an Oregon fan like me?) and the tone of the previous issues, satire would seem the best route.
I bring that up because Gerber and Skyrene’s experience in that diner is clearly reflected early in this issue with that young man being attacked. That commentary is most definitely fertile ground for a story – but probably not in the early issues of a series tailormade to parodies. As Alan noted, it made for a “whiplash” effect on the overall story.
What I found pleasantly consistent throughout the issue was the John Buscema- Steve Leialoha art. Not knowing at the time how much the former disliked drawing superheroes, I would not have expected his pencils to be as engaged as they were for this fill-in assignment. His work seemed a clear improvement over his rather uninspired efforts around that time in the FF and Avengers. On the other hand, Leialoha’s inks were as solid as ever.
Since poor distribution in my small timber town meant missing every issue of HtD until #7, I’m definitely enjoying Alan’s stellar reviews and look forward to everyone’s thoughts.
I’ve said before that I feel Steve Gerber’s reach sometimes exceeded his grasp, and I’m afraid that contrary to most of you guys I felt that ‘Four Fingers / Feathers of Death’ felt a bit heavy-handed to me (you see what I did there?).
All of us at some point in the last 50 years have cheered the good guy punching the bad guy in the snout, while most of us I think would deplore mindless glorification of violence in the real world, such as we saw when the Kung Fu craze first landed all those many years ago. It all feels like a bit of a simple and obvious target for satire, even back in my naïve and ignorant teenage years.
The continuity-conscious geek in me was also somewhat troubled by Howard gaining a lifetime of experience and training in ‘three hours and 17 minutes’, and even more bothered that, for the most part, he seemed to forget it all in about the same time – I think it was referred to once or twice in future issues, but it didn’t seem like he really retained this level of ability. It felt like one of Gerber’s ‘I’ve made the point I wanted to make, so we can forget that now’.
Also, as much as I loved anything with John Buscema’s name on it, this felt like one of his lesser efforts, maybe more layouts than anything he felt very invested in? For someone who has drawn so many of my favourite fight sequences this all feels a bit pedestrian. The shot of Count Macho’s flying drop kick ( ‘when his body and mind are naught but pure destructive energy…’) and his ass is hanging in mid-air, looks a lot more Bill Shatner than Bruce Lee.
Do we know what any of the Marvel freelancers/creators working on MOKF, DHOKF, etc, thought of this issue?
A commenter on the Marvel Collected Editions Message Board noticed my “Fingers/Feathers” gaffe too (shout out to Middle 12!). It’s fixed now.
Yeah, Big John usually more than delivered but this feels rushed and not one of his memorable efforts or maybe I’m also not much of a fan of the Inker involved.
I liked this one, I thought Gerber was better at social commentary then pure satire.
I missed this issue when it came out, just as I had not seen HTD 1 and 2 when they came out. Distribution was pretty bad in the area where I was attending college, and I didn’t see an issue of Howard the Duck for a long time. I didn’t actually pick up an issue until 1978, when I saw the cover of HTD 25 where he was contending with…the Ringmaster and his Circus of Crime? I thought that could be interesting and took the plunge. HTD 24 was also on sale at the same newsstand so I got that too. HTD 24 was pretty confusing (dealing with the repercussions of previous stories), but HTD 25 got me hooked, and I realized I wanted to get the back issues. That was fairly easy and relatively cheap, except it took awhile to get HTD 1 and that was not cheap (at least relatively at the time). Of the back issues that I read, the one that really stood out was HTD 3.
HTD 3 definitely left an impression on me. It’s worth noting that at this time in 1976, John Buscema was Marvel’s top artist, without a doubt. John Byrne was just starting out on Iron Fist, and George Perez was also just developing on FF and Avengers (but getting better every month), but John Buscema was at this time drawing Thor and Conan on a monthly basis and was also the main artist on Savage Sword of Conan. In 1976, JB later was asked to help out on several issues of Fantastic Four, Avengers and Daredevil when deadline problems came up on those books. Howard the Duck must have been considered important at this time for John Buscema to have been asked to draw this book, and personally I think it looked great. The combination of Buscema and Leialoha was excellent, and as several comics professionals have said, John Buscema really could draw anything. We would later see Leialoha’s work as artist but I really thought his inking was very good on Starlin, Buscema and later on Gene Colan.
