Gerber's best known for his Marvel work (like Howard The Duck), but the writer spent a fair few years at the Distinguished Competition as well, even if most of his work went unproduced. DC have become somewhat notorious in the New 52 reboot line for some dodgy employment practises, chucking writers an artists off of books before they've even had a chance to finish an issue. That sort of thing is rare, hence the outrage, but it's not unheard of: Gerber himself was the victim of it back in the eighties, when he was originally in line to work on the ongoing Spectre title that was eventually written by Doug Moench and drawn Gene Colan. The Steve Gerber Spectre fell apart before the series could even begin, however. And for the most ridiculous reason possible, too. The ill-fated movie adaptation of his Howard The Duck had almost completed filming, and he finally decided to take up producer George Lucas's offer to stop by the set - on the same day Gerber had set aside to finish off dialogue for the first issue of Spectre run. He'd agreed to a strict deadline from DC and he hadn't delivered the plot for the second issue either, so they decided to drop him from the book, meaning readers were never treated to the gonzo writer's take on the metaphysical sort-of-superhero.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
