In The Year In Comics this week, I'm running with the opportunity to discuss Steve Gerber and Gene Colan's Howard The Duck #24, which was first published in this week some 34 years ago. The piece is, as always, up on the Sequart site, and, as always, I hope you might take a chance and visit it by clicking here.
I'm beginning to believe that I'm one of those folks who doesn't really understand much about their own taste until they take the time to work through their thoughts and feelings on paper. I've always loved Howard as a character, and the first and last four issues which Steve Gerber wrote for Howard's comic in the seventies are particularly dear to me. But I don't think I was ever able to say with any confidence or precision why I felt that way, or understand why I tend to feel so uncomfortable when I read most other writer's takes on the refugee from Duckworld. Yet the chance to discuss Howard over at Sequart has left me feeling as if I've just become reacquainted with a dear old friend, which of course sounds shamefully sentimental, and yet it's also entirely true.
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God, I loved this book. Steve Gerber and Gene Colan did some really fantastic work, and it...it was FUN! Silly of course, but dang, sometimes I miss the fun in my comics.
ReplyDeleteAnd I really really loved Doctor Bong for some reason.
Hello Sally:- It was FUN, wasn't it? And because Gerber was so bright and able, he knew that adding a few tears to the mix wouldn't make the comedy any less enjoyable. All the more, of course. (My favourite tearful moment was Howard awakening after hosting the Son Of Satan's demonic self. Ahhh ..)
ReplyDeleteThe second scan above is my favourite Dr Bong reference from the whole series, though the bad Dr isn't actually present. "- - he's bonged himself once too often!" still makes me laugh ..
I always have trouble impressing on younger readers just how much of an unusual (and dangerous) book HTD was for its time. To my mind, it was essentially an underground comic that just happened to be published by one of the Big Two, but in today's marketplace that explanation is lacking in terms of conveying just how different HTD was from everything else on the newsstands at the time.
ReplyDeleteHello Knightsky:- "Unusual" and "dangerous" are two very good words to describe Howard's book under Gerber, aren't they? And you're right to emphasise how different a comic it seemed at the time, although, strangely, it also seemed to belong in a way that's similarly hard to convey. It was a brief period when Marvel had embraced the idea of a diversity of titles with such a lack of conscious design that it seemed anything could be a Marvel title. The horror books, the kung-fu books, the cosmic out-there comics. Between Warlock and Tomb Of Dracula, Master Of Kung Fu and Howard The Duck, the period really was a remarkable one. It only really arrived as a period in the company's history around 1973, and it briefly reversed the decline in Marvel's comics which had set in a few years after Ditko's leaving. Yet by late 1978, practically all of it was gone.
DeleteIn fact, sometimes I even think I even made the whole period up as part of a middle-aged man's daydream of how things were better when he was young. But open up a Bullpen coming attractions feature from the period and there it is, the evidence. And at the time, it felt like things would keep traveling along that path, becoming ever more clever and touching and satisfying ...
One of the last things I can recall Gerber writing was "Destroyer Duck/Savage Dragon" where Gerber and Larsen write a comic where they sort of steal Howard and Bethany away into Larsen's corner of the Image-universe...
ReplyDeleteHello LurkerWithout:- How can I have missed that? I genuinely had no idea. And of course I'm off to E-Bay to see if I can find an affordable copy. I think I'd really benefit from reading of Howard and Bethany's liberation.
DeleteThank you :)
Damn, this makes me want to read it even more! I'll have to pick up ghat omnibus when I've got some disposable income, unfortunately the library is still duck-less (besides the movie, which I've heard not-too-positive things about).
ReplyDeleteOf the Gerber I did find, the Legion Of Night story they had didn't really impress me much- it seemed pretty standard cosmic-sorcery-saving-the-world, with the fate of the world pretty much a given from the start. But maybe I just needed some more background or something.