But I think I understand why Stan liked this story so much. I suspect it was for the same reason I did..that last line: “He (Count Macho) died a caterpillar, the kid died a butterfly…!” That really stayed with me. Very touching. Gerber was an excellent and daring writer. As in the Man-Thing series he would kill off characters when necessary, and in HTD 3 he was very concise. I suppose Howard’s rapid expertise in Quak Fu is hard to believe, but so is a talking duck. Gerber really knew how to write an entertaining story that could really stay with you.
Thanks Alan for another great review and thanks for the Master Charge comment. I completely missed that one years ago
By the way, the story title “Four Feathers of Death” is a double pun, Alan. You cited the 1972 martial arts film “Five Fingers of Death,” but failed to mention the oft-filmed “The Four Feathers,” based on A.E.W. Mason’s 1902 novel.
While I have seen and enjoyed every version of this film, the 1939 one, filmed in England, Egypt, and Sudan in full color, may be my favorite film of all time:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Four_Feathers_(1939_film)
This explains why Gerber changed the title from “Five” to “Four.”
I’m more inclined to think it’s just because Howard has four fingers on each hand, rather than five. 🙂
Could be. Regardless, the 1939 “Four Feathers” film is regarded by many as the best British desert film ever made, except for “Lawrence of Arabia” (which producer Alexander Korda wanted to film in 1937, but plans fell through, as they did with “I, Claudius” that same year). I also love the Korda-produced “Thief of Bagdad” from 1940 (a live action precursor to Disney’s “Aladdin”).
I gave the ‘net a look, and could not find anyone else having made the same observation about HtD no. 3’s title—-and sadly Steve Gerber is no longer with us to confirm or deny the (extra) pun.
Still very funny banter, even in the midst of some serious social commentary.
I love Thief of Baghdad. Magnificent fantasy, despite most of the cast being white dudes in brown face. And Conrad Veidt is, as always, an amazing villain.
There’s a section on Count Dante in https://www.amazon.com/Bodybuilders-Soldiers-Hairdresser-Reinvented-Martial/dp/1476663505/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3SM2D7MXR1B08&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.50iAOCUmSquLcjaDMF00oRGeYKl14oWqVfZVibnrym64LSA4a3iLvLoiVo7YMbyOSg2Seuh6tlw0vWzA2-8qRA.lhCW9thXbl_D7dIbwlXozU50Ex1mkeFkrtSEQnTI4is&dib_tag=se&keywords=now+with+kung+fu+grip&qid=1772320327&sprefix=now+with+kung+fu+grip%2Caps%2C115&sr=8-1
I remembered the “the kid died a butterfly” line long after this issue too.
I don’t think I’d heard the word “macho” or “machismo” anywhere but comics by this point (Thor refers to Hawkeye’s machismo in Avengers #109).
A good issue.
Like a lot of people, the Kung Fu TV show was my gateway drug to being interested in martial arts, though outside of my parents taking me to judo classes a couple of times, I had no experience with them or interest in taking them up (the judo teachers were fine, for the record).
In 1978 the Village People hit “Macho Man” made the term ubiquitous, though as a send up.
Fantastic Four #151 out around July 74 introduced Mahkizo (the Nuclear Man ) somewhat hostile to Feminist sensibilities ( to put it mildly) embodied in Thundra as Marvel played out the topical so called “Battle of the Sexes”.
I remembered Macho Man — I imagine if I hadn’t read comics the term would have baffled me. You’re right about Makhizmo Pat — while I normally read my brother’s FFs, my memory is that we skipped over that period so I didn’t meet Mak until later.
Apparently there was a 1969 Ironsides episode called “The Machismo Bag” that really put the term on the map in the United States, but I don’t recall seeing it.
I have not read this issue, but based on Alan’s in-depth retrospective, I do tend to agree with Rick Moore’s comments above. It seems that Steve Gerber wanted to simultaneously critique the media’s excessive glorification of martial arts violence and simultaneously do a humorous parody of martial arts movies. I’m not sure it entirely works, with the “Master of Quak Fu” humor somewhat at odds with the very real, tragic murder of the teenage boy. Perhaps Gerber’s reach exceeded his gasp. Still, I guess he was attempting to do *something* different with the medium of American comic books.
