How Howard The Duck Became Marvel’s Cleveland-Based Comic Book
Former Marvel comic book illustrator and Youngstown native Val Mayerik, who first drew Howard The Duck, shares the character’s story in this episode of The CLE Connection podcast.
Howard The Duck, Marvel’s eponymous comic book character, is a Cleveland icon.
Working with Marvel comic book writer Steve Gerber, Val Mayerik was the first illustrator to depict the Cleveland-based character when he appeared in a series featuring The Man-Thing in the 1970s. Later, the cigar-smoking, beer-drinking cartoon duck got his own comic book series, which was even developed into a George Lucas-produced film.
For Mayerik, who grew up in Youngstown and worked for a time in Cleveland’s art scene — including in collaborations with Harvey Pekar — his work with Marvel and Howard The Duck remains a career highlight.
We talked with Mayerik in an episode of The CLE Connection, Cleveland Magazine’s podcast that takes a look at Cleveland’s surprising ties to major pop culture moments. Below, read a snippet of our conversation about Howard, describing how the character ended up in Northeast Ohio in the first place.
To hear more about Mayerik’s life and work, including his collaborations with Harvey Pekar and his work at Marvel, listen to the full episode. Subscribe to The CLE Connection for more.
Val Mayerik: “The writer, Steve Gerber; most of the credit goes to Steve. I mean, that character was Steve’s alter ego, and Steve passed away quite a while ago. I was the first one to draw Howard, so that that’s my pedigree there. Since then, a lot of people have drawn him. The look of the duck has changed a lot, but whenever people request sketches of Howard at conventions, or they want a private commission, I draw Howard in the original way that I had drawn him back in the ‘70s.
“Steve and I were working on a comic book called (Adventure Into Fear) The Man-Thing.The Man-Thing was the swamp monster who hung out in the Everglades, and I don’t recall all the history of the Man-Thing, but one thing about the Man-Thing is that even though it was a very primitive beast, it had this psychic ability to open up portals into other dimensions and other parts of the universe. In one issue it did that, and this portal stayed open, and a bunch of people came through from all over the universe. There was like a magician type guy, and there was a barbarian warrior type guy, and then Howard came through. Then when it came to Howard having his own comic book, Howard manifested himself and emerged in Cleveland when he came to Earth for the first time from Duck World. How and why that happened, and what Steve was actually going for at that point, I don’t remember, but that’s how Howard got associated with Cleveland.”
Cleveland Magazine:That must have been pretty interesting for you, being from Northeast Ohio, having spent a lot of time in Cleveland — to now be illustrating a duck superhero who is in Cleveland.
VM:“Well, first of all, Howard has no superpowers; he’s not really a superhero. Howard is kind of like the Greek chorus for humanity. He’s the one who’s making the commentary, and he feels he has the right to make the commentary because he’s not a human being, so he has a distance which we don’t have. It was fun. At the time when the character first appeared, it wasn’t really clear that it was going to be that popular, and that it was going to catch on the way it did. I only drew a few early issues of Howard when Marvel decided to give Howard his own title; I was working on other projects that I was really having fun with, and so they gave it to another artist who was a very good artist, and I don’t think I was back on the book for quite a few years.”
Hear more of Mayerik’s story in our podcast, which is streaming onSpotify,Apple Podcasts,Amazon Musicandmore.
Listen to more episodes of The CLE Connection:
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Bone Thugs-N-Harmony Gets its Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
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Strawberry Shortcake and Care Bears’ Very-Cleveland Origin Stories
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Bad Luck Brian and Chicken Salad: What It’s Like to Go Viral in Northeast Ohio
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Annie Nickoloff
Annie Nickoloff is the senior editor of Cleveland Magazine. She has written for a variety of publications, including The Plain Dealer, Alternative Press Magazine, Belt Magazine, USA Today and Paste Magazine. She hosts a weekly indie radio show called Sunny Day on WRUW FM 91.1 Cleveland and enjoys frequenting Cleveland’s music venues, hiking trails and pinball arcades.
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