Howard The Duck #1: "Howard the Barbarian"

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The duck who inspired one of Hollywood's biggest turkeys, Howard entered comic books in 1973. He looked like a cigar-smoking funny animal fowl, but he was actually an extraterrestrial. After appearing in Marvel's Fear and Man-Thing, Howard won his own comic book in 1975. The world in which Howard had to function was a freely rendered version of Cleveland. He was confused and angry at being stranded on Earth and, as the cover blurb reminds readers, "trapped in a world he never made." Howard was as much an anti-hero as he was a comedy character.

Howard was talkative and cynical. Writer/creator Steve Gerber used him to comment on a wide variety of social issues. Gerber, who'd scripted such superhero titles as The Defenders, kidded the fairly rigid formats and formulas of the genre. Frank Brunner, the original artist, was succeeded by Gene Colon commencing with Howard the Duck #4. The book lasted for thirty-one issues and was canceled in 1979. Two additional issues that carried the original numbering appeared in 1986 to coincide with the movie Howard the Duck, still considered one of the all-time cinema follies.

The sarcastic bird also appeared in a nine-issue run of a black-and-white Howard magazine. Gerber and Colon turned out a cryptic and short-lived Howard newspaper strip. Howard made another minimal comeback in 2002 in a six-issue series. Gerber once more wrote the scripts, with Paul Winslade the artist. This time around, however, Howard had been reincarnated as a giant rat.

Characters: Howard the Duck; Beverly Switzler (first); Pro-Rata (first); Spider-Man; J. Jonah Jameson (cameo appearance).


Credits

Script: Steve Gerber
Pencils: Frank Brunner
Inks: Steve Leialoha
Colors: Frank Brunner

Reprinted:

• in Marvel Treasury Edition (Marvel, 1974 series) #12.
• in Essential Howard the Duck (Marvel, 2002 series) #1.
  

Note: storyline continued from Giant-Size Man-Thing #5.

Mad #11: "Flesh Garden!"

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In the company of Dale Arden, Flash Gordon embarked for the planet Mongo in 1934. That was in the Sunday funnies in a page drawn by Alex Raymond and written anonymously by former pulp-fiction editor Don Moore. This space opera became one of King Features Syndicate's most popular features, and Raymond's illustrative art was to have a strong influence on many of the young artists who began drawing for comic books in the late 1930s and the early 1940s—Tom Hickey, Sheldon Moldoff, Jack Lehti, George Papp, Mac Raboy, Dan Barry, etc.

Flash Gordon entered comic books early in 1936 by way of reprints in King Comics. His battles with the merciless Ming, a sort of galactic Fu Manchu, unfolded in the magazine from the first issue.

In the early 1940s Dell began issuing now and then Flash Gordon reprint titles. Later in the decade came an occasional comic-book offering Flash adventures "especially written and drawn for this magazine." The artist was Paul Norris, who also began drawing the Jungle Jim newspaper page in 1948.

Harvey Publications tried reprinting the Raymond material in 1950 and 1951, giving up after a few issues. King Features experimented with publishing comic books in the late 1960s. These used original material, and the Flash Gordon book made use of such artists as Al Williamson, a devoted Raymond disciple, Gil Kane, and Reed Crandall. When King quit, Charlton took over and finally Gold Key. The final Flash Gordon comic book was printed in 1982. He reappeared briefly in 1987 as part of a team that included Mandrake and the Phantom in the TV-inspired Defenders of the Earth.

Harvey Kurtzman and Wally Wood spoof Flash Gordon below.


Credits

Cover art: Basil Wolverton
Script: Harvey Kurtzman
Pencils: Wally Wood
Inks: Wally Wood
Colors: Marie Severin

Reprinted:

• in Mad Reader, The (Ballantine Books, 1954 series) #93
• in Mad About the Fifties (Little, Brown & Co., 1997 series) #[nn]
• Tales Calculated to Drive You Mad (EC, 1997 series) #4
  

Below is Frank Brunner's curious spoof from Unknown World of Science Fiction #1: