Howard The Duck: The Complete Collection Vol. 3

Howard and Beverly return in this third volume which collects issues 2-7 of the black and white magazine, as well as material from Crazy magazine, some subscription ads and cover art.  Bill Mantlo has taken over as the main writer from Steve Gerber, with art from Gene Colan, John Buscema, Michael Golden and others.  The book is comic sized, meaning the art is smaller than originally published, which is generally not a problem other than we loose a bit of the grey tones on white paper as opposed to the original newsprint.    The stories this time run the gamut from telling how Howard took to wearing pants (which has a lot to due with Disney and a certain other famous duck),  another Dracula parody, and a life-sized Monopoly game.  Pro Rata, the Cosmic Accountant (from way back in HTD #1) makes a return, as does Nurse Barbara,  Moon June Yuk of the Yucchies,  and the sinister SOOFI (Save Our Offspring From Indecency).  The highlight however, is Howards return to Duckworld, with Beverly in tow.  It seems our hero has become quite the celebrity since vanishing, with the mayor of New Stork and holy roller Revered Godfrey Gander milking the event for all it's worth.  We even meet Truman Capoultry,  who has written a book about Howard.  It's all a lot of fun, though maybe not always as good in the parody and satire department as the older Steve Gerber material.  (Truman Capoultry, Pinball Lizard, The Eggs-Men..seriously?)  Why would Howards world actually be called Duckworld, especially when it's inhabited by other types of birds?      On the flip side,  The Playduck  stuff seems a bit forced and only there because Howard is seen reading an issue in the HTD movie. There's a couple of installments of 'Steet Peeple', written by editor Lynn Graeme, detailing her experiences in the 1960's.  While interesting in it's own right, Howard the Duck is simply not the place for this, and would have been better served appearing in the pages of Marvel's The Nam, for instance.  We get two 'catch up' sort of articles as if those reading the magazine aren't already familiar with Howards past. This is the only volume in the set that contains a parental advisory not for kids notice on the cover, likely due to the Playduck material, Howards version of the Kent State massacre, a mental patient who thinks he's Hitler, and Beverly wearing skimpy or torn clothing.     All said and done though, still a lot of fun and worth a read.  Curious if a volume 4 is planned as there are still two more issues of the black and white magazine, issues #32 and #33 which return to the color comic format, the movie adaptation, and assorted other material.

Not as good as the first 2 volumes but still nice

after years of being unavailable except on the second hand market the black and white magazine format stories of Howard the Duck are finally being reprinted in this collection. If you like the character now you can get all his appearances in reprint form- between the Essentials version- the omnibi and this series.

While it's great that the black and white magazine stories of Howard the Duck are getting the reprint attention they deserve, Marvel went a bit too far in the 'Complete' department. These are reprints of the full issues, not just the Howard stories. So while your getting great artwork by Colon, Golden and Buesema, you're also getting the embarassing Playduck issue. And worst of all the backup Street Peeple comic. See, while Epic Illustrated tried to attract the Heavy Metal readers, they tried to get the underground/self published group to think Howard was one of theirs. Failing at every step. If they'd left out all the extra stuff and just stuck to reprinting the Howard stories, they might have been able to fit in the last two issues of the magazine. And not make us hope there will be a Vol 4 so we can get Marshall Rogers' Batman parody. Would have given this 5 stars, but they made me look at Street Peeple again.

Received with thanks. Hope they collect the newspaper strip.

Hilarious & highly original. This is not an action-oriented super-hero comic, although there is some of that, nor is it a cute cuddly comic, although there a little bit of that. Rather, Howard the Duck is primarily biting satire and what it chews at ranges from high & low culture; everything from comics, movies, psychology and religion. Issue after issue takes up an issue, makes a pop-culture reference, and sprinkles its stories with surreal villains, quirky characters and dynamite dialogue.

Cannot wait to read some strange marvel history!