How Steve Gerber Changed Marvel Comics
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ก.ค. 2024
- Hi. This is an in-depth look and exploration of the career of the writer, Steve Gerber, during his formative and influential years at Marvel Comics.
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CHAPTER BREAKDOWN:
0:00 - Introduction
1:23 - Marvel During The 1970’s
2:44 - Special Once In A Lifetime Album Issue
9:14 - Writers Are Like People
16:44 - Obligatory Comic Book Fight Scene
25:20 - Full Of Sound And Fury, Signifying Gerber
SOURCES:
Comics Feature 12/13. September/October 1981.
Comics Interview #1. February 1983.
Comics Interview #38. 1986
The Comics Journal #41. August 1978.
Alter Ego #70. July 2007.
Back Issue #31. December 2008.
FOOM #15. 1976.
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Okay, it has to be mentioned at least once, if only once: Giant-Size Man-Thing. 😁
Let's keep my genitals out of this conversation, if you don't mind.
DO NOT GOOGLE THAT!!!
@@Mercury-Wells insert meme of Hagrid: “I shouldn’t have googled that… I should not have googled that…”
_"Ouch! My eye!"_
What’s with the weird gal next to the Jim Shooter image?
I get a big smile on my face every time I hear someone describe Elf with a gun.
Thank you for mentioning one of my favorite comic book writers. I think Steve Gerber was the spiritual predecesor of Vertigo.
Spider Jerusalem was definitely inspired by Gerber, and Gerber knew it; see his use of a Spider parody character in his 2000s Howard the Duck mini.
@@aldinbaroza9640 I did read it. Ironically, since i was a huge Howard The Duck fan in my teens (still am) i met the parodies of Spider and the rest of the Vertigo characters first.
Who knew that a cartoon duck trapped in a world he never made opened the door to so many possibilities.
Gerber is definitely one of the unsung heroes of 70s Marvel. Great tribute!
Steve Gerber could take the title as the most underrated writer in comics. He should be known by many and widely read as he was a genuinely singular talent with his own unique vision. Howard The Duck and Man-Thing are great fun, but are also two of the most important and environmentally-aware works of social criticism and satire in comics.
His material in early Crazy magazine (1973-5) was similarly sharp as well with satire in general.
Gerber's writing on Howard (along with John Wagner of 2000AD fame) had a very big impact on my teen years. I cherish how their work taught me to embrace the absurdity of life. I can't believe it took me being in my 30's to appreciate/read Man-Thing and Foolkiller
Always a Steve Gerber fan. Got to know that he was the one who started the Daredevil/Black Widow relationship here.
Steve Gerber was a favorite creator of mine and I'm sad that I never had a chance to meet him. His work was complicated and risky and it doesn't always work, but it left a mark on me at least.
Seriously, Neil Gaiman and Grant Morrison don't cite him as an influence?
When I was a boy, my dad brought home about twenty Defenders issues. Loved that series and Gerber’s offbeat writing. Also enjoyed discovering Getber’s Man-Thing stories. Never before heard of Mary Skenes. Thanks for this overview, SBP.
It's great to see a deep dive into Steve Gerber's career. Underrated writer ans one of my favorites. His run on Man-Thing is sublime in many points (it even introduced the multiverse properly to Marvel) and prefigures Moore's Swamp Thing in some regards as this bold experiment. Some stories like "Kid's night out" and "The Day Laughter Died" will always stay with me.
In some sense I feel like Gerber was a precursor to the Vertigo-Image days of wild hotshot creators and would probably have fared much better if he had broken through in that environment rather than on the cusp of Jim Shooter's reign of terror. You can almost catch a glimpse of this in his final work with Doctor Fate in 2008, a gritty psychological reimagining about fate, life and death that sadly got cut short by his death (he actually wrote the penultimate issue essentially from his deathbed) but also acts as a somewhat fitting coda of his career: oddball to the end.
Thanks for the great work!
I was going to write something similar. The indie comics of boom of the mid to late 80s seems like a continuation of Gerber's spirit of work. I only discovered Gerber's work in the mid '80s (when comic shops still primarily sold back issues) and his '70s work felt right at home with the kooky new indie titles coming out at the time (Bone, The Tick, Grimjack), heck The Flaming Carrot and DC's Captain Carrot and the Amazing Zoo Crew felt like Steve Gerber creations!
To me, the indie comics boom of the mid 80s to early '90s seems like a continuation of Gerber's spirit of work. I only discovered Gerber's work in the mid '80s (when comic shops still primarily sold back issues) and his '70s work felt right at home with the kooky new indie titles coming out at the time (Bone, The Tick, Grimjack), heck The Flaming Carrot and DC's Captain Carrot and the Amazing Zoo Crew felt like Steve Gerber creations!
