Writer Steve Gerber Passes Away.
Writer Steve Gerber, a comic book legend passes away. He will be fondly remembered, and sorely missed.
Steve Gerber, legendary comic book writer passed away on Sunday, February 10th, from complications that arose from his lengthy battle with pulmonary fibrosis. He was 60 years old, and in good spirits until the day of his death, posting regular updates about his condition on his personal blog.
Gerber was a comic book fan like us his whole life, having started a fanzine, Headline, in his early teens, eventually finding work as a writer for Marvel in the early 1970s. He’s best remembered from his Marvel days for his stints writing The Defenders and Man-Thing, and particularly as the creator of Howard the Duck. He also created Omega the Unknown, and wrote books like Shanna the She-Devil, the Guardians of the Galaxy and Son of Satan. He was one of the best examples of the Marvel writers of the 70s.
After he left Marvel in 1979, Gerber wrote some DC heroes books, and established himself at the forefront of the “independent revolution” of the 1980s, along people like his friend Frank Miller. Many of his plans didn’t work out, sadly, and during the ’80s he turned to writing for TV, both live action and animation, penning episodes for shows like Dungeons and Dragons, Transformers, Star Trek: The Next Generation (“Contagion”), G.I. Joe and Thundarr the Barbarian, which he created.
In the early ’90s, Gerber was one of the founders of Malibu’s Ultraverse, and for a time, wrote a handful of image titles. His work during that decade was eclectic, reflective of his sense of humor and personality. In the current decade, Gerber went back to Marvel to write a new Howard the Duck mini, under the MAX banner. His most recent work was with DC, first doing the acclaimed series Hard Time, and he was lately working on the Dr. Fate story appearing in the pages of Countdown to Mystery. He will be fondly remembered, and sorely missed.