I did like the Elseworlds Superman: Last Son Of Earth, though. It definitely did emphasize compassion in a way that makes sense in context of what you wrote today. In the second half, there's a showdown between Kal & the Metropolis gang and the fascistic Luthor gang, but it seems clear that the battle isn't really the focus of the thing. Rather, what's most important is what comes after, when Kal races back to bring terraforming equipment from Krypton to restore Earth, which has been ravaged from some sort of cosmic something-or-other. Even the reuniting of Kal and his mother happens offpage, giving far more emphasis to the fixing of the planet.
It is interesting how the way I view media has changed through reading this blog, becoming far more aware of compassion and characters caring for each other, as distinct values. I just saw Heavenly Creatures (really excellent movie, if you haven't seen it), and the way the protagonist offers her mom the last cookie/biscuit before setting her plan into motion is incredibly heartbreaking and touching.
And relating to the Gerber article from a few weeks ago, from the FF comics I've read recently, it seems like the Thing being a destructive jerk is kind of a common theme here. Sure, he usually learns his lesson by the end, but that lesson is usually "be nicer to Johnny, he has value," rather than anything more about the public at large.
Hello Historyman:- Well, you have to read Howard The Duck. There's just no way out of it. And I hope that your library can get the Omnibus, because that's the best way to do so. (There was a b'n'w Essentials out years ago. I don't know if it's still available, but the colour in the Omnibus makes all the difference.)
DeleteWhen you do read Howard, it's worth knowing that there are different periods in the duck's career. At various times, Gerber played the comic for all-out satire, as in the issues before the one I discussed over at Sequart, just as much as he focused on more personal and less absurd tales too. Often, the two are all mashed up, and of course, there's always the fearsomely bonging Dr Bong. I personally preferred the quieter tales, but I don't mean by that I didn't want a Howard who wasn't been used by Gerber to bash the powers that be. It's just that, like most really good albums, there are different paces of experience available, and each helps make the other shine.
I mentioned in my reply to the above that my favourite Howard moment came at the end of a team-up which involved the Son Of Satan and, yes, Kiss, in their best-ever comic book appearance. Ironic in the middle of all of that, therefore, that the most touching moment in the duck's career occurred. Ill not spoil it, but you'll know when you see a tear and mention of "a weather balloon".
That's a very generous comment to make about the themes of empathy and compassion. I suppose I push those issues because, as a nipper, the superhero universes were places where the more positive human qualities were emphasised as much as the grim'n'gritty, all-hope-is-lost ones were. And Heavenly Creatures is a great movie, but as you say, a tough watch. As I'm sure you know, one of the girls went on to be crime novelist and a lecturer. I would use a video of her talking about evil with novelist Ian Rankin in my psychology lessons. Yep, that was a shock for my students, to see someone that had done such a terrible thing, been punished for it, and then created an entirely valid future for herself.
That's an interesting point about the FF, because it does suggest that Johnny is therefore a metaphor at times for the public at large. I'm not sure the character always fits such a use, given what an idiot he can be :)
Yes, it was shocking to discover in my research immediately after the movie that she had become a professional crime novelist. Though I guess it's remarkably consistent with her characterization in the movie. (The most shocking part was probably the revelation at the end that the conditions of their sentencing was that they were prevented from ever seeing each other again - the ultimate irony since that was the entire purpose of their crime to begin with. It also opens up the question of whether, without the parental meddling, their relationship would have been healthy and wonderful, or would have become toxic and dangerous in some other way.)
DeleteI went into the movie knowing absolutely nothing about it, including that it was a true story, that it was about a murder case, or that it took place in NZ. I want to recommend it to other people, including my mother, but I'm not really sure if I can explain it without including the factual basis. I'm sure it works well even with that context, but it was even more amazing to me without it, and still felt utterly believable. (All I had to know before seeing it was "it's by Peter Jackson, and it knocks LoTR out of the water" and I was in)
And while it's a tough watch, it's also got quite a few moments of humor, that, as in all good art, serve to further emphasize the tragedy - like when her mother says "she's always been such a happy child," when the evidence we've seen for the entire movie contradicts that statement. There's something about teen girl misfits that just speaks to me - from this movie to Ghost World, to the MTV series Daria... I don't know, at that age, everything's just so dramatic and important that a total rejection of everything your peers care about really does seem almost the most sensible option. Though of course, that is a fallacy characteristic to that age as well.