No idea how John Buscema approached this issue. He might have seen it as just another story to draw. Then again, maybe he was happy to get away from superheroes with this one, the same way that Conan gave him a break from the genre. Agreed that Steve Leialoha’s inking really does make the issue, uplifting what might have been a standard Buscema job.
And now I see mikebreen1960 also commented that Gerber’s reach may have exceeded his grasp here. So, I guess I’m in agreement with him, as well 🙂
He was always less than happy with contemporary stories of whatever kind from what I have read . . . . hated drawing cars and modern clothes and the like . . . .
Hi, Alan,
This one got to me. Maybe it was the “caterpillar/butterfly” line. Maybe because, being a weakling myself, I liked seeing neanderthals being being taken down. Maybe I just wasn’t enough of a kung fu to take that part of it too seriously. (I had bailed on Shang-Chi after Englehart left, though I would later revisit the Moench/Gulacy run.)
But this story really touched me, because I admired what Gerber was trying to do here: Keep up the parodies and black humor while inserting the social/cultural commentary that was an undercurrent of his best Man-Thing and TALES OF THE ZOMBIE stories. By throwing in wordplay AND digs at the “man’s man,” this story – even more than the previous two issues – convinced me that Gerber really did have something special on his hands, where he could indulge both his oddball sense of humor and his sense of moral outrage.
I understand the “whiplash” effect that some of you felt, and I respect all the folks here who feel that Gerber missed the mark with this one. The story didn’t work for you, and that’s cool.
But for whatever it’s worth, it DID work for me, and I really appreciated being able to revisit it, Alan.
It worked for me too. And I recall Gerber having discussed having been bullied himself as a child, and having witnessed the murder of a child while out to dinner with Mary to plot the story, I can get a strong sense of the moral outrage he felt, as with other stories he wrote dealing with bullying behavior and toxic masculinity. HtD was a very different type of “humor” book than was the norm in mainstream U.S. comics, not just in the 1970s, but pretty much ever, in that Gerber mixed comedic and dramatic elements much as at least a few 1970s sit-coms, such as M.A.S.H. and All in the Family were doing. No one else who has written Howard quite had his touch. Mantlo, IMO, amplified the parody aspects, as well a naughty bits in the magazine, but couldn’t achieve the sense of moral outrage, IMO, and the more recent efforts seemed to eschew any genuine drama for more all out comedy Sometimes I got the feeling Gerber was using Howard as a means to try to laugh at the absurdities and horrors of life and keep going rather than breaking down into sobbing fits and hiding in bed under the covers.
No one wrote HOWARD (the book and the character) like Gerber. Yes, it was a passion project of his. I saw him at a couple of conventions in the 1970s, and he was clearly pleased – and maybe a little baffled – that it became a phenomenon. No,not every issue was a classic, but it hit more than it missed.
The other thing that I remember about those convention appearances was that Steve always – ALWAYS – gave credit to Val Mayerik for Howard’s appearance – including the suit and cigar. (He said a couple of times that his only instructions to Val were “Don’t make him look too much like Donald, and for heaven’s sake, PLEASE don’t put him in a sailor suit.”) That’s why I shed a little tear when Howard showed up at the end of the first GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY movie, followed by a “created by Steve Gerber and Val Mayerik” card.
“Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp,
Or what’s a heaven for?”
Which is my, or rather Robert Browning’s, way of saying that I am absolutely fine with Steve Gerber trying to stretch the envelope beyond the genre parodies of his previous HTD stories. With hindsight, although it’s not a masterpiece, this feels like the *real* first issue of the series, setting the tone for the biting social commentary and satirical examinations of human nature that would follow.
When the series reverted to parody a while later with the two-part “Star Waaugh!” story, it felt like a massive step backwards. I wondered, and still do, whether Gerber was under pressure from Marvel to make the book more commercial.
John and Steve’s art did exactly what it needed to do to get the story told. I do remember being shocked by the boy’s stabbing, which I guess is exactly the effect Gerber was aiming for.
Thanks, Alan, for another excellent overview of another well remembered comic!