Gene Colan in Poor Health

It's being reported that Gene Colan is in poor health at the moment. According to a release from his wife:

My darling, sweet, handsome and brilliantly gifted husband’s liver is failing. The complications are very nasty. This week it’s fluid retention and encephalitis. He’s on powerful meds now to diminish the symptoms. He sleeps a lot and has very little energy.

When I first started collecting comic books my favorite character was Daredevil. The first comics I can remember collecting were the Barry Smith drawn ones with Starr Saxon, but shortly it was Gene drawing the hero.

Gene's art was like nothing else out there. I loved his art. His characters always looked more real to me. His panel design was not always the standard. Gene was not afraid to try something different.

I grew up with Gene's artwork. To me he was probably the first artist that I followed. And for most of Howard the Duck's run he was the artist. How much better can that be: Howard the Duck, Steve Gerber and Gene Colan?

I hope I won't have to be writing about Gene's passing soon. We just lost Steve Gerber, I don't want to lose Gene too. For more about this and for something to do go check out this page.

Howard Again

More of Steve Gerber and Howard the Duck. I picked this up when it first came out years ago as a miniseries and have been meaning to pick up the trade collection but never got around to it. A few weeks ago I decided to get it. It's Steve Gerber back on his creation and is worth the price of admission. If you're a fan of Steve Gerber or Howard the Duck, pick up this collection and you'll be glad you did.

Steve Gerber R.I.P.

Most of my heroes have been more of the literary bent. I actually was thinking along these lines earlier today, how most guys can tell you all about what type of bat you should use, the difference between gloves, etc, but some reason none of that held much interest for me. While other boys were worshipping at the shrine of Mickey Mantle or Micheal Jordan I bent knee for names like Stan Lee or Harlan Ellison.

One of these heroes of mine just died last night. His name was Steve Gerber and he wrote comic books for a living. But what comic books he wrote. In the 70's he wrote comics for Marvel. He wrote Man-Thing, Defenders, Omega the Unknown and many others. Reading a Steve Gerber comic was like reading no other comic book. And of course he created Howard the Duck. Unfortunately the character is mostly remembered today for a movie that is considered to be one of the worst ever made. The movie did not come close to capturing the spirit and life that Steve brought to his four color creation.

Mr. Gerber had pulmonary fibrosis, a condition that turns the lung tissue to scar and destroys the lungs ability to function. He had trouble breathing. I can imagine the pain and struggle he took to just breath, having seen this in the past year with my Dad. It's heartbreaking to watch someone you love just struggle to take a breath, to not even be able to walk across the room without being out of breath.

Even today some of my favorite comic books are those that Mr. Gerber worked on. His run on the Defenders is one of the best team comic books ever done. His Man-Thing took a character that literally had no personality and created a comic like no other. His Howard the Duck will always be a high water mark for any comic creator.

I never met the man, but tonight I am grieving. He's talked about his illness in various places, so this isn't a complete surprise, but you always hold out hope for the best. For more about the man go read Mark Evanier's more eloquent post or read some of Steve's last posts himself at his blog.

Sometimes someone that you never meet can touch you in ways that you never imagine. Steve Gerber was one of those people.

A Fan of Steve Gerber

The previous post mentions how much a fan I am of Howard the Duck. Well, I should expand that to tell you that I am a fan of the creator and writer of that comic book Steve Gerber. When Mr. Gerber was writing comics for Marvel in the 70's I was a big fan of his work. His Defenders for me is still one of the best superhero team book ever. The man did not write normal superhero comic books. And that was the joy of it.

Unfortunately Mr. Gerber is not well. He needs a lung transplant and at the moment is in the hospital. You can read more about it from the source himself over at his blog. He had went home from the hospital only to be rushed back this weekend after having trouble breathing and even standing up.

From the sound of things he is having very serious troubles and I can only wish him the best.

Rember to Buy

The Howard the Duck Omnibus is coming. Scheduled for March this huge book is 800 pages collecting all of Steve Gerber's comic book work on the duck. It will include stories from Adventures Into Fear #19, Man-Thing #1, Giant-Size Man-Thing #4-5, Howard the Duck #1-33, Marvel Treasury Edition #12, and Marvel Team-Up #96.

This is definitely one of those expensive hardbacks that I will have to put away some money for. Howard the Duck was what I consider one of the high points in comic books. I loved this book. I have the black and white Essential, but will have to shell out for this book. The only thing that could make this book better would have been to collect the comic strip work that Gerber did on the Duck too.

But I'm happy with this.