Steve Gerber

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Stephen Ross Gerber (born 20 September 1947, St. Louis, Missouri, United States) is an American comic book writer best known as the creator of the satiric Marvel Comics character Howard the Duck. Other major works include Man-Thing, Omega the Unknown, The Phantom Zone, Void Indigo, Shanna the She-Devil, Tales of the Zombie, Defenders, The Legion of Night, Nevada, Sludge, and Hard Time. He was among the 1970s wave of writers such as Steve Englehart, Don McGregor and Doug Moench who took often minor characters and helped create a writerly Renaissance. He is currently writing Doctor Fate for DC Comics, having briefly worked with a version of the character in 1983.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life and career

After corresponding with fellow youthful comics fans Roy Thomas and Jerry Bails, and starting one of the first comics fanzines, Headline, at age 13 or 14, Gerber attended college at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, the University of Missouri-Columbia, and St. Louis University, where he finished his communications degree and did some post-graduate work. He then began work as a copywriter for a St. Louis advertising agency, where he wrote bizarre short stories at any moment he could grab to stay sane. Some of these later appeared in Crazy Magazine during his stint as editor.

In early 1972, Gerber asked Thomas, by now Marvel editor-in-chief, about writing comics; Thomas sent him a writer's test — six pages of a Daredevil car-chase scene drawn by Gene Colan — which Gerber passed. He accepted a position as an associate editor and writer at Marvel Comics for $125 a week — $25 less than at the ad agency — and $13 a page for writing.

[edit] Marvel Comics

Gerber initially penned standard superhero stories for titles such as Daredevil and Sub-Mariner, but soon developed an individual voice that mixed adventure with social satire and absurdist humor. In one issue of The Defenders, for example, a group of supervillains, tired of always being beaten by the good guys, seeks out a self-help guru for motivation. He penned some stories for Creatures on the Loose, Chamber of Chills, Journey Into Mystery and Crazy Magazine. When he took over as editor (until issue #14) he wanted to distinguish it from Mad Magazine by presenting stories that made it appear that the creators themselves were crazy.

Besides a lengthy run on The Defenders (which included the introduction of Korvac), Gerber is noted for scripting Man-Thing (a quasi-horror title); Omega The Unknown (which explored the strange link between a cosmic superhero and a small boy); and Howard the Duck, created with artist Val Mayerik as a throwaway character in a Man-Thing story, and then eventually brought back in solo backup stories in Giant-Size Man-Thing (with artist Frank Brunner) before getting his own series (with art primarily by penciler Gene Colan and inker Steve Leialoha). Gerber and Colan later collaborated on a Howard the Duck syndicated comic strip. He collaborated heavily with Carole Seuling on Shanna the She-Devil to the point that he has been credited with co-creating the character and her supporting cast. He more modestly claims that only Nekra is his creation.

Among other Marvel projects, Gerber also wrote a short-lived comic based on the band KISS, in which he also introduced Dr. Doom's tutor, Dizzie the Hun. Another important part of Gerber's oeuvre was Tales of the Zombie based on a one-shot character, Simon Garth, created in the 1950s by Bill Everett, who died shortly after the series began. He also wrote the Guardians of the Galaxy series in Marvel Two-in-One (he wrote the first nine issues of that series, the first seven tying directly with his other storylines), Defenders and Marvel Presents, which had previously appeared only one time. He created the characters of Starhawk, Aleta Ogord, and Nikki. He also wrote stories of Son of Satan, Morbius the Living Vampire and Lilith, Daughter of Dracula. He created the Monk Montesi in Dracula Lives! #5, whose formula would later temporarily destroy all of the vampires in the world.

Steve Gerber is noted for his memorable supporting or guest characters who become cult favorites in their own right. His best-known are probably Everyman Richard Rory, who has appeared off and on in most of the Gerber books, and the Foolkiller, a psychopathic vigilante who inspired several different individuals to adopt his identity over the years and acquired his own 10-issue limited series in 1990. He is also responsible for the creation of the Silver Samurai during his Daredevil run, and the female Red Guardian when writing Defenders.

Toward the end of his work at Marvel, he wrote Hanna-Barbera stories for Mark Evanier under the anagrammatic name, "Reg Everbest". Only two of these, featuring Magilla Gorilla and Clue Club, were published in their English-language originals.

[edit] Battle for Howard the Duck

Gerber left Marvel in 1979 and launched a lengthy legal battle for control of Howard the Duck. During the late 1970s and 1980s he did some work for DC Comics (including a 1981 Superman miniseries, The Phantom Zone, the last three issues of Mr. Miracle, and a run on The Immortal Doctor Fate with Martin Pasko) and for independent comic companies.

One of Gerber's first major works away from Marvel was the original graphic novel Stewart the Rat for Eclipse Comics, with art by Gene Colan and Tom Palmer. In 1982 he teamed with Jack Kirby at Eclipse to create Destroyer Duck, a satirical comic that raised funds for his court case and Kirby's similar legal battles against Marvel. Gerber and Marvel reached a settlement in the case.

