The Official Web Site of the

1947 - 2008

I never met Steve in person, and our only correspondence was one email back and forth in 1997 when I wrote to congratulate him on having had Duke "Destroyer" Duck rescue Howard and Beverly from the Marvel Universe in the Savage Dragon / Destroyer team Up. He wrote back, thanked me for my comments and promised Leonard (or was it Howard) would be back. This message brought me back to why I had cared so much about Howard in the first place.

I received my first issue of Howard the Duck, #5, in a trade for a Olivia Newton John's new (at the time) 7" single I Honestly Love You. It was the tail end of the 6th grade for me in the late spring of 1977 and after that one issue I was hooked. I soon picked up all the issues I was missing, and even gladly shelled $12 for a near mint copy of #1. Who but Howard who was "Trapped in a world he never made" could speak of the alienation and frustration I'd felt as a young adolescent among the jocks, popular kids and bullies. Forget the Hulk, Fantastic Four and Spiderman, in a very short time Howard, and his human persona Steve Gerber became my heroes.

Steve's being gone is a great loss to those of us who read his comics, and dug him as a writer because he got what so many other writers failed to see: the world is an absurd f@#$%n place and Howard's ways of dealing with it are lessons to us all.

Steve, you will definitely be missed. This world is much poorer and less sane now that you are gone. Rest in peace, man ...

Jeff Vargon
February 11th, 2008 at 8:23 pm