{"id":362234,"date":"2026-08-01T18:43:07","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T18:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/uncategorized\/the-four-color-media-monitor-howard-the-ducks-history\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T18:43:07","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T18:43:07","slug":"the-four-color-media-monitor-howard-the-ducks-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=362234","title":{"rendered":"The Four Color Media Monitor: Howard the Duck’s history"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n

A writer at Cleveland Magazine tells<\/a> about the history of the late Steve Gerber’s Howard the Duck, Marvel’s contribution to the anthropomorphic animal genre, which employed a Cleveland-based setting, and interviewed artist Val Mayerik, who was the first to illustrate the anthropomorphic cartoon bird during the Bronze Age. First though:<\/p>\n

Working with Marvel comic book writer Steve Gerber, Val Mayerik was the first illustrator to depict the Cleveland-based character when he appeared in a series featuring The Man-Thing in the 1970s. Later, the cigar-smoking, beer-drinking cartoon duck got his own comic book series, which was even developed into a George Lucas-produced film<\/b>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That film, most unfortunately, was a failure, and not a good start for Marvel’s attempts to enter the live action movie scene. It took until 1998’s Blade to get a serious major adaptation produced, and that was more successful. Now, on the subject of how Howard’s drawn:<\/p>\n

Val Mayerik: “The writer, Steve Gerber; most of the credit goes to Steve. I mean, that character was Steve’s alter ego, and Steve passed away quite a while ago. I was the first one to draw Howard, so that that’s my pedigree there. Since then, a lot of people have drawn him. The look of the duck has changed a lot, but whenever people request sketches of Howard at conventions, or they want a private commission, I draw Howard in the original way that I had drawn him back in the \u201870s<\/b>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’d say he’s right to do it that way. Considering how Marvel was ruined horrifically since the turn of the century in particular, that’s why it can do a lot of good to remind people how it all originally began in the Bronze Age, when the feathered fellow was created to serve as a comical adventure, surely the most significant of Marvel’s own efforts to experiment with anthropomorphic animals.<\/p>\n

Cleveland Magazine: That must have been pretty interesting for you, being from Northeast Ohio, having spent a lot of time in Cleveland \u2014 to now be illustrating a duck superhero who is in Cleveland.<\/i><\/p>\n

VM: “Well, first of all, Howard has no superpowers; he’s not really a superhero. Howard is kind of like the Greek chorus for humanity<\/b>. He’s the one who’s making the commentary, and he feels he has the right to make the commentary because he’s not a human being, so he has a distance which we don’t have. It was fun<\/b>. At the time when the character first appeared, it wasn’t really clear that it was going to be that popular, and that it was going to catch on the way it did. I only drew a few early issues of Howard when Marvel decided to give Howard his own title; I was working on other projects that I was really having fun with, and so they gave it to another artist who was a very good artist, and I don’t think I was back on the book for quite a few years.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

That’s an interesting part of Howard’s creation: he may have been an anthropomorphic animal, but not one with serious science-fantasy powers. Then again, it’s not like every story out there starring anthropomorphic animals does that either, but what matters with Howard the Duck is that he was meant to serve as a satirical adventure, and it’s too bad awful scribes and editors like Joe Quesada led to the ruin of such characters with potential. Something I wish veterans like Mayerik would have the courage to discuss. Failure to do so is precisely why such classic creations have suffered so badly.<\/p>\n

