Howard the Duck is a comic book character in the Marvel Comics universe created by writer Steve Gerber and artist Val Mayerik. The character first appeared in Adventure into Fear #19 (Dec. 1973) and several subsequent series have chronicled the misadventures of the ill-tempered, anthropomorphic, "funny animal" trapped on human-dominated Earth. Howard's adventures are generally social satires, while a few are parodies of genre fiction with a metafictional awareness of the medium. The book is existentialist, and its main joke, according to Gerber, is that there is no joke: "that life's most serious moments and most incredibly dumb moments are often distinguishable only by a momentary point of view." This is diametrically opposed to screenwriter Gloria Katz, who in adapting the comic to the screen declared, "It's a film about a duck from outer space... It's not supposed to be an existential experience".
Read more about Howard The Duck: Publication History, Fictional Character Biography, Powers and Abilities, Characteristics and Associations, Collected Editions
Famous quotes containing the words howard and/or duck:
“Action for which I become responsible, or for which my administration becomes responsible, shall be within the law.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“Alice: I put swimsuits in boxes six days a week.
George: Yeah. What about Sunday? Maybe then you put yourself in a swimsuit.
Alice: Oh, not me.
George: Why? You don’t look good in a swimsuit?
Alice: Sure I do. I can’t swim.
George: You’re kidding.
Alice: I never learned. I was even scared of the duck pond when I was a kid.”
—Michael Wilson (1914–1978)