There was an almost straight line from Howard the Duck to Cerebus the Aardvark.
Much as I loved his work on Howard the Duck and Omega the Unknown, I think it was his Defenders run that I enjoyed the best. Especially the killer elf. He was one of the best at writing wacky, offbeat characters. He will be missed.
He, or maybe a relative of his, later returned in Gerber's bizarre CyberForce/Destroyer Duck/Savage Dragon/Howard the Duck/Spider-Man saga ..
As a teen in the 80s I mostly brought DC comics and rarely brought Marvel but The Defenders was my favorite Marvel comic. I always told my friends it felt like a DC team book that ended up at Marvel by accident.
I miss your intro sound byte. It always evoked a strong feeling in me. It’s just five notes, but it always set the tone perfectly.
Reading comic books in the 70's was a great time for originality and a grounding of reality not seen before in comic books. The fun and quirkiest of these books always seemed to be from a guy named Steve Gerber. His Defenders run is legendary for me and cemented exactly what the Gerber style was.
Gerber was one of my comics heroes growing up. His voice, as prickly as it could be, was taken too soon.
Regrettably, I have to be That Guy and mention that that's Steve Englehart appearing in that Amazing Adventures/Beast issue, not Roy Thomas.
He was my favourite writer. His name on a comic was always a promise of something worthwhile.
I didn't read as much of the early man-thing run as i have recently. Too concerned with other superhero stuff of the time. But I'm finding it absolute absurd genius. Always ❤ man-thing but appreciate it even more. Causing me to think Gerber is a absolute genius.😢
Wait, Animus was in the first superhero comic I remember ever buying at some age under 10. He terrified me and I never saw him again. I had no idea that Steve Gerber wrote that story!
Wow. "The Partridge Family" was *not* a name I thought I'd hear today.
This was thoroughly engaging - thank you!
Steve Gerber was an independent creator before it was even a thing he wanted to do the stories he wanted to do
Agreed!
"...the House always wins". Brilliant!
/me takes a bow. Thank you.
Steve Gerber is this day one of my favorite comic book riders. When I was a kid anything this guy wrote I would buy, as an adult same principle anything I can find that he wrote I buy. He was an amazing writer who is way ahead of his time and doesn’t get near the credit he deserves. Thanks for this video brought back a lot of memories was a lot of fun I’m gonna pull up my old Gerber books and start reading them again.
I always thought that, like some other creators who have the "maverick" label, he didn't get enough credit for technical skill. To put it bluntly, he wrote some terrific sentences. Sometimes he'd have a full page of straight prose in the middle of a story, and it was always a pleasure to read (not always the case with other comic book writers).
Wait, are you telling me Quasar's (Starhawk's Dad) grandkids ended up as Cosmic Vampires? What a strange life for you, Wendell Vaughn🤣😅
The Defenders run he did was so ahead of it’s time!
Just came from your Void Indigo video and loved it. You have a great way of documenting information, chill and informative. Will follow!
Awesome! Thank you very much and welcome aboard.
Awesome, excited to watch this coverage
He also started writing for cartoons such as Thundarr The Barbarian and GI Joe. I wished they made Thundarr into a comic book. Missed opportunity to capitalize off of it.
He also wrote that weird Farmer Brown episode of The New Batman Adventures.
I feel like Grant Morrison's Animal Man would not exist without Gerber
Yeah, I'm looking forward to this. Will watch ASAP.
Awesome as usual
Great retrospective!
Very interesting video! Steve Gerber was extremely talented!
I love your documentaries. They’re non biased and just full of info.
I loved this. You're a great historian, I'd love more profile pics on the lesser known creators (although Gerber definitely isn't obscure)
Great tribute video! As far as the Defenders goes (btw, my favorite team book as a kid), they did have one popular character in The Hulk who had the hit tv show with Bill Bixby & Lou Ferrigno on the air at the time. I clearly remember as a kid seeing some of the issues with the caption "Featuring Marvel's TV Sensation".
Great topic. I read and collected any and everything written by Gerber/Skrenes back in the day. Thanks.
Apparently I love Gerbers work. He's behind my favorite marvel characters. I never knew it. This is a great video.
0:00 I like that quote rom Steve Garber 13:11 What's "elf with a gun"
Another home run. Thank you.
From the Pretenders:
Now, Howard the Duck and Mister Strausbow Straid
Precious
Trapped in a world that they never made
But not me, baby, I'm too precious
You knew this was coming.
