Friday Night Fights--Dreaded Deadline Doom Style!!

Well, this Friday Night Fight is going to take some explainin'.

You see, back in 1977, Steve Gerber found himself running way behind on a lot of things. So far behind, that he didn't get the synopsis for Howard The Duck #16 (1977) to Gene Colan in time for the issue to finished by deadline.

And back then, Marvel did NOT miss ship dates. EVER. If the creators didn't have the book done in time, there was no delay, no slippage on the dates--they just put in a reprint and sent that puppy to the printers.

So, it looked as if Howard #16 was going to be a rerun. Until, at the eleventh hour, Gerber had the "inspiration." Instead of a lousy stinking rerun, he would craft a book length essay--yes, an essay. As Gerber described it, "all about the relationship between a boy and his Duck. And comics in general. And living at the precipice, playing the Balance Game over the cosmic chasm filled with lime jello."

Yeah, it sounds crazy, but in his defense, he had just finished having KISS fight Doctor Doom, so a lot of odd things make sense once you've done that.

Somehow, Marvel went along with this, and Gerber managed to get a bunch of Bullpenners to produce, with zero time to spare, a series of double-page spreads, over which appeared Gerber's typewritten--typewritten!!--essay/conversation with his character/stream of consciousness/critique of the medium/public display of a mental breakdown. He included, at the end, a faux letter to the editor from himself, criticizing the issue.

It was, unquestionably, the oddest comic book ever published by the Big Two up to that point, and pretty darned controversial. And little 13 year old snell had his mind completely blown. Which explains an awful lot about me today.

But back to our Friday Night raison d'etre. Chock in the middle of this, this, this thing that was Howard The Duck #16, was this:




Yes, really.

And how did this fight end up?

And there's your fight!

FYI, here's what the entire page looked like:

Poor Spacebooger is pulling his hair out trying to figure out how to describe this fight on the ballot this week...

Steve Gerber and Tom Palmer presented this CLASH OF THE TITANS, this BRAIN-BLASTING BATTLE SCENE of an ostrich and a Las Vegas Chorus girl against a killer lampshade. In case you were wondering who was responsible for my turning out the way I am.

So, now has come the time for you to go and vote for this fight. Why mine? Well, I can fairly safely assert that no one else has a fight quite like this one this week (or any week, for that matter). So vote.