Comments on: Steve Gerber, creator of “Howard the Duck,” 1947-2008

By: grendelkhan

grendelkhan — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 03:13:28 +0000

To be clear, I didn’t mention Gerber, only Sim, when I asked the question, and it followed a long digression by McCloud on the self-publishing possibilities of the web. It was a while ago, but I think I specifically phrased it as a question about whether Sim’s rabble-rousing and walking-the-walk in favor of self-publishing which was all for naught. I didn’t think to specifically talk about it as separate from the creator’s rights movement of that age; I don’t recall if I made the distinction explicit, and like you said, you know Scott McCloud and I don’t.

Sorry that’s a bit vague; I should have written my question down or something.

By: Ampersand

Ampersand — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 03:52:25 +0000

I find it hard to imagine Scott (who is a friend of mine) saying that the creators’ rights movement was pointless.

It sounds to me like you’re conflating two different things — Dave Sim’s creators’ rights movement, which was the self-publishing movement, and the creators’ rights movement for cartoonists whose work is published by comics companies, which is the movement Steve Gerber was part of. It’s easy to mix up the two movements, because they felt like the same movement — there was a great deal of overlap in people and in events — but ultimately, the two movements were arguing for two very different things.

Sim’s self-publishing movement whithered and died and went nowhere — although along the way, it allowed some good comics to get into print, before it was killed by the black-and-white comics implosion of the 80s. And that is a shame, and I’m sure that’s what Scott was referring to when he said “yes.”

But the creators’ rights movement wasn’t a dead end. It helped bring about notably better treatment of creators by companies, and those improvements persist today. (Although I, personally, would like to see much more radical changes take place.)

By: grendelkhan

grendelkhan — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 02:57:13 +0000

I got to see Scott McCloud speak on his “Making Comics” tour when it passed nearby. He talked a lot about web publishing, about how one could get one’s ideas out there, though not necessarily profitably. I asked if this meant that Dave Sim’s years upon years of campaigning for creator’s rights were all, in the end, pointless.

“Yes.”

That was his entire answer. I’m not sure whether it’s more a happy thing that publishing is in the hands of the commoners to a degree not seen in maybe ever, or more a sad thing that Sim and Gerber before him were running toward something of a dead end.

By: Petar

Petar — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 06:47:52 +0000

As far as I know, Donald Duck was around well before World War II, i.e. before Steve Gerber was born.

By: StefanU

StefanU — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 20:51:18 +0000

The image looks a lot like Donald Duck.Was the Donald character inspired by this Howard Duck ?

By: Daisy

Daisy — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 18:05:02 +0000

Thanks for the link, I didn’t know he had passed.

The Yippies once ran up a phone bill of around $20,000, which was charged to Howard D. Duck, sometimes known as Howard Deduct. When the collection agencies came calling, the Yippies put Mrs. Duck/Deduct on the phone, to explain that Howard had died in the Sandinista revolution and couldn’t pay it. She wept copiously and told them to stop calling her. The bill was henceforth never collected. (It was DEDUCTED.)

Of course, this is probably just some evil folk tale with no basis in reality, but I thought I would add that radical fable to your kind obituary.

;)

By: Thene

Thene — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 23:24:13 +0000

…and with impeccable timing, Fox sues Warner Bros over ownership of Watchmen.

By: Kevin Moore

Kevin Moore — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 20:56:07 +0000

Wow, that is sad news. 60 is way too young to die. Howard the Duck was hugely influential to me as a young teenager emerging from childhood. I loved the combination of topical humor, political satire, genre parody and character development that Gerber brought to the comics medium. That and Gene Colan’s brilliant brushwork.

And the movie is yet one more reason to spank George Lucas.