Howard the Duck
Few characters in Marvel's history arrived as unexpectedly — or as unforgettably — as Howard the Duck, who waddled onto the scene in Fear #19 in 1973, the brainchild of the brilliantly offbeat Steve Gerber and artist Val Mayerik. A true Bronze Age original, Howard carved out a singular niche in the Marvel Universe as a sardonic, world-weary outsider whose own ongoing series became one of the era's most celebrated and unconventional reads. Over more than five decades of publishing history — stretching all the way to 2026 — he's racked up 152 catalog appearances and seven key issues that collectors prize, rubbing feathers with the likes of Spider-Man, Thor, the Hulk, and Captain America along the way. Whether you're a longtime Marvel devotee or a curious new reader drawn in by his sheer strangeness, Howard the Duck rewards the dig: a character so genuinely unlike anything else in superhero comics that his longevity feels less like survival and more like inevitability.
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Trivia
- Howard the Duck's 1976 presidential campaign under the All-Night Party reportedly pulled genuine votes from real-world citizens, cementing it as one of the most bizarre intersections of comics fiction and actual U.S. electoral politics.en.wikipedia.org
- When Disney sued Marvel in the 1980s over Howard's resemblance to Donald Duck, the dispute was settled with Marvel retaining the character — though only after altering details such as Howard's clothing and fleshing out a more explicit origin from Duckworld.en.wikipedia.org
- Howard the Duck's solo series earned its status as one of Marvel's most notorious cult books by consistently blending surreal comedy with pointed social and political satire, building a reputation that reached far beyond anything expected of a typical funny-animal comic.en.wikipedia.org
- Steve Gerber has written more of Howard the Duck's comics than any other writer in our catalog — 33 issues.