UTAHUTAH
Real Name: Unrevealed; possibly Utah (either as a birth name or legally changed)
Identity/Class: Human (no known variances)
Occupation: Dancer
Group Membership: Partner of Ravel
Affiliations: Briefly, reasonably friendly encounter with Howard the Duck and Beverly Switzler;
Splatter Gomorrah apparently repeatedly solicited her for sex, but she wasn't having it
Enemies: Doc (of the Interminable, and possibly the rest of the Interminable) was not a fan, and she was not a fan of him, either;
she did not like Splatter Gomorrah at all...
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: "That Vegas whore" (from Doc of the Interminable)
Base of Operations: Boarding House of Mystery, apparently Cleveland, Ohio
First Appearance: Howard the Duck III#4 (June 2002)
Powers/Abilities: Utah was a young and attractive woman with an enthusiasm for dancing and wearing some Egyptian-inspired motif.
She worked with the large and powerful gastornis Ravel, who followed her instructions.
(Howard the Duck III#4 - BTS) - Howard the Duck, Beverly Switzler and their pet pit bull, Parsifal, took up residence in the Boarding House of Mystery.
After gaining some wish
fulfillment intrinsic to the House and falling asleep, Howard and Bev
were awakened by commotion in the hallway, which involved an Israeli
and a Muslim man engaging in warfare until a demon summoned by another
resident, Hellboozer, devoured the surviving Muslim man. After
returning to their room, they found it now inhabited by the
Interminable. Bev asked about their dog, and Doc noted that he hadn't
seen one but hoped that it hadn't run across the hall where "that damn
Vegas whore and her dancing monstrosity" lived.
Doc continued that "...and if you complain, that Eocene freak would bite your head off."
<Did it bite off Doc's head, and it grew back?
Or did Doc witness
someone else complaining and getting his or her head bitten off?
Or was
he just speaking figuratively and/or exaggerating?>
Approaching Utah's door, Bev listened and heard only
dancing feet and depressing old Beatles songs. When she knocked on the
door and asked if they had seen her pit bull, Ravel smashed his head
through the door and repeatedly screamed, "WUHHHK!"
(Howard
the Duck III#4) - Utah
chided Ravel as a bad boy and then instructed him to get back in the
room this instant or there would be no dinner. Ravel replied, "Wuk?" and then complied.
As Ravel went into the
room, Utah apologized if Ravel had scared them, explaining that they
had so few visitors and that Ravel always wanted to be first to the
door.
As she helped Howard to his feet, Utah asked Howard and Bev not to tell their landlord, Cain, as it "hard as Hell" to find a place that would take a gastornis. The ever-sarcastic Howard replied, "Wish it'd been a little harder..."
Beverly then noted that they were looking for their pit bull, and she wondered if perhaps her bird had...
Utah interrupted, "You've been talking to that f@$&king dwarf, haven't you? "Well, I don't let Ravel eat other people's pets!"
She further added, "Maybe your dog smelled the mutant cat down the hall and went in there?"
Based on experiences thus far, Bev asked, "But I better hope not -- right?" Utah replied, "You have no idea."
As Howard and Bev headed down the hall, Utah added, "Oh, and if that hairless, foul-mouthed, egomaniacal f@$&morton should happen to ask, I still don't want to have sex with him." Howard assured her that they would pass it on.
(Howard the Duck III#4 - BTS) - Down the hall, Splatter Gomorrah's door had a sign that stated, "Do not disturb, or I'll rip out your eyes and feed them to the gastronis" <sic>. Knocking anyway, Howard and Bev were cursed out by Gomorrah, to which Howard responded, "And, by the way, the chick down the hall still doesn't want to f@$& you."
Howard and Bev ultimately found Parsifal inside Gomorrah's place, somehow stoned alongside Gomorrah's three-headed cat.
Comments: Created by Steve Gerber and Phil Winslade.
Utah and Ravel are part of a running gag/story/series by Gerber.
It all started a single panel, double page spread of the "obligatory comic book fight
scene" involving a Las Vegas chorus girl, an ostrich and a Killer Lampshade, which occurred during an experimental stream of consciousness issue (taking
place during a cross-country roadtrip involving Howard the Duck and Steve
Gerber) printed as an alternative to a reprint in the event of a missed
deadline.
In a subsequent letter page, Gerber himself pretended to be a fan
writing in, demanding a series for the ostrich and chorus girl.
Allegedly (according to Wikipedia, at
least; I haven't personally seen the request, so I neither confirm nor deny),
Neil Gaiman, writing on the CompuServe comics forum. said he'd love to
see that story. Regardless, Gerber eventually re-imagined the Vegas chorus girl and ostrich
as Nevada and Bolero for the Vertigo imprint of DC comics. As far as I know,
Nevada and Bolero first appeared in Vertigo Winter's Edge#1 (January,
1988), followed by the six issue series "Nevada" (May-October, 1998; I
have the trade paperback), and again in Vertigo Winter's Edge#2
(January, 1999).
Additionally, Gerber (along with Paul Winslade, the artist for Nevada) parodied Nevada and
Bolero as Utah and Ravel in Howard the Duck
(MAX)#4 (June, 2002).
Maurice Ravel was the creator of the play Bolero, and that was
almost certainly the inspiration to name the gastornis "Ravel."
No one ever called her "Utah," and I had thought the
name was perhaps fanfic...until I FINALLY realized that her name was
clearly shown on her door---------------------------------------->
I still think that Arizona and Maurice would be great names for the -616 versions.
I still want to learn the origins of the Killer Lampshade.
This was a MAX series, so I've edited the language to cut-out the F-bomb.
The gastornis is a large
flightless bird that lived around 50 million years ago. You can find
information on the gastronis here. Or just Google it...
Profile by Snood.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Utah should be distinguished from:
First posted: 09/21/2025
Last updated: 09/21/2025
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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