Born: 20 September, 1947, in St Louis. Died: 17 February, 2008, in Las Vegas, aged 60. STEVE Gerber was a cutting-edge comic-book writer and creator best-known for Howard the Duck, the ill-tempered, cigar-smoking
Marvel Comics character whose adventures satirised American life in the 1970s.
"He had an unusual way of writing human stories, whether it be a supernatural, a superhero, an occult or a semi- realistic world," said Mary Skrenes, who co-wrote the 1970s Marvel superhero comic book Omega the Unknown with Gerber.
Gerber joined Marvel Comics as an associate editor and writer in 1972 and began by writing stories for Daredevil, Sub-Mariner and other superhero titles. He soon became known for injecting absurdist humour and social satire into them.
Gerber later recalled that he was in his Brooklyn apartment working on a plot one night when he got the idea for Howard the Duck, whom he described as "the living embodiment of all that is querulous, opinionated and uncool".
The iconoclastic duck from another world, originally drawn by artist Val Mayerik, made his first appearance in 1973 as a one-shot character in The Man-Thing feature in Marvel's Adventure Into Fear comic book.
Immediately popular with readers, Howard returned to make guest appearances and became his own comic book title in January 1976.
The all-too-human Howard – "Trapped in a world he never made!" as the cover catch-phrase declared – was prone to depression, struggled to pay the rent and had a sexy human companion, Beverly Switzler – "Toots" to Howard.
The unlikely hero battled such villains as Pro-Rata, an insane financial wizard who lived in a castle made of expired credit cards.
In writing Howard the Duck, Gerber satirised such elements of 1970s culture as kung fu, anti-gay activist Anita Bryant, the Rev Sun Myung Moon and self-help groups.
Howard, which the New York paper Village Voice called "the last angry duck," became a cult phenomenon, although not everyone fell under his caustic spell.
One disgruntled reader wrote to Gerber blasting the character as a "pseudo-sexual, liberal, pseudo-intellectual premise obviously written by an oversexed manic depressive". Gerber called it "my favourite fan letter".
Dubbed "America's newest comic juggernaut" by the Washington Post, Howard the Duck spawned a newspaper cartoon strip, originally written by Gerber, that ran for a short time.
Gerber left Marvel in a dispute in the late 1970s. A protracted legal battle between the two parties over ownership of Howard the Duck ended in a settlement in which Marvel retained the rights to the character. But the sealed terms of the settlement, Gerber later said, were "such that I am no longer angry".
Among Gerber's numerous creations or co-creations during his 36-year career were Nevada, Void Indigo, Sludge, Destroyer Duck, Hard Time and the graphic novel Stewart the Rat.
For US television, he was the chief story editor on GI Joe and a story editor on Dungeons & Dragons. He shared an Emmy Award as a staff writer on The Batman/Superman Adventures, and he co-created and story-edited Thundarr the Barbarian.
Gerber developed an early love of comic books and as a teenager published a comic-book fanzine called Headline.
After earning a bachelor's degree in communication at Saint Louis University, he worked as an advertising copywriter in St Louis and wrote short stories before joining Marvel in 1972.
Steve Gerber is survived by his mother, a daughter, two brothers and a sister.
The full article contains 594 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
