As one of the more Mickey Mouse campaigns in American Presidential history thankfully concludes today, Super Tuesday looks back on an era offering real choice (and a real animal!), with the 1976 White House run of Steve Gerber‘s Howard the Duck.
Howard’s campaign was a genuine grassroots effort. I don’t recall Marvel running house ads for the campaign, but it got play in the letters column of Howard the Duck. An energetic and entrepreneurial Steve Gerber spearheaded the creation and fulfillment of Howard campaign packages for fans sending a few bucks to his address.
It’s hard to imagine today’s Marvel comics allowing a creator to run their own licensing program through the pages of one of their comics (and it is doubly ironic in the case of Howard the Duck, who would later become the subject of a bitter legal battle between Marvel and Steve Gerber).
But in 1976 it was a different world, and Howard invited us to “Get Down, America,” with a platform that offered little in specifics but was still attractive when contrasted with the Carter and Ford campaigns. Alas, Howard’s run came up short (though opinions differ on whether he received a few write-in votes), and America, as history has recorded, did indeed fail to Get Down.
To my international readers … please pardon this partisan interruption, and rest assured we Americans will be even happier than you when this whole thing is over. And to my domestic readers, get out there and vote, early and often!
TOMORROW AT LONGBOX GRAVEYARD: Panel Gallery: Nick Fury By Steranko
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Longbox Graveyard 
I just read about this – was it in Sean Howe’s book? I remember the campaign, but I never realized that it was Gerber and Mary Skrenes running it themselves. Probably the most money he made from any Howard merchandise.
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Yes, Howe gave it some play in his “Marvel Comics: The Untold Story” — that’s where I got the anecdote of Gerber essentially running the promotion out of his apartment. I get the impression it was a break-even enterprise.
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and even at that, it’s STILL probably the most money he ever made from Howard merchandise…
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