Prior to the release of today’s featured comic fifty years ago this month, only three artists had lent their pencils to delineating the adventures of Marvel Comics’ newest superstar, at least officially: Val Mayerik, who’d drawn the character’s debut appearances in Fear #19 and Man-Thing #1; Frank Brunner, who’d illustrated the two solo strips that subsequently appeared in Giant-Size Man-Thing #4 and #5, as well as issues #1 and #2 of Howard’s self-titled series; and John Buscema, who’d done the same for the third and most recent issue.
With Howard the Duck #4, Gene Colan joined their number. He’d remain on board as the title’s regular artist for most of the next half-decade, pencilling all but six issues of the twenty-seven remaining in its initial run as well as drawing the short-lived “Howard” newspaper strip and contributing to seven out of nine issues of the Howard the Duck black-and-white comics magazine that succeeded the color book — a tenure with Howard that ended up exceeding that of the character’s primary creator, writer Steve Gerber, by over two years.
Originally, however, Colan’s stint was only meant to be for a single issue — at least if this item from the Bullpen Bulletins page that ran in Marvel’s comics shipping in March, 1976 is to be believed:
Honestly, it’s hard to imagine Bernie Wrightson — an immensely talented artist, but one who’d soured on the regular-series deadline grind after drawing ten bimonthly issues of DC Comics’ Swamp Thing a couple of years previously — lasting more than a few months on the job, especially after Marvel made the decision to make Howard a monthly publication with issue #6… though it certainly would have been something to see. And, as it happened, Wrightson would make a small but significant contribution to the larger “Howard the Duck” enterprise; but we’ll postpone saying more about that until later in this post.
As for Gene Colan, he had evidently been keeping too busy drawing Tomb of Dracula and Doctor Strange to have been paying close attention to the rest of Marvel’s line of late, and wasn’t familiar with Howard as a character prior to getting the call to draw an issue. And, when he did get that call, he wasn’t sure what to make of it. Or at least that’s how Steve Gerber remembered things, in a joint interview with Colan conducted by Tom Field for his 2005 book Secrets in the Shadows: The Art & Life of Gene Colan, and reprinted in part in Marvel Masterworks — Howard the Duck, Vol. 1 (2021):
Steve Gerber: …I don’t know if you remember this, Gene… But John Verpoorten, who was Marvel’s production manager at the time, called and asked you if you’d be willing to do the book. I was actually standing in John’s office at the time. And you, Gene, thought you were being demoted to drawing funny-animal books!
Gene Colan: Really? Was that my comment? [laughs]
Gerber: Well, you’d never seen the book at that point, and John had to reassure you: “No, no, no… this book is really big with the fans! I think you’re really going to enjoy it!”
In the end, Colan did of course accept the assignment — and not just for a one-off, but as a regular ongoing gig, which by his own account he enjoyed very much. And Gerber was very happy with the collaboration, as well; as he said in the same interview:
…Gene was the choice to draw this book, simply because he was the least likely choice ever to draw a funny-animal-looking character. His artwork was so real, and he drew people so well — to me there was no other choice among the other people working for Marvel at that time. He was the person I wanted to have do it if he were willing.
And that’s probably all the background we need to cover for now, prior to diving into the first outing on Howard the Duck by the newly-formed Gerber/Colan team…
I know I said “the Gerber/Colan team”, but I’d be remiss not to mention inker Steve Leialoha, who, while he may not be Tom Palmer, does an excellent job bringing Colan’s photo-impressionistic pencil art to life — and also provides visual continuity with the previous three issues, all of which he had embellished. (Leialoha also inked Colan’s cover for this issue.)
As readers of our HtD #3 post may recall, Howard sustained an injury to his shoulder while quack-fu fighting with Count Macho in that issue’s climactic martial-arts throwdown. I kind of wish we’d gotten to see just how things went down at the office of the poor veterinarian who was evidently persuaded to provide our hero with medical care, but I guess we’ll just have to use our imaginations.
“Oboy, here it comes, folks,” Howard says with a roll of his eyes, “the tale of woe you’ve all been waiting for!” But Beverly shushes Howard, and invites their neighbor to tell then his story while she goes to make a pot of coffee. “You’re sure you want to listen to this?” Paul asks. “I mean — it goes back to when I was just a kid.”
