Howard the Duck is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by writer Steve Gerber and artist Val Mayerik. Howard the Duck first appeared in Adventure into Fear #19 (cover-dated Dec. 1973) and several subsequent series have chronicled the misadventures of the ill-tempered, anthropomorphic "funny animal" trapped on a human-dominated Earth. Echoing this, the most common tagline of his comics reads 'Trapped In a World He Never Made!'
Howard's adventures are generally social satires, while a few are parodies of genre fiction with a metafictional awareness of the medium. The book is existentialist, and its main joke, according to Gerber, is that there is no joke: "... that life's most serious moments and most incredibly dumb moments are often distinguishable only by a momentary point of view." This is diametrically opposed to screenwriter Gloria Katz, who, in adapting the comic to the screen, declared, "It's a film about a duck from outer space ... It's not supposed to be an existential experience".
Howard the Duck was portrayed by Ed Gale and voiced by Chip Zien in the 1986 Howard the Duck film adaptation, and was later voiced by Seth Green in the films Guardians of the Galaxy and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, both set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The character also made a nonspeaking cameo appearance in Avengers: Endgame.
