First and foremost, this comic felt the most like a Steve Gerber comic of any issue in the series. There were splash pages, and big chunks of text, and weird technology. Gerber's earlier work, when it was at its best, pushed at the edges of the medium. In fact, I got into Howard the Duck after tracking down Mr. Gerber's illustrated prose ramblings in issue #16 of that series, having recently read his Vertigo offering Nevada. I get a similar feeling from Mr. Gerber's stories as I do from the music of Rush. In the documentary All the World's a Stage, the band are asked about their intellectual lyrics, and note that they figured if they could figure out these heady concepts, so could their audience. Steve Gerber's stories don't attempt to speak down to their audience. They assume that with a small bit of effort invested, concepts that might seem difficult can actually be easily understood and enjoyed.
I think it may be time to start seriously tracking down more of Gerber's work. I've got a fairly substantial collection of his writings, but there's definitely some holes, not suprisingly in his earlier works. And if he's a writer with whom you're unfamiliar, I highly recommend giving him a go. But be prepared for the weird.
More to follow.
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