Steve Gerber RIP
Posted by Richard S. on February 16, 2008
Howard the Duck creator Gerber dies
LAS VEGAS - Steve Gerber, the comic book writer and creator whose signature character was the alienated, cigar-chomping Howard the Duck, has died. He was 60.
Howard the Duck was an influence on me in my own formative years as an alienated anti-authoritarian. In the middle of 1976, when I was 14 years old, my friend Kent introduced me to Howard the Duck comics. (Kent, unfortunately, has been dead sometime - he died from diabetes something like 12 years ago.) During the latter part of the year (I believe it was late ‘76, not ‘77), a friend of Kent’s also introduced us to The Ramones. In between, we were all reading Harlan Ellison stories - which, overrated though they may be (as some people have pointed out recently), did help to further my own feelings of alienation and resistance to authority. In addition to those strange slices of pop culture that I was exposed to that year, I was also influenced by Patti Smith records, which I’d discovered myself, listening to late night radio - not that I understood them entirely, but it was all kind of sexy and exciting (even if she did not affect my hormones the way Ms. Harry would the next year). And we might add to that list (if we’re talking specifically about ‘76) the fascinating trial of Patty Hearst and many episodes of Mary Hartman Mary Hartman (the impact of which cannot even be described to anyone who wasn’t around in the ’70s)…
Steve Gerber’s comics were inseparable from all these other influences on my impressionable young teenage mind. (Which isn’t so strange, since Ellison worked with Gerber on some comics and The Ramones surely read them too.) Of course, it is questionable whether all of that was a good thing. Had I been exposed to better influences in those early years, maybe I would be better socialized for this world today. But as it is, Howard the Duck’s alienation certainly rings true as ever:
Trapped in a world he never made… Aren’t most of us?
Plus, Howard was a far better presidential candidate than anything offered by the major parties then or, especially, now.
RIP, Steve.