[edit] Later career

Since that time, Gerber has worked sporadically in comics, writing several miniseries for Marvel (including Void Indigo for the Epic Comics imprint in 1983 and The Legion of Night and Suburban Jersey Ninja She-Devils in 1990) and DC (including A. Bizarro and Nevada for the Vertigo imprint in 1998). Returning briefly to Marvel, he had a 12-issue run on The Sensational She-Hulk, a three-issue run on Cloak and Dagger, had Hawkeye get shot and wear a new armored costume designed by Tony Stark in Avengers Spotlight, and wrote two issues of Toxic Crusaders, all for Marvel, during which time he also did a serial in Marvel Comics Presents featuring Poison, a character he created in The Evolutionary War crossover. He also wrote the two-issue Freddy Kruger's A Nightmare on Elm Street which delved intelligently into the backstory of the character with a depth the films never displayed.

In collaboration with Beth Woods (later Slick), he wrote Contagion (TNG episode) and BBSs for Dummies. With Hank Saroyan, he story-edited the first season of Dungeons & Dragons and wrote the episode "Prison Without Walls", which featured a character that bore a strong resembalnce to Man-Thing. He has also written episodes of G.I. Joe, which he also story edited during early seasons, the Berlin Wall episode of The Puppy's New Adventures, which was heavily censored to make East Berlin look terribly unthreatening, which resulted in Gerber's mock-slogan, "ABC Standards and Practices... Protecting Your Children With Lies", and the pilot episode of Mister T. His most notable animated creation is Thundarr the Barbarian.

He was one of the founders of the Ultraverse, co-creating Exiles (perhaps the first comic in which a superhero team's incompetence has been played for tragedy rather than comedy) and creating Sludge. For Image, he co-created The Cybernary with Nick Manabat and disbanded Codename: Strykeforce (in their crossover with Cyberforce, in which Gerber showed the impossibility of one leader leading two teams with any effectiveness), in addition to guest-writing Pitt. In 2002 he created a new Howard the Duck miniseries for Marvel's MAX line. For DC he then created Hard Time, which outlasted the short-lived imprint DC Focus. He is currently working on a new Doctor Fate series for DC, having briefly scripted other characters as Doctor Fate on backup stories in The Flash. The series begins in January 2007.

He has also worked in television animation, working as story editor on the animated series G.I. Joe and Dungeons & Dragons; creating Thundarr the Barbarian, and sharing a 1998 Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Class — Animated Program, for the WB program The New Batman/Superman Adventures.

He has spoken out against Jonathan Lethem's plans to revive Omega the Unknown, and in 2005, when Marvel had a vote on which of four characters to revive, he asked his fans to vote against Wundarr the Aquarian, a supporting character he created in Fear and Marvel Two-in-One. Wundarr took second after Death's Head. Wundarr was made the Aquarian by another writer (Mark Gruenwald--see Project Pegasus), as it is. He has stated numerous times on his blog and elsewhere on the web that no one should write another's characters without the creators' personal endosement, which he wishes he had had with Kirby on Defenders and especially Mister Miracle, despite Kirby being ok with it when they worked on Destroyer Duck. He has, however, endorsed the new Foolkiller series.

Gerber has been assigned the new Doctor Fate series by DC Comics, and it is expected to debut in 2007. The series will follow a series of one-shots depicting Fate's interactions with other DC mystical heroes. Gerber will also write the Zauriel one-shot.

[edit] Awards

He has received recognition for his work in comics with several awards and nominations. Gerber has been nominated for several Shazam Awards, including for Best Writer in both the Dramatic and Humor Divisions in 1974

[edit] Quotes

Steve Gerber: "We had some problems with the Howard newspaper strip, which led to problems with the Howard book, which ultimately led to the lawsuit. Marvel wouldn't pay the artist to draw it. Gene Colan and I were supposed to get a percentage of the syndicate's take for the strip. The problem was, the money came in 90 days, 120 days, six months — I don't remember how long exactly — after the strips were published. So, essentially, the artist was working for nothing up until that time, and no artist can afford to do that. [In comparison with Stan Lee and John Romita's Spider-Man comic strip,] Stan, as publisher of Marvel, had a regular salary coming in, and John Romita, I believe, was also on staff at the time. They didn't have quite the same problem." 1

[edit] Significant characters created

[edit] References

[edit] Footnotes

  • Note 1: Comic Book Artist #7 (reprinted in Comic Book Artist Collection Volume 3 (TwoMorrows Publishing, 2005)): "Steve Gerber's Crazy Days", p. 66

[edit] External links

Preceded by:
Gerry Conway		 Daredevil writer
1973–1975
(#102 and #118 by Chris Claremont)		 Succeeded by:
Tony Isabella
Preceded by:
Mike Friedrich		 Iron Man writer
1973		 Succeeded by:
Mike Friedrich
Preceded by:
Gerry Conway		 Man-Thing writer
1972–1975		 Succeeded by:
Michael Fleischer
Preceded by:
Donald F. Glut		 Captain America writer
1978		 Succeeded by:
Roger McKenzie
Preceded by:
J. M. DeMatteis		 Man-Thing writer
1988–1989		 Succeeded by:
Simon Jowett
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