Issue(s): Giant-Size Man-Thing #4 (Howard the Duck story only)
Published Date: May 75
Title: "Frog death!"
Credits:
Steve Gerber - Writer
Frank Brunner - Penciler
Frank Brunner - Inker

Review/plot:
In this back-up story from aGiant-Size Man-Thing #4, Howard the Duck, still falling through an endless void as seen in his previous appearance...

...eventually lands on earth...

...and helps some children fight off a giant evil frog.

He is subsequently arrested.

Howard's first appearance was too chaotic for me to "get", and i didn't really understand the appeal that caused so many readers to write in demanding a second appearance of what seemed to be a throwaway character (almost literally). This story is a little more enjoyable but still feels like Gerber's early forced wackiness.

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 4 - early Howard the Duck appearance.

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References: N/A

Cross-over: N/A

Continuity Implant? N

Reprinted In: Essential Howard The Duck vol. 1

I take it you only have the TPB reprint? The main story, "The Kid's Night Out", is about a fat kid who is bullied and abused and eventually dies a poignant, horrible death. Man-Thing fries the guilty, of course, but it's too little, too late.

That was classic Gerber (as was the ensuing "A Book Burns in Citrusville" in the regular Manny mag); Howard was just a means of relief at this point.

Howard's early appearances in Man-Thing's book were included at excerpts in the Howard trade and they're very weird in isolation.

I'll be adding the full issues as part of my current back issue add.