HOWARD THE DUCK
New York: Marvel Comics Group, 1975-1979. Wraps. Issues 1-21, plus issues 23 and 31, and the first Annual (1977).
The character Howard the Duck first appeared in Adventure into Fear #19 (December 1973) before Steve Gerber spun off the ill-tempered anthropomorphic duck into its own series with the tagline “Trapped in a World He Never Made!” Soon thereafter, the Walt Disney Company contacted Marvel over concerns the character infringed on their trademark for Donald Duck. Marvel agreed to a redesign - the major change was Howard would wear pants, which is not reflected in this run.
In the debut issue, Howard is considering committing suicide before finding himself involved in a bizarre adventure where he meets Beverly Switzler and Spider-Man for the first time, and faces off against Pro-Rata, the Financial Wizard. His adventures are generally social satires, while a few are parodies of genre fiction. In Issue #8 (January 1977), Howard runs for President. An evil adman takes over the campaign and Howard, literally run down by special interests, is doomed by a phony sex scandal. Issue #12 (September 1977) titled “Deadline Doom” and captioned “Howard at the mercy of his most powerful foe – the incredible creator!” foretells Gerber’s own future with the strip. Gerber wrote 27 issues but was removed due to chronic problems with deadlines. His final issue in the series was #27 (September 1978).
Issue #31 (May 1979) announced on its letters page that it would be the final issue of Howard the Duck as a color comic. Howard resurfaced in subsequent series in different forms with special issues and was also the subject of a creative rights lawsuit between Marvel and Gerber, which he lost.
The comics are overall in very good condition, with a small chip to the front cover of Issue #7 and the typical light toning to the contents of most issues. Very good. Item #80667
Price: $750.00