Rest in peace, Steve Gerber
Innovative comic-book creator Steve Gerber died today at age 60, after a long illness.
Mark Evanier eulogizes his friend eloquently at his blog, and the Comics Reporter has an excellent article about what Gerber meant to comics.
Gerber was perhaps the most important of the second wave of Marvel creators. His deconstructive run on “The Defenders” expanded the limits of what could be done with a Marvel comic book. He created “Howard the Duck” for Marvel, which became a hit, expanding from comic book to magazine to newspaper strip. When Marvel removed Gerber from the newspaper strip, Gerber fought one of the first battles for comic-book creator rights, filing suit against Marvel.
It’s unfortunate that most people, if they remember “Howard the Duck” at all, will only remember the bomb of a movie released in 1986 (which had very little to do with Gerber’s vision). Gerber’s satirical take on society can still be found in “The Essential Howard the Duck,” and despite the changing times, it still holds up.
I’d encourage those curious to go read the very thorough Comics Reporter coverage. The comics world has lost one of its most important creators. I can’t say it better, so from Tom Spurgeon’s Comics Reporter:
Steve Gerber’s role as one of the best and emblematic writers of his generation can’t be understated. He was a crucial figure in comics history. Like some of the all-time great cartoonists of years past, Gerber carved a place for self-expression and meaning out of a type of comic that had no right to hold within itself so many things and moments that were that quirky and offbeat and delicately realized — except that Gerber made it work. … No creator save Jack Kirby has as a cautionary tale and a living example saved so many creators the grief of turning over their creations without reward or without realizing what they had done. Few creators in the American mainstream were as consistently fascinating as Steve Gerber. Even fewer have been as outspoken and forthright, or in that way, as admirable.
– Matt Price
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