'Howard the Duck' creator Gerber dies

Steve Gerber, a prolific writer for Marvel Comics in the 1970s who created "Howard the Duck," died on Sunday at a Las Vegas hospital while awaiting a lung transplant. He was 60.

The news was announced on Gerber's blog by his friend, writer Mark Evanier, who also writes about Gerber on his own blog, News From Me. Lots of sites have more details on Gerber's life, including The Beat and an especially detailed obit at The Comics Reporter.

Though he wrote many comics, Gerber was best known for "Howard the Duck." The character first appeared in Adventure into Fear #19 (Feb. 1973), almost as a joke. But the character proved popular, and after a few more appearances graduated to his own series with Howard the Duck #1 (Jan. 1976). Gerber left the title and later sued Marvel over the rights to the character; the suit was eventually settled.

The movie version of "Howard the Duck," known as one of the biggest flops in Hollywood history, bore little resemblance to Gerber's ascerbic take on the character and, according to most sources, Gerber had little to no involvement in the film.

In addition to comics, Gerber also scripts for animated series such as "G.I. Joe," "Superman," "Yu-Gi-Oh!" and a second-season episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation." He occasionally returned to the comic book version of "Howard," most recently in a 2001 miniseries. He also spun out a background character from an issue of "Howard" into the Vertigo miniseries "Nevada," about a Vegas showgirl and her pet ostrich and was recently writing a Dr. Fate story for DC.