I've recently been down a 1970's Bronze Age rabbit hole, and as a part of that I bought and read Gerber's Guardians of the Galaxy run along with everything else GOTG pre-90s Valentino series. I think that you may have influenced me to give Son of Satan a chance next. I have conciously tried to stay away from Howard the Duck because I feel without knowledge of daily life when they were written some of the context is lost on me.
I've long wondered why Steve Gerber made claims to owning Howard. I thought that perhaps he had a unique contract that Marvel reneged on. It seemed plausible given the apparel lattitude he was given as writer-editor. But it sounds more like he made a point of finding and highlighting the weaknesses in the structure of the corporate entity known as Marvel.
I loved his work, and got everything he worked on when it appeared in the UK. I never knew why he stopped 😢
It seems a bit strange to talk about Gerber and not mention (other than the Obligatory Fight Scene caption) Deadline Doom, probably the oddest comic ever to be published by Marvel or the overriding theme of ecological disaster in Gerber's run on Guardians of the Galaxy that would resonate very strongly if it came out today. Both influenced me more than any comic should as a teenager in the 70's.
I had many of his works when they first landed on the comic stands it a shame I was eight to ten years old and had no idea what they would be today
"He gave a sh*t. He gave a lot of sh*ts as a matter of fact".
I don't understand all the controversy of Steve Gerber. ALL I KNOW as an outsider ...a CUSTOMER...is that I loved his comic book stories and ideas that made artists do the covers in the first place. Isn't that enough? he was great. COMPARED TO MODERN MARVEL, yeah, he was a great editor and storymaker and writer and 'producer"!!
It wouldn't surprise me to learn that Gerber's "flop" comics sold more than what Marvel's popular titles are selling today.
I did ask Mary. Virgil North was her choice, not forced on her
Great video! Howard the Duck is the only comic book I ever had a subscription to ! Just the same I really enjoyed Gerber’s writing style because it was totally different than anything else at the time! Marvel was in my opinion at its creative apex though out the 70’s and I seriously doubt we’ll ever see this unique quirky approach to corporate comics ever again !! Ohh well that’s very unfortunate! Godspeed to Steve Gerber! Happy 50th anniversary to Howard the Duck! WAAUGGHH!🎯😎🙏👋
I enjoyed the video. Thank you for making it! I do have one question that entered my mind while watching: what documentation did you draw on when concluding that Gerber's settlement with Marvel created a significant negative opinion about him among his colleagues? Was this based on statements from other professionals criticizing him for doing this? Can you name some examples? I was not aware of this, but am not an expert by any means.
One of my favorite comic authors of his time. Man-Thing my beloved.
Thundarr the barbarian. Worth a mention.
I don't like how he put so many ads for baby food in his comics. I know though, nepotism. I get it.
Man-Thing and Howard the Duck were the best things Marvel put out in the 70's. Reading the black and white reprints as a kid (especially with Gene Colan's absolutely stellar Howard art), they're the comics that mean the most to me personally. Just on another level for that era. The grandchildren of the people who hated Gerber's writing are those bitching and moaning about woke politics today. Same brainlessness 50 years later.
Thank you for this, Strange Brain. I had the privilege of knowing and interviewing Steve. He even coached me on a submission for the Ultraverse I created with a very young Lewis La Rosa ,who would go on to substantial Marvel success. It's nice to see that you and Comics Tropes are aware of the substantial contributions Steve made for the industry and the development of the medium, all of which (#comicsbrokeme, woke agenda over storytelling, the treatment of Bill Willinghams etc), sadly, have been essentially erased since his passing.
Yup, capitalization, commodification, and what Theodor Adorno calls "The Culture Industry" has destroyed just about every popular artform- film, music (Hip Hop, Metal, Pop music) and eventually comics/graphic novels.
Seems highly questionable to attribute a disdain for "woke" to a man who died before that term became a right-wing boogeyman.
@@noneofyourbusiness4616 I didn't attribute a disdain of woke to Steve, I attributed the diminished vitality of the industry to woke. And other problems. Thanks for your passive aggressive, virtue signaling woke observation which aptly demonstrates it's not a boogeyman at all 👍 Absolutely classic, a guy with a fake ass screen name talking about how something is highly questionable.
@@stevenfunderburg1623 I would be mighty embarrassed if I couldn't express my thoughts without repeating "woke" and "virtue signalling" like a trained parrot.
Those Defenders issues were bonkers in the best possible way.
What wasn't mentioned was that Howard The Duck #1 was possibly the first example of (besides Conan #1) a massive speculation bubble. Multiple copies were quickly grabbed off the newsstands for potential collector profit. All during a time when back-issue comics were usually sold like used paperbacks. The run definitely influenced the independant creator-owned comic movement of the late 70s/early 80s. Elfquest and Cerebus would probably have never been started without exposure to Howard. And those titles inspired later more sucessful books such as The Tick, Bone, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Great video! I don't think I've read a Gerber book, but it's always fun to hear about situations like this.
