Gerber -- The Headmen -- I loved them!

Regarding Shooter.  I agree that he fixed Marvel, and I'm proud of JB for saying that.  I know there was no love lost there.  I can also see what JB means by "he had to keep fixing it." 

I think he was too young for that position.  I've known a few people that came to positions of "power", or at least perceived power, that were capable, but lacked the maturity and people skills to be successful in the long term.  It seems like Shooter may have been the messenger of bad tidings, so he got blamed for everything.  I also think he may have delivered those bad tidings in an "Ior else" way.  Not the best approach.  JB was there, he would know much better than I.

Long story short -- I like comics much more when Shooter was running Marvel than the last 20-ish years, for the most part.  BUT, I didn't have to work WITH Shooter, which I understand was very difficult.

I feel sympathy for Jim Shooter.  Maybe I shouldn't, but I do.

Can anyone who has the book tell me if there's many photographs in there OR much art/covers etc of the books in question?

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Still not sure what you're imagining was going on there. Do you think Gerber had big plans for Howard? That he intended to keep him around in the new MAN-THING title, perhaps as a wise-cracking "Tonto" to Man-Thing's "Lone Ranger"?

Marvel obviously saw some possible potential in the Duck, or it would have been easy enough for them to ignore the fan response. After all, we're not talking about a massive groundswell that shook the industry to its very roots.

HOWARD THE DUCK was a fun little book -- I enjoyed it. I even auditioned for the art gig! -- but not the colossal mega-hit that legend has made it. It lasted 31 issues, which was pretty respectable for such an odd concept, but it was always a fringe title, what used to be called a cult book (before the DSM turned pretty much ALL titles into cult books). It limped along, and those who liked it liked it, those who didn't, ignored it.

As far as the editorial situation -- as always at Marvel, that was catch-as-catch-can. Roy Thomas, as noted, was EiC when Howard first showed up in a MAN-THING story, but it was Marv Wolfman who okayed the Duck getting his own title. The history of the Duck is less dependent upon the DEGREE of editorial oversight, than it is on WHO was doing the editing.

Englehart has also stated that sometime around 1988, Marvel decided that any kind of innovation was bad and start to revert many or most of their franchises to older forms. He went so far as to stop using his real name and went with a pseudonym for the rest of his FF run.

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I guess I didn't get that memo.

Oh, that's slightly disappointing but I'll still get it anyway.

Thanks  for the replies.