From an oddball cameo in a 1973 Man-Thing comic by Steve Gerber and Val Mayerick, Howard infiltrated the mainstream. While Stan Lee was wrestling with how to compete/co-opt the threat of underground comix, and Pekar was turning them into literature, Gerber slipped everyone the mickey, er, donald. Howard The Duck's 1976 solo title debut is the perverse pervasion of all the subversive satire and hippie hedonism of the undergrounds into popular comics. Topical, irreverent, brazen, scandalous, and horny, Howard the talking duck had more bite in his brains than Wolvie's claws could ever inflict.
Marvel and Disney put the kibosh in. Marvel and Gerber went into a control struggle, while Disney lawyered them into changing his appearance. (See also: Mickey Rat.) Gerber and Marvel's truces and backstabbings across the years plays as tart and absurd as any of Howard's prime stories. Let's just say Gerber bore the cross for Tank Girl to get away with all of it hassle-free later.
Howard was neutered by the money and the 80's, and this deeply-lamented film is the result. A lot of quality people were involved, and for their sakes, we'll look away as if this never happened. Typically, with never-ending irony, Disney owns Marvel now and dropped a cameo of Howard into one of their movies (in his post-lawyered apparel, of course). In the meantime, go read any reprint with the late Gerber's name on it, and raise a middle stogie to The Man.