Labels: good artists<\/a>, good writers<\/a>, history<\/a>, marvel comics<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A writer at Cleveland Magazine tells about the history of the late Steve Gerber’s Howard the Duck, Marvel’s contribution to the anthropomorphic animal genre, which employed a Cleveland-based setting, and interviewed artist Val Mayerik, who was the first to illustrate the anthropomorphic cartoon bird during the Bronze Age. First though: Working with Marvel comic book […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[183438,183439,98637,98106],"tags":[2294,26919,3734,33489,10999,3553],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-362234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-good-artists","category-good-writers","category-history","category-marvel-comics","tag-color","tag-ducks","tag-history","tag-howard","tag-media","tag-monitor"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Four Color Media Monitor: Howard the Duck's history - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=362234\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Four Color Media Monitor: Howard the Duck's history - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A writer at Cleveland Magazine tells about the history of the late Steve Gerber’s Howard the Duck, Marvel’s contribution to the anthropomorphic animal genre, which employed a Cleveland-based setting, and interviewed artist Val Mayerik, who was the first to illustrate the anthropomorphic cartoon bird during the Bronze Age. First though: Working with Marvel comic book […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=362234\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-01T18:43:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=362234#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=362234\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b85e3c3dc0e1daea076524dc8810c371\"},\"headline\":\"The Four Color Media Monitor: Howard the Duck’s history\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-01T18:43:07+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=362234\"},\"wordCount\":636,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Color\",\"ducks\",\"history\",\"Howard\",\"media\",\"Monitor\"],\"articleSection\":[\"good artists\",\"good writers\",\"History\",\"Marvel Comics\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=362234#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=362234\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=362234\",\"name\":\"The Four Color Media Monitor: Howard the Duck's history - Som2ny Network\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-01T18:43:07+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=362234#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=362234\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=362234#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?bp_activities=1\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Four Color Media Monitor: Howard the Duck’s history\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/\",\"name\":\"Som2ny Network\",\"description\":\"Daily Deals\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Som2ny Network\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4a0953c4-logo-300x86-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4a0953c4-logo-300x86-1.png\",\"width\":300,\"height\":86,\"caption\":\"Som2ny Network\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b85e3c3dc0e1daea076524dc8810c371\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/729ae85bf62b9917e93538db2f2688ca?s=96&r=g&default=https%3A%2F%2Ffivemor.com%2Fwp-content%2Fplugins%2Fbuddypress-first-letter-avatar%2Fimages%2Fdefault%2F96%2Flatin_a.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/729ae85bf62b9917e93538db2f2688ca?s=96&r=g&default=https%3A%2F%2Ffivemor.com%2Fwp-content%2Fplugins%2Fbuddypress-first-letter-avatar%2Fimages%2Fdefault%2F96%2Flatin_a.png\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Four Color Media Monitor: Howard the Duck's history - Som2ny Network","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=362234","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Four Color Media Monitor: Howard the Duck's history - Som2ny Network","og_description":"A writer at Cleveland Magazine tells about the history of the late Steve Gerber’s Howard the Duck, Marvel’s contribution to the anthropomorphic animal genre, which employed a Cleveland-based setting, and interviewed artist Val Mayerik, who was the first to illustrate the anthropomorphic cartoon bird during the Bronze Age. First though: Working with Marvel comic book […]","og_url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=362234","og_site_name":"Som2ny Network","article_published_time":"2026-08-01T18:43:07+00:00","author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=362234#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=362234"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b85e3c3dc0e1daea076524dc8810c371"},"headline":"The Four Color Media Monitor: Howard the Duck’s history","datePublished":"2026-08-01T18:43:07+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=362234"},"wordCount":636,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization"},"keywords":["Color","ducks","history","Howard","media","Monitor"],"articleSection":["good artists","good writers","History","Marvel Comics"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=362234#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=362234","url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=362234","name":"The Four Color Media Monitor: Howard the Duck's history - Som2ny Network","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2026-08-01T18:43:07+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=362234#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=362234"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=362234#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?bp_activities=1"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Four Color Media Monitor: Howard the Duck’s history"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/","name":"Som2ny Network","description":"Daily Deals","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization","name":"Som2ny Network","url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4a0953c4-logo-300x86-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4a0953c4-logo-300x86-1.png","width":300,"height":86,"caption":"Som2ny Network"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b85e3c3dc0e1daea076524dc8810c371","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/729ae85bf62b9917e93538db2f2688ca?s=96&r=g&default=https%3A%2F%2Ffivemor.com%2Fwp-content%2Fplugins%2Fbuddypress-first-letter-avatar%2Fimages%2Fdefault%2F96%2Flatin_a.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/729ae85bf62b9917e93538db2f2688ca?s=96&r=g&default=https%3A%2F%2Ffivemor.com%2Fwp-content%2Fplugins%2Fbuddypress-first-letter-avatar%2Fimages%2Fdefault%2F96%2Flatin_a.png","caption":"admin"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/fivemor.com"],"url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=362234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362234\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=362234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=362234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=362234"},{"taxonomy":"dealstore","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fdealstore&post=362234"},{"taxonomy":"offerexpiration","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fofferexpiration&post=362234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}