For almost 30 years, Howard the Duck was a punchline to a bad joke about movies bombing at the box office, but there has always been some reverence for the character in a few circles. Now that the character made a brief return to the big screen in this year’s Guardians of the Galaxy, that reverence has grown and now Marvel Comics has announced that Howard will be getting his very own solo comic series again, his first in seven years.
Sex Criminals artist Chip Zdarsky will pen the series which sees Captain Marvel and Savage Wolverine artist Joe Quinones on pencils.
“He’s an everyman who happens to be a duck,” Zdarsky tells EW. “He’s angry, exasperated, and he’s had it up to here with the world around him, but he’s trapped here! Infinitely relatable! I love the contrast of Howard against both the normal world of us hairless apes and the weird worlds of Man-Things and Dr. Stranges and Spider-Mans. Cause he doesn’t fit into either, really. I’m just going to continue exploring those contrasts, but my ultimate goal is to make it funny. Marvel has taken chances on funny books and injecting humor into superhero titles, so I want to make sure this is worth some chuckles here and there.”
Created by writer Steve Gerber and artist Val Mayerik, Howard the Duck made his first appearance in 1973′s Adventure Into Fear #19 before getting his own eponymous book in 1976. Recently the character has made appearances in the “Civil War,” “Secret Invasion,” “Fear Itself,” and even this year’s “Original Sin” storylines.
Howard the Duck #1 will debut in March of 2015.
