[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/steve_gerber.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Gerber in 1979.]]

Steve Gerber (1947-2008) was a comic book writer known for GenreBusting and championing creator's rights. Writing in TheSeventies, he prefigured the DarkerAndGrittier [[TheEighties Eighties]], writing genre-stretching stories about small characters with less-than-supernatural problems. Before Creator/AlanMoore's notable run on ''Comicbook/SwampThing'', Gerber was writing ''Comicbook/ManThing'', redefining the character and moving from SwordAndSorcery to SciFi to {{Horror}} stories [[GenreShift in as many issues]]. Before Dave Sim's ''ComicBook/CerebusTheAardvark'', there was Gerber's ComicBook/HowardTheDuck, a DeadpanSnarker cartoon character thrust into a world of real people and real problems.

When Gerber left Creator/MarvelComics over concerns about creator's rights (his Comicbook/OmegaTheUnknown having been taken from him, canceled, then summarily killed off by another writer), he fought for control of Howard. The legal costs drove him to bankruptcy, and he started the creator-controlled comic ''ComicBook/DestroyerDuck'' to try to alleviate the costs of the case. Gerber was joined by notable industry friends like Creator/JackKirby, who worked pro bono.

He never regained the rights to his characters and spent years in seclusion from comics working in television on ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformers'', ''WesternAnimation/GIJoeARealAmericanHero'', ''WesternAnimation/DungeonsAndDragons1983'', and ''WesternAnimation/ThundarrTheBarbarian'', which he created. He also co-wrote a single episode of ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS2E11Contagion Contagion]]". Though he never won his fight with [[MegaCorp The Industry]], he helped blaze a trail for future writers to fight for their intellectual property, like [[Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles Eastman and Laird]] (and the other guys behind the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund) and even creator-owned companies companies like Creator/ImageComics. He also inspired authors not to shy away from difficult material, whatever their chosen medium. Creator/NeilGaiman has cited ''Comicbook/ManThing'' as an influence for his own genre-stretching [[ComicBook/TheSandman1989 Sandman series]].


Gerber was inducted posthumously into the [[Creator/WillEisner Eisner Award]] Hall of Fame.

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!! Gerber contributed to the following works:

[[index]]
[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Animated Series ]]

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries''
* ''WesternAnimation/DungeonsAndDragons1983''
* ''WesternAnimation/GIJoeARealAmericanHero''
* ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries''
* ''WesternAnimation/ThundarrTheBarbarian'' (Creator)
* ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformers''
* ''Anime/YuGiOh''

[[/folder]]

[[folder: DC/Vertigo ]]

* ''Countdown to Mystery''
* ''ComicBook/HardTime'' (Co-Creator)
* ''ComicBook/MetalMen''
* ''Mister Miracle''
* ''Nevada'' (Creator)
* ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}''
** ''ComicBook/ThePhantomZone''

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Eclipse ]]

* ''ComicBook/DestroyerDuck'' (Creator)

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Marvel ]]

* ''ComicBook/{{Daredevil}}''
* ''ComicBook/TheDefenders''
* ''Freddy Krueger's A Nightmare on Elm Street''
* ''ComicBook/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyMarvelPresents''
* ''ComicBook/{{Foolkiller}}'' (Creator)
* ''ComicBook/HowardTheDuck'' (Creator)
* ''ComicBook/ManThing''
* ''Marvel Super Special #1'' (Creator - the first ever Music/{{KISS}} comic)
* ''ComicBook/MarvelTwoInOne''
* ''The Mutant Misadventures of ComicBook/{{Cloak and Dagger}}''
* ''ComicBook/OmegaTheUnknown'' (Co-Creator)
* ''ComicBook/ShannaTheSheDevil''
* ''[[ComicBook/SheHulk The Sensational She-Hulk]]''
* ''ComicBook/SubMariner''
* ''ComicBook/TalesOfTheZombie''
* ''Void Indigo''
[[/index]]

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!!His work presents examples of the following tropes:

* AnyoneCanDie: Even the most sympathetic character around had a very likely chance to perish in his stories.
* AuthorAppeal: Gerber seemingly had a love for off-the-wall characters and outcasts, so that most of the comics in which he worked featured someone who fit that description. He also had a thing for adding text-pieces in his comics, which some readers found it a very innovative gimmick while others thought it was ruining their favorite series.
* AuthorAvatar: Perpetual loser Richard Rory appeared in a number of Gerber works, and he also inserted himself into the last issue of ''Man-Thing'' to say good-bye to his fans. Jack Norriss in Gerber's run on ''ComicBook/TheDefenders'' is also based on Gerber and sometimes voices [[AuthorFilibuster the author's own criticisms of superheroes]]. According to Marvel writer/editor Jo Duffy, these characters were known as "Gerberoids" around the office.
* DarkerAndGrittier
* DiedDuringProduction: Gerber died before he could finish his last work, an eight-part story on ''Countdown to Mystery'' featuring ComicBook/DoctorFate. Four of his closest friends and admirers (Adam Beechen, Creator/MarkEvanier, Creator/MarkWaid and Creator/GailSimone) ended the story with each one giving their own version of how it would conclude and also giving [[ShoutOut Shout Outs]] to Gerber's famous creations and well-known plot elements.
* FamilyUnfriendlyDeath
* GenreBusting
* GenreDeconstruction: Among some examples, his run in ''ComicBook/TheDefenders'' is known to be one of the earliest attempts of deconstruction in the superhero genre.
* MoralGuardians: Cruelly parodied in his works. Any character that showed traits of these was either an unpleasant or bothersome individual like the Kidney Lady from ''Howard the Duck'', or a KnightTemplar-type villain like the fascist vigilante Foolkiller.
* OrphanedSeries: His ''Void Indigo'' was cancelled by Creator/MarvelComics after a graphic novel and two issues for extreme violence, even though it was being published via Marvel's then-adult line Epic.
** Subverted with ''Hard Time'' from Creator/DCComics. The series was cancelled in the middle of a storyline, but he was given one more issue to wrap things up with. He used this opportunity to use WallOfText to not only lay out how the current story would have been resolved, but gave a general layout of the storylines that he had planned to that point.
* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: Aside ''The Defenders'', Gerber played with this trope in ''Man-Thing'' where Dakihm the Enchanter recruited young sorcerer apprentice Jennifer Kale to fight against Thog the Nether-Spawn along with Man-Thing, Korrek the Barbarian and Howard the Duck. He would pull this again in ''Destroyer Duck'', ''Guardians of the Galaxy'', ''Exiles'' and in the short mini-series ''Legion of the Night''.
* TakeThat: Gerber had no fear in making fun of anyone or anything. In fact it is very rare to find a comic of his where he didn't give a humorous yet harsh commentary on a specific topic or person.
* WallOfText
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