Customer Reviews

Howard The Duck Omnibus

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4 star:		(4)
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This big fat book reprints most of the Howard the Duck comic books published in between 1973 and 1986. Notably missing are the stories from the Howard the Duck black and white magazine published from October 1979 to March 1981. The story of Howard the Duck concerns an anthropomorphic duck who ends up on our planet. He has trouble fitting in, of course, and has many misadventures. Howard's original writer, the late Steve Gerber, used Howard as an alter ego. Howard would rail against the things in society that irked Gerber. Pretty heavy stuff for a comic book, but it was done with a humorous touch and was frequently brilliant. The comic was fortunate enough to have several terrific artists work on it, with Gene Colon being the definitive Howard artist (Frank Brunner was great, too, but wasn't with the comic for very long). Alas, Gerber got into a dispute with Marvel Comics over the rights to Howard the Duck, and other people took over the writing of the comic. Some of these non-Gerber stories were downright awful. Still, they are here for the sake of completeness. I would recommend this book, but be perpared for the quality to drop near the end.

As another viewer had mentioned I too had bought the Marvel Essentials Black and White reprints of Howard the Duck, and while a great buy for the money; something was lacking, and that was color (though I will contradict myself before I am through).

All Howard the Duck appearances in his own title are present, including his first appearances in Man-Thing; the Marvel Treasury new Material and the Foom Issue which went over his candidacy for President. The run is enjoyable as is the art. Kiss makes an appearance, as does Spider-Man; the Defenders,and the Son of Satan. However towards the end of the first run it starts to peter out; mainly after the divine Star Wars parody. Issues #32 and #33 are for the completists to read (if they must).

Physically the Omnibus series is a joy to read; it stays open flat and the colors on the paper are fantastic. The cover I have (as there are two for this edition) has Howard; Man-Thing; and a cheesecake shot of Beverly.

Glaring Omissions are the Black and White Magazine (due to nudity and adult content?) and the newspaper strip. These as they are in black and white would probably be better in the essentials format (see I did it).

I rate this a buy to be able to read this quirky and still relevant series, written by Steve Gerber the divine satirist is worth it.

I purchased the Essential Howard the Duck and was bummed that the book ended before the story played out, and the art was black and white. So I ordered Howard The Duck Omnibus and got the whole story in color. If you want to read Howard The Duck, get the Omnibus.

The Omnibus includes the end of the color run so that the last Doctor Bond story can run completely. The B&W stories are not included for two reasons. First, the Omnibus is for the original, color Howard. Second, and more importantly, the B&W magazine was of much poorer quality and not written by Steve Gerber, who abandoned his masterpiece over ownership of Howard.

The obvious lesser quality of the later stories is demonstrated by the fact that they are not considered worth of inclusion in the essential volume - to the point that the Bong story is left incomplete there rather than sully a collection of Gerber's work by including the Bill Mantlo material.

Howard the Duck is even more goofy and unpredictable than you'd imagine a comic book starring an anti-social, anti-authoritarian, anthropomorphic duck would be. Not only that, but for my money, H.T.D. is where Steve Gerber finally found the perfect vehicle for his now-legendary social commentary, political parody, pop culture critiques, and just plain mind-boggling `Can you really do that in corporate comics?!' experimentation. It mixes the personal and poetic soul-searching found in Gerber's Omega The Unknown with the caped kookiness of his run on The Defenders, often feeling more like an issue of the EC Comics MAD Magazine or Dan Clowes' Eightball than anything coming out of the Marvel Bullpen. Add to that the gorgeous art of Gene Colan, and you've got a book that literally inspires and exhilarates the reader.

Pros: These near-complete collected comic books have never gotten old to me. Steve Gerber was a genius, and backed up by the incredibly beautiful and complex artwork by Gene Colan, Frank Brunner and Val Mayerik, Howard the Duck (the comic) has never looked better than in this Omnibus collection. It's a shame Steve didn't live to see it's release. The paper and color look fantastic. And all of the color books with HTD are included (not just Steve Gerber's duck).

Cons: I miss Steve Gerber a lot. Okay that's nothing against this book, I just had to add that. The hard cover binding is kind of cheap and flimsy. One could argue that not having the B&W magazine issues of the Howard the Duck comic books included in this collection is wrong. Then there is also the case of the missing HTD newspaper strips (which I'm probably to blame for a little bit).

Other thoughts: I have pulled out the original Howard the Duck books about every two years since it was canceled in 1979 to give it another read and every time I find something new or realize a joke/pointed sarcasm that I didn't get when I was a kid. This is a great read for comic fans and non-comic fans. Howard was the "most mainstream Marvel Comic that was actually an underground comic" ever.

If you can't afford this book (or if it's no longer available), check out the Howard the Duck "ESSENTIAL" book. It's $15, in B&W newsprint and still just the same humorous and poignant satire included in the Omnibus without the non-Gerber stuff included.

"Howard The Duck Omnibus"
by Steve Gerber, et. al.
(Marvel Comics, 2008)
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This massive volume, printed on high-quality stock with great color separation, and thick enough to fell Dr. Bong in a single blow, reprints all of the (full-color) adventures of Howard The Duck, the misanthropic/anthropomorphic cartoon duck who was plucked from his own universe and placed in the Marvel Universe in the 1970s. The character first appeared in the "Man-Thing" horror title, which had been taken over by Steve Gerber, one of the weirdest scriptwriters of the 'Seventies (and a big favorite of mine back at the time...) Howard appeared in the "cosmic nexus" of Man-Thing's swamp, and swiftly was awarded a book of his own which, despite its ultimate shortcomings, was one of the most interesting mainstream comics of the era. The issue in which Gerber staged his own phantasmagoric, multidimensional nervous breakdown, introducing himself a character (or entity) inside Howard's continuity, was one of the weirdest and most challenging things I read as a kid. Nice to see all this stuff back in print again!

PS - Although I first thought the "Omnibus" format was super-cool, I have to admit that I find them hard to read. I like to read comics while laying flat on the couch, and these suckers will cut off the feeling to your lower limbs if you try that. But since I long ago lost my HTD originals, I'm willing to risk a little bodily harm to revisit the weirdness of my youth. Anyone know if the Howard-inspired "ground-level" series, "Quack!" is slated for reissue any time soon? (Joe Sixpack, ReadThatAgain book reviews)

If all you know about Howard the Duck is the cheesy Lucasfilm production from the mid 80's - then you REALLY don't know Howard the Duck! Previous reviewers have referenced stories not included in this edition - just to clarify - this omnibus primarily represents all the stories written by Steve Gerber (with a few exceptions). Writer/Creator Steve Gerber brought a one-of-a-kind sense of humor and social-consciousness to this title. Howard represented every man (or woman) who looked at the world around them and screamed 'what the heck is going on ... and why is it going this way?!?' The art is top-notch and the color restoration on this edition is just stunning, and (I was happy to see) after 30+ years the stories still hold up and are (still) relevant. I'm grateful to Marvel for giving this unique character this level of treatment and strongly recommend this book to anybody who is interested in the history of comics from the era of the 70's and Thank you Steve Gerber - RIP.

I'm actually very irked by Amazon's cover. I'm sure its somewhat expected that some details are subject to change, but I was actually quite looking forward to this particular cover. The one they send out has Howard the Duck and his redhead assistant running for their lives, being chased by the Man Thing!!

Regardless of cover discrepencies, this is a great collection of political, insightful, unbiased observation of society. For those who haven't read much of Howard, try to think of him as Donald Duck with the personality of The Boondocks