If you're interested in a Blue Sky invite let me know.
I'd say, based on about five of these episodes, you are an SME on Steve Gerber.
Was that Roy Thomas being gunned down by the Elf?
I’m currently reading an adaptation of omega the last man.
He seemed to be a bit pretentious, but Gerber left quite the impact.
Lore of How Steve Gerber Changed Marvel Comics momentum 100
Oh yes he did,absolutely. ✌⚡🤘⚡
17:34 Gerber inventing the modern porn plot, what a visionary
Gerber was the G.O.A.T.
If anyone is interested, I can tell you, straight from Steve's mouth, about the utility and method of Mary Skrenes involvement in his work 😉
Please! I'm very interested. As underrated as Gerber is, Skrenes and her contribution to his body of work is even more so.
I’d be interested in what you have to say.😃
I would be rather interested. As I think most people would be.
@@StrangeBrainParts Okay, so here is what happened. At the time (early 90s) I was trying to break into the biz as a writer and had created a fairly solid sample story with future Punisher artist Lewis La Rosa (who at the time was just a Georgia teenager who had won second place in a Wizard art contest) under the coaching of Mr Gerber. I had interviewed Steve for a couple different publications (Valley Entertainment Weekly and Transworld Snowboard Magazine) to promote his projects at the time for Top Cow and the Ultraverse (your video made no mention of these nor Steve's extensive work in animation writing for shows like Thundercats🤔) . The story Lewis and I created was an 8 page short story featuring a Russian werewolf character, Nikolai, from the Ultraverse title Night Man. Long story as short as I can make it (Steve was a very cool, wonderful guy), I expressed to Steve my apprehension with writing female dialogue and that if I were eventually forced to do this professionally, I would seek advice from my girlfriend. I asked him how his dialogue for Bev was so crisp and believably female. This was when he revealed to me that Mary Skrenes was absolutely instrumental in achieving this and told me my instincts not to fake it, but seek authenticity from an actual chick were sharp. I had never felt such relief and affirmation in my life. He went so far as to say that there were entire conversations between Bev and Howard where Skrenes would completely overhaul or enhance Bev's portion of the conversation and that Steve would privately pay her for this out of pocket. We also discussed many other aspects of his life and no I never pushed him to reveal the explicit nature of the settlement with Marvel, but I can tell you that it included more than merely taking a lump sum payoff/ payout 😉
Thank you for not starting the video with that shrill piano and beat, I love the commentary but that music just doesn’t jive with your vibe.
Hmmm😮
I was going to watch this right now. Seriously. But then (shit I didn’t think this through) I… er… fell into a hole?
Hope that’s okay.
Tomorrow. Yes, I should probably add that.
Byeeeeeee!
P.S. YES A HOLE! Honest truth.
I know this is off the subject...but ...LOOK AT ALL THE GREAT STORIES...that were NOT used by Disney/Marvel. Even in Guardians of Galaxy. Instead of getting the REAL Guardians of Galaxy...we WERE GIVEN THE "B" TEAM of Guardians, not the original charachters. Folks, READ YOUR OLD COMICS and don't look to Disney Marvel to portray your favorite charachters and stories anymore. You young people ARE MISSING OUT on fantastic stories. Instead, you young people by lousy modern comics with poor art that are over priced and ARE ALMOST AS expensive as old Bronze Age comicx!!
Do "young people" really buy these things? It doesn't seem like anyone is buying this modern garbage.
He thought he was better than he was
When in fact he was just better than all the others writing comics.
Unless you're talking about Void Indigo. That was just shit.
When he gave in too much to his personal biases, his writing became loose and unfocused. It was solipsistic, characterized by random events and dialog. But at his best (Defenders), he was the Best.
Wondering what supposedly qualifies you to accurately describe Gerber's self-image.
Don't like his writing!
Waaaaaaaaay too long. Should have been a 10 minute video. These are getting more and more self-indulgent.
Really? I thought it could've contained a lot more.
Heh. I make ten minute videos and get told I should make longer ones. I make longer ones and get told to make shorter ones. That being said, each video is as long as it needs to be. I don't pad any of my videos to fit a specific length. Covering a multitude of comics over a six year period in 27 minutes doesn't seem excessive to me.
So. I'm not sure the term "self-indulgent" seems to fit here. However, feel free to continue having this opinion.
Steve Gerber needs a full length documentary
Have you read the graphite edition of Destroyer Duck? I'm surprised that it was published🥹