Destroyer Duck Day!

Steve Gerber was born on tomorrow's date in 1947. Gerber made his fame with his creation of Howard the Duck in the pages of Man-Thing for Marvel. Howard was a sensation in the mid-70's, even putting forth a satirical run for President. (I prefer him to the mope currently malingering in the office.) Gerber famously sued Marvel for some financial considerations for Howard's success when the company attempted to get into the movies. This effort was supported by other professionals, lead among them Jack "King" Kirby who was having his own battles with the House of (Mostly His) Ideas. 

One of the grand comic books of the 80's was the totally in-your-face satire named Destroyer Duck. The comic started out as a method by which like-minded talents (Jack Kirby, Alfredo Alcala, Mark Evanier, Joe Staton, Sergio Aragones, among others) donated their time and talents to produce a story written by Steve Gerber who at that point in time was in a legal dispute with the Marvel machine over the ownership of Howard the Duck.

The debut story is about that struggle directly and hilariously as we meet Duke Duck, an ally of the "Little Guy", a small duck who gets sucked into a distant dimension where he is exploited and killed by Godcorp. Duke ends up going to this other world and kicks Godcorp butt. After this one-shot though it was deemed smart to do more Destroyer Duck stories and Gerber and Kirby and Alcala kicked out four more issues before seven issue series was taken over by Buzz Dixon and Gary Kato. Duke has showed up  a few times since, in the pages of Total Eclipse in the late 80's and the Image one-shot guest-starring with Savage Dragon in the late 90's. Surely there's an audience for these bizarre tales of the "Marauding Mallard of Vengeance".

But that's not all. 


Above is the envelope featuring the great artwork of Jack Kirby and Alfredo Alcala. This holds some dandy artwork. Here's a description from the website The Gerber Curse:

"In 1982, Dave and Deni Sim published a portfolio called "F.O.O.G.", which stood for "Friends Of Old Gerber," to help raise funds for Gerber's legal battle. The project, which was initiated without Gerber's knowledge (he says he hadn't even met Dave and Deni Sim), featured 10 black and white plates (11" x 14") by Bernie Wrightson, Mike Kaluta, Charles Vess, Wendi Pini, Jeff Jones, Barry Smith, Marshall Rogers, Frank Thorne, Gene Colan, and Dave Sim, which came in a Duke "Destroyer" Duck envelope illustrated by Kirby and Alcala."

Below are some scans of that artwork. I am lucky to have one of these portfolios. It's a real bit of comics history. Note that the scans are pretty much as is, and do not expand much when you click on them. Sorry about that.

Dave Sim
Barry Windsor-Smith
Mike Kaluta
Gene Colan
Berni Wrightson
Marshall Rogers
Jeff Jones
Wendy Pini
Charles Vess
Frank Thorne
Hubba Hubba!

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The Uncollected - Destroyer Duck!

One of the grand comic books of the 80's was the totally in-your-face satire named Destroyer Duck. The comic started out as a method by which like-minded talents (Jack Kirby, Alfredo Alcala, Mark Evanier, Joe Staton, Sergio Aragones, among others) donated their time and talents to produce a story written by Steve Gerber who at that point in time was in a legal dispute with the Marvel machine over the ownership of Howard the Duck.

The debut story is about that struggle directly and hilariously as we meet Duke Duck, a ally of the "Little Guy", a small duck who gets sucked into a distant dimension where he is exploited and killed by Godcorp. Duke ends up going to this other world and kicks Godcorp butt. After this one-shot though it was deemed smart to do more Destroyer Duck stories and Gerber and Kirby and Alcala kicked out four more issues before seven issue series was taken over by Buzz Dixon and Gary Kato. Duke has showed up  a few times since, in the pages of Total Eclipse in the late 80's and the Image one-shot guest-starring with Savage Dragon in the late 90's. Surely there's an audience for these bizarre tales of the "Marauding Mallard of Vengeance".

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Duck Of Destruction!

A book of comic legend, the debut of 1982's  Destroyer Duck from Eclipse Comics was most definitely a shot across the bow of the behemoth Marvel by talents Steve Gerber and Jack Kirby. Kirby had long been at odds with his sometime employer over the rights and credit for his bountiful creations. Steve Gerber's complaint was more newly minted, as his Howard the Duck was a big success for Marvel and he wanted a taste of that success. So these two joined forces with Alfredo Alcala, Steve Leialoha and others to produce a one-shot comic intended to help fund Gerber's lawsuit against Mighty Marvel. Sergio Aragones and Mark Evanier created a little character named Groo who also appears in this significant comic. This is a milestone for sure.

Here's a great look at the original artwork, which shows off some of the gags which got trimmed out of the printed version.

The world envisioned by Gerber and Kirby is a hurly burly one in these first few pages which remind me of nothing less than the famous bar scene from Star Wars. That's somewhat ironic as another bone of contention for Kirby as he was convinced (and I believer rightly so) that his Fourth World served as something of an inspiration for George Lucas.

But a big surprise I think for one and all was that Destroyer Duck proved somewhat successful, so much so that additional issues were produced for Eclipse. Here's a look at the lush Kirby and Alcala cover artwork. 

Note the addition of Val Mayerik's The Starling to this cover. "The Starling" created by Jerry Seigel and Mayerik ran as a back up in all remaining issues of the comic.

After five issues Kirby and Gerber stepped away from their creation.

Gary Kato too a stab at the sixth Destroyer Duck cover. He also became the interior artist for the last two issues, both written by Buzz Dixon.

And Frank Miller stepped in to supply a very clever cover for the seventh issue. This proved to be Destroyer's farewell. He'd show up again many years later thanks to Erik Larsen alongside the  Savage Dragon.

But fans of a certain age, the "Marauding Mallard" was a statement, a firebrand of a comic character who pointed the way to a new way of doing business in comics.

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