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.