How the duck got his trousers: When Disney took legal action against Marvel

Around thirty years before the Walt Disney Company bought Marvel Entertainment (Dec 2009) they threatened a trademark lawsuit against Marvel due to the similarities between their own duck superstar “Donald”, and Marvels irreverent “Howard” character. At the time in the 1970’s this was big news among comic book fans, but in the decades that have passed since this legal “battle” took place I had forgotten about this, well that was until I purchased a new copy of “Howard the Duck” Magazine issue 8 which discussed this very subject (cover to issue 8 below).

It was around 1977 when the Walt Disney Company threatened to sue Marvel claiming that Howard the Duck infringed on their Donald Duck trademark, so in order to avoid a legal battle Marvel's management team signed an agreement with Disney regarding the design of Howard the Duck. According to the Marvel article that appeared in issue 8 the original Howard the Duck, to be known as "the 'old' Howard the Duck" would never be used again, except in reprints. Instead Howard would be replaced by a new design that included bleary eyes, a new shape of his head, a swollen beak and most important of all Howard had to wear trousers. The above design sheet seemingly created for Marvel by John Romita, was sent to Disney for their approval along with the letter below that was sent to the Marvel creative team that worked on Howard.

Steve Gerber (Howards co-creator) wasn’t happy with Disney's meddling and satirised this episode in “Howard the Duck” #21 (1977) in the story S.O.O.F.I (Save Our Offspring From Indecency).

Later in issue 2 of the "Howard the Duck" magazine (1979) Bill Mantlo addressed the issue of the Disney redesign less discreetly in the excellent story “ Animal Indecency” with the character Sidney Land. Although Disney and Marvel remained in communications over this issue and with Disney issuing a final cease and desist letter in the late 1970's, Howard's popularity had faded and the Magazine ended in 1981 with issue 9. At the end of the day despite all this back and forth and with legal threats being issues, Marvel never did fully implement any of Disney’s changes.

Strangely with Disney now owning Marvel and Howard they still seem intent that he should not look like his “real” 1970’s design, instead the more duck like image is what they plan to use - It's not a great look for such a cool comic character.

Bring on the Back ups: When John Buscema drew Batman......and Superman

A big fantasy of my early fanboy teen years (mid-late 1970s) was the thought of some of US comics greatest artists working for both Marvel and DC on some of their top characters. Of course, it wasn't the case that this never happened back in the 1970’s as artists like Neal Adams, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Gil Kane, and others successfully worked to some extent for both companies. However, artists like John Buscema (who I imagine Marvel had under contract) didn’t make the move to try their hand at working on characters like Batman, Superman. Green Lantern etc. Well, that wasn’t until 2000 when Big John eventually took the opportunity (as did many others ) to work for DC. Although he did work on Superman (of sorts ) in the “Just Imagine Stan Lee creating….” series and provided (very) rough pencils for Gil Kane on the posthumously published “Superman: Blood of My Ancestors” book, he did provide full art on a one shot Batman black and white back up tale that appeared in "Batman: Gotham Knights" #7 (2000) -the the result as you would expect were pretty impressive. Sadly Big John passed away in 2002 only a couple of years after this was publsihed. Enjoy some of the last work of a comic book genius:

Above:The cover to "Batman Gotham Knights" #7 (2000) -Cover by Brian Bolland.

Above: The cover and splash page to "Just Imagine Stan Lee with John Buscema creating Superman" (2001) - Cover byJohn Buscema.

Above:The cover to " Superman - Blood of my Ancestors" - Cover image taken from the Grand Comics Database.

Favourite Comics: Avengers - #96 - The most expensive comic (I ) ever purchased - Neal Adams

As I mentioned in my last post the Avengers "Skrull - Kree wars" storyline (Avengers #89-97) is one of my all-time favourite story arcs. Although I read most of these strips in the mid 1970's when it was reprinted in the UK's "Mighty World of Marvel and Avengers" comic I always wanted to pick up the original US comics, especially the Neal Adams issues. I managed part of this quest when I picked up #94 in 1979, however it wouldn't be until 1982 until I tracked down my second Avengers US comic (#96) in Glasgow’s (legendary) AKA Books and Comics. Despite finally finding this issue (never an easy task in early 1980s Glasgow) it took me a few hours to eventually decide on purchasing the comic as at £15 (around $19 today) it was (and still is) the most expensive comic I have ever bought. Below are some of my favourite pages from this comic which was the first issue to feature the modern Avengers logo, enjoy.

Above: The only picture I can find of the (rough) location of the original AKA Books and Comics (ground floor) in the now demolished Virginia Galleries in Glasgow. AKA was the place that future comic book giants like Grant Morrison, Mark Miller and Frank Quitely (Vincient Deighan) would meet. ( Picture from "Glasgow Live")

Favourite comics: Avengers #94 - Neal Adams, John Buscema, Tom Palmer & Roy Thomas

Without doubt one of my all-time favourite comic series is Marvels “Kree–Skrull War" which was published over 9 issues of the Avengers (#89-97) from June 1971 to March 1972. However, it would not be until June 1976 when I first became aware of this comic classic when I purchased the UK “Avengers” weekly comic #148 which reprinted the first part of “Avengers” # 93 ("This Beachhead Earth"). Sadly, I had missed the the first part of the Kree-Skrull War series as I had cancelled my UK Avengers subscription some months earlier. The US "Avengers" #94 (cover above by Neal Adams) is not the best issue in this excellent series (it’s still a belter) but it was the first US issue of this story arc (and the first US Avenger back issue) that I purchased in 1979 from Glasgow’s “Listen” record store for around £1.25p. The story arc, which was written by Roy Thomas, featured art from some of comics’ all-time greats including Sal Buscema, Tom Palmer, John Buscema, and Neal Adams. This issue alone features the triple talents of Tom Palmer (inks) John Buscema and Neal Adams - Enjoy.

Above: UK Avengers # 148 – this was the last issue of the comic which then merged with the Mighty World of Marvel from #199 and continued the Avenger series .

Next up: Avengers #96 where Neal Adams ramps up the art to a ridiculous degree. This was the first back-issue I felt I had to save up to purchase (from AKA comics in Glasgow around 1982) .I am ignoring #95 (for now) as I have not yet managed to purchase this issue (but it’s on my radar)!

Bring on the back ups. Ramona Fradon RIP

I was sad to read that Ramona Fradon passed away on 24 February. For todays comic book fans Ramona’s name may not be that well-known, but she was a pretty big deal in the 1950’s /1960’s where she worked for many years on DC’s Aquaman (in “Adventure” and Worlds Finest comics) before co-creating one of DCs strangest (and coolest) characters Metamorpho with Bob Haney. In 1965, Ramona left comics to raise her family before returning to the field again in the 1970’s working on DC titles including “Plastic Man”, “Super Friends” and “Freedom Fighters”, she even drew a fill in issue of Marvels “Fantastic Four” (#133). However, it was her work on DC’s mystery/horror titles like “House of Mystery “ where her clear uncluttered animation style art was really appealing on these types of stories. Among the many comic strips she drew for these titles my favourites was “The Spawn of the Devil” from “House of Mystery” #235. The story may lend from Rosemary's Baby and The Exorcist but it was as close to a genuinely scary story as DC's "House of Mystery" ever got. Enjoy:

Above: Cover to House of Mystery #235 by Luis Dominguez.

My first memory of Ramona’s work was in the Super DC Giant featuring Aquaman (S-26) special from 1971. I later became aware of her work when she returned to comics in the mid 1970’s where she provided some fun art and excellent covers for Plastic Man.