The indignant Howard assures Paul that “these threads happen to be the height of elegance,” pointing out that they were chosen by Beverly, “an’ she knows class, see?” The bemused artist assures his feathered visitor that he didn’t mean anything personal, then adds, “I can see how some women could get off on a tough little guy — even in a duck suit!” At which point, Bev steps into to correct his misapprehension: “Uh, Paul — that’s not a costume. He’s for real. His duckness is inborn.”
Feeling the need to “get out an’ do some thinking“, Howard dresses and leaves the apartment without waking his roommate, grousing silently as he goes: “I should’a known! Every time I let my mind slip like that…! I start off tryin’ to minimize one punk’s problem and wind up dissecting a whole social structure!”
Meanwhile, on a nearby street, a mugger threatens an old woman, telling her she has just ten seconds to hand over her purse…
The situation we find ourselves observing here has obvious similarities to the main premise of issue #2, where another acquaintance of Howard and Beverly’s, aspiring writer Arthur Winslow, took on the persona of a superhero. In that instance, the would-be vigilante was loosely based on Steve Gerber’s fellow comics scribe Don McGregor; in the case of struggling artist Paul Same, however, the model is none other than Gerber himself. In addition to being something of a lookalike for his latest literary stand-in, Gerber suffered in the 1970s from a sleeping disorder, and was known to occasionally doze off while he was working in the Marvel editorial offices. (In case anyone has any doubts, the author himself freely admitted in a 1978 interview with The Comics Journal, “I was Winky-Man.”)
As long as we’re paused here, we’ll note that while Paul Same may be essentially derived from Steve Gerber, his specific shtick as Winky-Man seems to have been at least partially inspired by DC Comics’ original version of the Sandman, Wesley Dodds, who used a gas gun to make criminals go nighty-night and was fond of leaving a bit of verse attached to the unconscious miscreants he left to be hauled off by the cops (“There is no land beyond the law, where tyrants rule with unshakable power! It’s but a dream from which the evil wake to face their fate … their terrifying hour!”).
Recognizing Paul even in his Winky-Man getup, Howard manages to get his neighbor out of the bar and into a nearby alley before things get even uglier. “You’re asleep, aren’t you, Paul?” he demands to know. “C’mon, ya dope — snap out of it! You could’a been killed!” To which a still-dazed Paul manages to reply, “Wha?– where am I?”
Finally recovering his equilibrium, Howard grabs the Roman candle out of Winky-Man’s hand; unfortunately, that’s when the thing goes off.
I’ve seen it suggested online that Xavier Couture was intended as a parody of Marvel Comics publisher Stan Lee; I can’t say that I see much, if any, of Lee’s personality in this snobby art critic, but I suppose that there’s a superficial physical resemblance — and, of course, Lee was already famous for wearing a hairpiece, so they had that much in common, at least.
And that’s all, folks!
Back in April, 1976, I’m pretty sure that my eighteen-year-old self found this first foray by the Gerber/Colan/Leialoha team to be generally satisfying, though I suspect I may have been a tiny bit concerned that Gerber seemed to be recycling basic story ideas so early in the title’s run. Thankfully, the next installment would find the author striking off in a new direction… one that would soon see Howard and Bev leaving the series’ current setting of Cleveland, OH behind, at least for the time being… though that of course is a topic for another, later post.
But don’t turn that dial just yet, friends, because we’re not quite done with Howard the Duck #4 yet! Before we sign off, we need to take a glance at this issue’s letters page, where the following important announcement appeared:
Did the younger me — who, incidentally, was looking forward to voting in his first U.S. Presidential election in seven months’ time — rush to write Mr. Gerber a check for $1.25 and drop that puppy in the mail? You better believe it (and I know I wasn’t the only one).
Just in case you can’t make out the artist’s signature on that button — as well as to give you a better opportunity to appreciate the artwork itself — here’s a larger view:
Yep, that’s “Wrightson” as in Bernie Wrightson. Remember him?
Wrightson also found the time to produce Howard’s official “Presidential portrait”, which was made available for mail-order purchase some time after the button:
And, yes, I sent off for that one as well.
We’ll have more to say about Howard’s Presidential campaign in later posts, naturally — but before I close, I feel obliged to confess something about that “Get Down America!” slogan… namely, that it took some four decades for me to finally get the joke.
Wauggh!