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Steve Gerber profile picture
Steve Gerber
Author · 63 books

Steve Gerber graduated from the University of Missouri with a degree in communications and took a job in advertising. To keep himself sane, he wrote bizarre short stories such as "Elves Against Hitler," "Conversion in a Terminal Subway," and "...And the Birds Hummed Dirges!" He noticed acquaintance Roy Thomas working at Marvel, and Thomas sent him Marvel's standard writing test, dialoguing Daredevil art. He was soon made a regular on Daredevil and Sub-Mariner, and the newly created Man-Thing, the latter of which pegged him as having a strong personal style—intellectual, introspective, and literary. In one issue, he introduced an anthropomorphic duck into a horror fantasy, because he wanted something weird and incongruous, and Thomas made the character, named for Gerber's childhood friend Howard, fall to his apparent death in the following issue. Fans were outraged, and the character was revived in a new and deeply personal series. Gerber said in interview that the joke of Howard the Duck is that "there is no joke." The series was existential and dealt with the necessities of life, such as finding employment to pay the rent. Such unusual fare for comicbooks also informed his writing on The Defenders. Other works included Morbius, the Lving Vampire, The Son of Satan, Tales of the Zombie, The Living Mummy, Marvel Two-in-One, Guardians of the Galaxy, Shanna the She-Devil, and Crazy Magazine for Marvel, and Mister Miracle, Metal Men, The Phantom Zone , and The Immortal Doctor Fate for DC. Gerber eventually lost a lawsuit for control of Howard the Duck when he was defending artist Gene Colan's claim of delayed paychecks for the series, which was less important to him personally because he had a staff job and Colan did not. He left comics for animation in the early 1980s, working mainly with Ruby-Spears, creating Thundarr the Barbarian with Alex Toth and Jack Kirby and episodes of The Puppy's Further Adventures, and Marvel Productions, where he was story editor on multiple Marvel series including Dungeons & Dragons, G.I. Joe, and The Transformers. He continued to dabble in comics, mainly for Eclipse, including the graphic novel Stewart the Rat, the two-part horror story "Role Model: Caring, Sharing, and Helping Others," and the seven-issue Destroyer Duck with Jack Kirby, which began as a fundraiser for Gerber's lawsuit. In the early 1990s, he returned to Marvel with Foolkiller, a ten-issue limited series featuring a new version of a villain he had used in The Man-Thing and Omega the Unknown, who communicated with a previous version of the character through internet bulletin boards. An early internet adopter himself, he wrote two chapters of BBSs for Dummies with Beth Woods Slick, with whom he also wrote the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, "Contagion." During this period, he also wrote The Sensational She-Hulk and Cloak and Dagger for Marvel, Cybernary and WildC.A.T.s for Image, and Sludge and Exiles for the writer-driven Malibu Ultraverse, and Nevada for DC's mature readers Vertigo line. In 2002, he returned to the Howard the Duck character for Marvel's mature readers MAX line, and for DC created Hard Time with Mary Skrenes, with whom he had co-created the cult hit Omega the Unknown for Marvel. Their ending for Omega the Unknown remains a secret that Skrenes plans to take to the grave if Marvel refuses to publish it. Suffering from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis ("idiopathic" meaning of unknown origin despite having been a heavy smoker much of his life), he was on a waiting list for a double lung transplant. His final work was the Doctor Fate story arc, "More Pain Comics," for DC Comics'

