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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Ms.Tree - Deadline!

The Ms.Tree stories by Max Allan Collins and Terry Beatty in this collection are some of the earliest, from 1984 and 1985 when the series was picked up by Aardvark -Vanaheim and later Renegade Press. The printing is different than that from Eclipse since only two-colors are used, sometimes red tones and sometimes blue. This limited color might not have worked for all comics, but it served the noir world of Ms. Tree quite well. It should also be noted that Gary Kato is assisting on the artwork in these stories. 

The first four issues of this collection deal with a single story entitled "Deadline" which gave its name to the complete Titan collection as well. Ms. Tree is drawn into a string of serial murders which at first  appear to be random, but then relate to events which took place years before when Michael Tree (then named Friday) went to high school. Those events involved a gang rape. The killer is relentless and for a time seems connected to the Muerta mob as well. A reporter tries to get Ms. Tree to assist him on this case, but that turns out poorly. 

"Skin Deep" deals with a hot topic in those 80's years, a black beauty queen who had some nude pictures which might end up in a porn magazine. Ms. Tree is hired to investigate on the behalf of her friend and ally on the police force, Rafe Valer. His sister is the beauty queen in question. It's an interesting solution.  As it turns out, pornography will be an element of other stories in this collection. 

Aardvark-Vanaheim had been run by Dave Sim and his wife Deni Loubert (Sim as artist and owner and Loubert as publisher). When they divorced it created a schism which was reflected in the fact that both companies are named as publishers of this Ms.Tree story. This story titled "Runaway" deals with young kids who run away from home and find themselves swept up in all manner of dangerous situations. The problem is brought home to Ms.Tree when her stepson does indeed run away. A desperate search is made, and she meets other parents who have lost their kids. Eventually her search leads her to confront the threat of pedophiles. 

We jump ahead a few years for the next story published by Renegade Press only. The artwork on these stories seems a little more refined in some ways, the two-color approach being used with some more subtlety. The story titled "Runaway II" deals again with kids who have left home but this time focuses on young women who get snapped up into pornography, both of the printed and cinematic kind. One young woman has seemingly killed herself and Ms. Tree is searching for another and finds her, but she seems to have found some measure of control in her life. There are many characters in this story who are neither good nor evil, but supremely human and at times exceedingly weak. That said, there is a real threat as Ms. Tree discovers when she finds herself trussed up with Christmas lights. 

The collection closes out with a story which sees Ms. Tree and Mike Mist team up. They are up against a couple of thugs named Bert and Ernie who are not afraid to kill. The two along with a young woman who sought Mist's help would set up couples and rob them. When the girl is killed, Mist and Ms. Tree head to Honolulu to get to the bottom of this scandalous threat. This one is in black and white as it was originally produced for one of Renegade's 3-D books. 

All of these Ms. Tree stories are gritty and have a depth of character uncommon in many if not most comics of the era. Since these stories are in the tradition of Mike Hammer, Michael Tree is not shy about using her gun. It's hard to see how she doesn't get into more trouble with the police with the bodies she drops here and there and seemingly everywhere. But still it's great to have these stories in a highly readable format from Titan. 

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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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