Back Issue #31 September 2008 (magazine review).
With a Howard The Duck cover, I doubt if you need to be told that this issue of ‘Back Issue’ is a ‘Steve Gerber Tribute Issue’. Gerber (1947-2008) had a unique voice in comicbooks and pushing the genre. Howard The Duck was certainly his voice for absurdity as Roger Ash explores the character’s history, it is intricately part of his life.
Other articles build up a picture of Gerber’s early career. I hadn’t realised that Roy Thomas knew him from way back or when he sued Marvel over rights to Howard The Duck, his first artist Val Mayerik, was included in any settlement.
Going through the various titles that Gerber worked on at Marvel and briefly at DC Comics bringing his own twist to them is quite extensive even before he moved to some of the independent comicbook companies. You will certainly come away from this ‘Back Issue’ with some knowledge of what you need to collect when looking at Stever Gerber’s work and beyond.
Just in case you missed it and I can’t recall it being shown in the UK, he script-edited the ‘Thundarr The Barbarian’ animation series in 1980 and bearing in mind this magazine came out in 2008, has now been released on DVD.
In many respects, Gerber should be seen as a revolutionary in the comicbook and even animation world in not so much presenting his views but also in experimenting with elements of the medium. The aspects of his personality that comes over from the people who knew him from the articles here fill in a lot of gaps and he would certainly have been attributed with being a bit geeky.
GF Willmetts
July 2020
(pub: TwoMorrows Publishing. 100 page illustrated magazine. Price: $ 6.95 (US). ISSN: 1932-6904. Direct from them, you can get it for $ 4.17 (US) remember the 2020 discount)
check out websites: www.TwoMorrows.com and https://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=98_54&products_id=734