Series

Books

Sub-Mariner #60 book cover

Sub-Mariner #60

2016

Howard el pato book cover

Howard el pato

Metamorfosis

2017

Daredevil (1964-1998) #116 book cover

Daredevil (1964-1998) #116

1970

Defenders #20 book cover

Defenders #20

1975

Hard Time book cover

Hard Time

50 to Life

2004

Sensational She-Hulk #14 book cover

Sensational She-Hulk #14

2017

Sensational She-Hulk #10 book cover

Sensational She-Hulk #10

2022

Daredevil (1964-1998) #114 book cover

Daredevil (1964-1998) #114

1970

Mister Miracle (1971-1978) #25 book cover

Mister Miracle (1971-1978) #25

1978

Defenders #24 book cover

Defenders #24

2016

Marvel Spotlight (1971-1977) #23 book cover

Marvel Spotlight (1971-1977) #23

2016

Daredevil (1964-1998) #100 book cover

Daredevil (1964-1998) #100

2016

Nevada book cover

Nevada

1999

Man-Thing #21 book cover

Man-Thing #21

2018

Void Indigo book cover

Void Indigo

1984

Defenders #21 book cover

Defenders #21

1975

The Infernal Man-Thing book cover

The Infernal Man-Thing

2012

Daredevil (1964-1998) #117 book cover

Daredevil (1964-1998) #117

1970

The Helmet of Fate book cover

The Helmet of Fate

2007

Captain America (1968-1996) #225 book cover

Captain America (1968-1996) #225

1978

Iron Man Annual #3 book cover

Iron Man Annual #3

2018

Sub-Mariner #59 book cover

Sub-Mariner #59

2016

Man-Thing #3 book cover

Man-Thing #3

2015

Defenders #33 book cover

Defenders #33

1976

Daredevil (1964-1998) #113 book cover

Daredevil (1964-1998) #113

1970

Defenders #31 book cover

Defenders #31

1972

Man-Thing #12 book cover

Man-Thing #12

2016

Man-Thing #4 book cover

Man-Thing #4

1974

Sub-Mariner #58 book cover

Sub-Mariner #58

2016

Avengers Vs. Thanos book cover

Avengers Vs. Thanos

2013

Marvel Tales book cover

Marvel Tales

Annihilation #1

2019

Marvel Limited Edition. Vampire Tales book cover

Marvel Limited Edition. Vampire Tales

2018

Man-Thing #2 book cover

Man-Thing #2

1974

Marvel Firsts The 1990s 1 book cover

Marvel Firsts The 1990s 1

2016

Daredevil (1964-1998) #107 book cover

Daredevil (1964-1998) #107

1973

Man-Thing #17 book cover

Man-Thing #17

2016

Defenders #29 book cover

Defenders #29

1975

Vertigo book cover

Vertigo

Winter's Edge

1998

Incredible Hulk (1962-1999) #158 book cover

Incredible Hulk (1962-1999) #158

2016

Howard the Duck MAX book cover

Howard the Duck MAX

2002

Daredevil (1964-1998) #101 book cover

Daredevil (1964-1998) #101

1973

Marvel Two-In-One #2 book cover

Marvel Two-In-One #2

1973

Defenders #36 book cover

Defenders #36

1976

Daredevil (1964-1998) #98 book cover

Daredevil (1964-1998) #98

2016

Marvel Two-In-One #3 book cover

Marvel Two-In-One #3

1971

Marvel Two-In-One #7 book cover

Marvel Two-In-One #7

2016

Daredevil (1964-1998) #112 book cover

Daredevil (1964-1998) #112

2017

Essential Marvel Horror, Vol. 1 book cover

Essential Marvel Horror, Vol. 1

1979

Daredevil (1964-1998) #99 book cover

Daredevil (1964-1998) #99

1973

Hard Time book cover

Hard Time

Sixteen

2013

Defenders #40 book cover

Defenders #40

2015

Man-Thing #1 book cover

Man-Thing #1

2015

Sensational She-Hulk #15 book cover

Sensational She-Hulk #15

1990

Superman book cover

Superman

Last Son of Earth

2000

Marvel Two-In-One #4 book cover

Marvel Two-In-One #4

1974

Captain America (1968-1996) #223 book cover

Captain America (1968-1996) #223

1978

Iron Man #57 book cover

Iron Man #57

2014

Daredevil (1964-1998) #106 book cover

Daredevil (1964-1998) #106

1973

Sub-Mariner #66 book cover

Sub-Mariner #66

1973

Daredevil (1964-1998) #109 book cover

Daredevil (1964-1998) #109

2017

Freddy Krueger's A Nightmare on Elm Street book cover

Freddy Krueger's A Nightmare on Elm Street

1990

Howard el pato book cover

Howard el pato

Atrapado en un mundo que no es el suyo

2016

Marvel Two-In-One #6 book cover

Marvel Two-In-One #6

1974

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