2 out of 5

Full disclosure: I am a Gerber fan, and thus, by extension, a Howard the Duck fan.  A Gerber-version Howard the Duck fan.  And because I feel informed on Gerbiness, owning and having read a good, large chunk of his works, I’ve already made my opinion clear on this book in a couple of other forums: that it’s a big miss.  But I’m tempering that opinion with the acceptance that Chip does tap into a modernized variation on the Howard zeitgeist… although completely bereft of the humanity that Steve brought to his books, and leaning more on the rollicking nature of the author when he was at his humor/pathos balanced best.  Which I would then qualify by suggesting that any wacky book that finds it’s way into the Big Two’s publication schedule could be said to have some influence from this guy who was almost always putting his own barrier-pushing spin on things throughout his career.

So basically: as a Howard book, it’s not a Howard book.  As a funny book, it’s got the forced staccato pacing of someone trying too hard to be funny, but there are some definite yuks.

Why does it fail for The Duck?  Well, let us examine panel 1, narrative box (in Howard’s voice) 1: “The Quacking Pumpkins once sang, “Despite all my rage, I’m still just a hairless ape in a cage.” ”  Let’s ponder the quote for a moment, obviously a ‘gag’ on Smashing Pumpkins’ “despite all my rage, I’m still just a rat in a cage,” and perhaps we can see, already, how Zdarsky stretches for some jokes.  Yes, the ‘hairless ape’ comment is common to Howard, so I can appreciate Chip’s attempt to get the connection out there right away.  But if – assuming from the quote – we’re supposing a world where humans are replaced by ducks, then we’ll suppose ducks have been replaced by humans.  And the original quote is not  “…still just a duck in a cage.”  It’s a rat.  Which maybe would still be a rat in Duckworld.  But, fine, maybe not.  We’ll allow it.  But what we – I – have trouble allowing, is that we’re even considering a Duckworld – a world where every person or human-related thang has its Duck-named variation – as Steve was very adamant (post the Lucas movie, post other writers’ work on Howard) that not only did that not make much sense, but that it was dumb, obvious humor.  And I’m fully agreed.  Why would the Duckworld variation of the word ‘smashing’ be ‘quacking?’  I’m aware that Howard 2015 cannot exactly be Howard 1970s, but being true to the character would, at least, mean hopefully following this Gerber tenet.  So Chip fails from panel 1, and similarly fails throughout to establish Howard as a character beyond a quipping gag.  The ‘trapped in a world he never made’ banner for Howard was not just a funny quote, or at least that’s not what it grew to be.  Rather, it captured the spirit of frustrated emotional isolation Steve wended into a lot of his books.  Howard doesn’t belong; he’s trapped in a world that is not his own.  Oh yeah, yuk yuk, because he’s from Duckworld.  Blech.

Okay then.  How does it fare as a funny book?  Okay.  Quinones has a pretty good grasp of timing, doing his best to pace out Zdarsky’s setups (which occasionally leave pages dangling without a punchline, stretching the gag to the next page), and the rough hand-drawn sound effects (which we’ll credit to letterer Travis Lanham – although the way they’re wrapped into the art on occasion might mean they belong to Quinones) have a great indie-fied feel to them which matches the book’s “cool” vibe.  And some jokes are funny.  The Spider-Man and Black Cat setup has some chuckles.  But again, despite the setup being a good match for Howard – a detective-for-hire – it all feels very specifically in service of arranging these gags and not so much because we needed Howard the Duck to fill a specific need.

Have I justified my low rating yet, despite most of the reviews I’ve read being all yippe-ki-yay?  Okay, good, I’ve got TV to watch.