5 out of 5

I haven’t read a BI before, so I don’t know how this stacks up in terms of content quality in comparison.  It seems there are regular features, and then they (assuming mainly the editor, Michael Eury) either contract writers or take submissions that fulfill the features’ needs – meaning these aren’t all, necessarily, going to be written by seasoned writers.  Which, for better or worse, did seem to affect some of this issue’s articles: points are always proven conclusively, and attempts to make Gerber’s creativity sound unheard-off often come across as rather regular comic / sci-fi plot points.  But as a tribute… man, it was well done.  There are the obvious parts of Gerb’s career to cover – the Duck, Man-Thing – but that there are whole pieces dedicated to his DC contributions, like Metal Men, and the Thongorr animated show – is evidence of how deeply felt this issue was.  Based on an interview Eury had with Gerber about his Phantom Zone mini and a foreword, we can assume the passion to put such a project together came from him, and he certainly did right by Steven and his fans.  Even knowing most of this info and having read everything that was covered, this was still a really fascinating read, with plenty of little wonderful story niblets from the many comic peops with whom Steve interacted.  He was a pretty isolated, private person, and the coverage here was as close as I’ve gotten to understanding a bit more about his creative process, which was as ‘on the spot’ as possible.  A full bibliography would have been nice, but that we got a full article on Sludge and Hard Time rather makes up for it.

With the HTD cover, I was sort of expecting a review of Steve and the Duck as a main feature, then whatever other features would normally be in a Back Issue.  Instead, I got near 100 pages truly dedicated to the full spectrum of works of Mr. Gerber.  Definitely worth tracking down if you’re a fan.  And, honestly, the sense of Steve’s camaraderie, creativity and dedication to his craft that you get from the features made me feel like you could pass this on to a non-comics initiate and grab their attention.