I need to track down that video - though maybe not quite yet, I think I need a little more time of thinking of them as characters.
And I didn't realize until I read these early FF exactly how young Johnny Storm was originally. I knew he was a young adult, and younger than the rest of the crew, but I didn't realize he was literally a teenager. He is really a great contrast to Peter Parker- because while Peter chooses his path on his own, with only postmortem advice from his uncle, Johnny has guidance of three older figures, which maybe gives him more of a need to rebel against them. His and Ben's relationship is pretty interesting, I gotta say.
Also, for what it's worth, these early issues are a lot less chauvinistic than I was expecting. Sue is a very valuable member of the team, frequently saving their asses with her sneaking skills. And while her attraction to Namor sometimes gets her in trouble, she seems no more flawed than Ben or Johnny. Reed's boringness is a necessary foil, and his always-right-ness is undercut by the massive arrogance of the mistake that caused the accident in the first place.
I do want to try to integrate compassion into my own art more. Sometimes it gets a little angry, and it's nice to keep in mind that while spite is a powerful emotion, it's far from the only one.
Hello Historyman:- I think perhaps the key to the value of the movie, regardless of the taste of the watcher, is that it constantly asks questions of us. Whether we know something of the outcome of the tale in the real world, we're compelled to ask whether there might have been a way in which the death might have been avoided. If it could've been, what would have been the cost of that, and what might we have done in that situation, either as parent or child. I'd like to think that in either role I'd have avoided the worst, but there's something about the movie which asks challenging questions ...
DeleteOn Johnny Storm: I don't know if you've read Slott and Templeton's Spider-Man/Human Torch. If not, see if your library has the book. It's the only "final" tale I've ever read which convinces me that the characters involved really are the ones which we've grown up and older with.
On Sue: her role might not be as bad as you feared, but it's still pretty constrained in places. Of course, I'm not blaming Stan and Jack for that. In the context of their time, their gender roles were often remarkably liberal, and both produced work within a few years which tried, to greater or lesser effect, to engage with the issues associated with equality.
Naught wrong with spite in art if that's what the moment calls for, HM. It's those artists whose work seems so characterised by ugly emotions without any redeemable moral framework that worry me.
I haven't read your piece on Howard yet, but I can't resist commenting on one of my favorite comics.
ReplyDeleteI read HtD 2 decades after their publication, and found them relevant despite certain dated elements. Howard losing himself after trying to be someone he's not spoke to me, and the plights of Paul and Winda were quite affecting. Gerber wrote characters extremely well, not to mention humor, making HtD a rich read even when the plots meandered.
History man, if you are intrrested in reading more Gerber, I have to recommend his issues of Defenders, Tales of the Zombie, and Man-Thing (all reprinted in Essential volumes), his short-lived DC series Hard Time, Omega the Unknown, Stewart the Rat , and the '00s HtD max series. He' one of my 2 or 3 favorite comic book writers, and I hope you get to read more of his work.
- Mike Loughlin
Hello Mike: That's such a good point you make about Gerber's characters making the book work even when the plot ambles and digresses. I think I liked the first and last 4 issues of the book so much because there was more focus. And yet, who'd complain about now having any of those issues to read and enjoy?
DeleteI can only applaud your suggestions for "further reading" where Mr Gerber's work is concerned. (There are stretches of dialogue in Man-Thing #15 which I still quote more or less word for word; "You see, Ted, if you only trust your feelings.") I also enjoyed the last few Marvel-Two-In-One issues of his run, and even his less than stellar Daredevil comics are strange enough to make their reading worthwhile. But then, his work was always worth spending time with. As Marty Pasko said recently, with the world in the shape it is, we really do miss Steve Gerber.