Howard The Duck and Beverly Switzler
Mixed feelings about this series. I was always impressed by the artists
and inkers who agreed to work on it, but when I skipped an issue, I
didn't bother to try and rummage up the back issue. I remember getting
pretty much all the issues 1977 through 1979 and I did look up and
purchase the first two issues. I passed a lot of them on later as they
weren't very valuable, either monetarily or to me. Definitely an
"off-beat" series.
Howards' and Beverlys' relationship in the comic wasn't at all like the
relationship as
it was presented
in the 1986 movie (I did like the
final song in the movie). In the movie, Howard and Bev are openly
lustful
towards one another, and yeah, I found the bestiality concept of ducks
and humans playing footsie with each other pretty distasteful. In the
comic, the relationship was competely chaste, though Bev was every bit
as attractive as she was in the movie.
Their first meeting:
She's shocked, but she and Howard quickly prove to be a good team:
Turns out in the second issue that Bev has a boyfriend, but it's
clearly not a deep, true love relationship. I actualy started buying
the series with issue #7, so am not sure how Bev and her boyfriend
split up, but he was clearly long gone by the time I started reading
the series.
After Howard and Bev are seen in a manipulated photo taking a bath
together, she lets us know she's worked hard to get a "good girl"
reputation.
She certainly had to undergo her share of sexual harrassment.
Here, Howard is having a nervous breakdown. Bev is featured mainly in
cameos, but here gets a full page.
I did find Bev's attitude towards material goods very attractive. It's
"easy-come, easy-go, back to business."
Howard is possessed by the spirit of the Son of Satan and becomes very
mean, nasty and abusive towards everybody. Here he slaps Winda around.
Bev and her new fellow are talking about how she misses Howard.
Howard, under the possession, reveals that he has some deep, if
confused feelings about Bev.
Bev, having been kidnapped by Doctor Bong and having traded her freedom
for Howard's life, decides to make the best of a bad situation.
The serie ran for another half-dozen or so issues, but I'm not sure how
the Doctor Bong situation was ever resolved.
The Howard-Beverly relationship was certainly an interesting one. It
was always an asexual one, but it's pretty clear their feelings for
each other ran pretty deep. Beverly was very clearly not a 1950s Doris
Day-type character who never let the boys touch her, but neither was
she wildly promiscuous.
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