Howard the Duck and its importance within the publishing house Wonder.

The decision, taken by Stan Leewhich most superhero adventures are made up of The House of Ideas set in the streets of New York, instead of following DC’s habit of setting its characters’ stories in imaginary cities, it sought to strengthen the relationship between the real world and the world of the comic strips. Thus, New York readers could fantasize about meeting their favorite superhero around the corner or while walking in front of a famous monument, as long as it wasn’t a character whose adventures usually took place in space.

To make the experience of living in the same world as superheroes even more believable, the authors of Wonder They made sure that the clothes matched what every passerby might be wearing on the street depending on the time period and tried to adapt to the trends, as well as the movies that were being shown at the time. However, you might be curious to know that the character who exploited this resource the most was him. Howard the Duckwho was aided by the circumstance of being trapped in a world that is not his.

Created by Steve Gerber And Val Mayeric in the adventure The Enchanter’s Apprentice!hero Man thing and published in the comic Adventures in Fear #19 (1973), the cover of which we reproduce below this paragraph, Howard the Duck It didn’t take long for him to be embroiled in controversy, since then Disneyin 1979, he tried to find some formula so that this character could not be confused with his most famous palmiped, that is, the Donald Duck (since at the time nobody expected that both would end up belonging to the same company).

At that time they already were Bill Mantolo And Gene Colan those who had the task of telling readers the adventures of Howard the Duckso they were the ones who had to respect the rule of putting trousers on the character, so that he was as different as possible from Donald Duckbecause the outfit of famous people of Disney It didn’t go beyond a cap and a sailor shirt. However, Bill Mantolo And Gene Colan They decided that if they had to abide by these rules, they would do it their own way, with the intention of remaining true to the spirit of the collection.

So, in the adventure called Indecency towards animals!that has seen the light Howard the Duck #2 (1979), of which you can see the cover under this paragraph, the protagonist of the title was with Mr. Wally (you don’t have to be very smart to figure out who that name was), a guy who had failed in his attempt to create a cartoon series featuring an anthropomorphic mouse naked from the waist up (why? Can you think of anyone who fits that description?), so I decided to leave that world and try my luck in the textile industry.

However, the clothing designed by Mr. Wally It was too old-fashioned, so it didn’t interest people, so the only thing he could think of was to incite a movement with the intention of demanding that animals be dressed from top to bottom. The truth is that the idea seems a bit taken with tweezers, but you can see Bill Mantolo Already Gene Colan They couldn’t think of anything better at that moment.

Beyond the question of similarity between Howard the Duck And Donald Duckthe character of The House of Ideas He has lived the most curious adventures, which have included references to horror and science fiction films, as well as being commissioned to parody the creations of other authors, some of which were his own. Wonder. It is the case that he lived adventures like Howard the Barbarian, The deadly space turnip! the Quack Fu Master!

However, the animated series Gravity falls (2012 – 2016) was a great breeding ground for parodies featuring this character, as demonstrated on the comic cover Howard the Duck #4 (2015), reproduced under this paragraph inside which you will find the adventures Doctor Strange in a Doctor Strange Land And Logic and proportionby the work of Chip Zdarsky, Joe Quinones And Katie cooks.

Finally, it is worth remembering that the importance of Howard the Duck In Wonder led him to make the leap into the audiovisual world, where we can highlight his participation, to a greater or lesser extent, in live adventures, the titles of which are: Howard… a new hero (1986), Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017), Avengers: Endgame (2019) and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023).