Known Relatives: To be filled in later (he was married at least at some point; he referenced a wife (Margo), daughter (Samantha), mother, father, brothers, sisters, & uncle)

Aliases: "Baby" Gerber (at least in his FOOM interview)

Place of Birth: St. Louis, Missouri

Base of Operations: Currently unrevealed; possibly Therea?;
    formerly Las Vegas, Nevada;
    formerly St. Louis, Missouri

Education: Presumably a BS, with a major in Radio-TV communications and a minor in Creative Writing

Date of Birth: September 20, 1947

First Appearance: (As a writer for Marvel) (Adventure into) Fear#11 (December, 1972);
    (On panel) Man-Thing I#3-4 (March, 1974) - I THINK, though he wasn't named. Take a look below.

Date of Death: February 10, 2008

Powers/Abilities: Steve Gerber was an extremely talented and imaginative writer. He enjoyed using his stories and characters for sociopolitical satire.

History: For a nice synopsis on Steve Gerber's history, see here:

http://www.newsfromme.com/archives/2008_02_11.html

(Man-Thing I#22 (fb) - BTS) - Steve Gerber had a lengthy phone conversation with editor Roy Thomas and was hired by Marvel, with the Man-Thing serving as his first assignment being the Man-Thing.

(Man-Thing I#22 (fb)) - The twenty millennia-old sorcerer Dakimh the Enchanter appeared before Steve, telling him that he had been chosen by fate to play a crucial role in the destiny of the universe, and that Dakimh had been selected to guide him. Dakimh would tell Gerber all that occurred in the Man-Thing's existence, and Gerber would interpret those events as his conscience bade him.

(Man-Thing I#22 (fb) - BTS) - Dakimh appeared before Steve, sharing events of the Man-Thing's life.

(Man-Thing I#3) - An unidentified man, lost and seeking the Green Glades Country Club, came across Richard Rory and Ruth Hart, who were out of gas and stranded in the Florida Everglades. They informed the man that his map was out of date and gave him new directions, and the man gave them two gallons of gas he had in a spare tank before departing.
    As he packed up his gear, Richard felt as though he had had a meeting with destiny and slept through it.

(Man-Thing I#4) - The man stopped at a local restaurant named "Ben's Eats" where he met up with Richard  Rory and Ruth Hart again. Rory happily greeted him until seeing the man's red sports car, which looked just like the one driven by Foolkiller (Ross G. Everbest) who was trying to kill Rory. Panicking, Rory punched the man in the face and told Ruth to call the police while he held the man, but then the real Foolkiller crashed through the wall in his semi-truck, knocking Rory out. Foolkiller then abducted Rory, and the man realized Rory's mistake and sympathized with him.

(Man-Thing I#22 (fb) - BTS) - Continuing to gain information from Dakimh's spirit, Steve told the story of Dakimh's death against Klonus (circa Giant-Size Man-Thing I#3) and continued to tell the Man-Thing's stories.

(Man-Thing I#22 (fb)) - Dakimh (or perhaps it was one of his agents) delivered one of the Nightmare Boxes to Steve Gerber. Steve's apartment was almost immediately sacked by a group of Thog's demons, who took the Box from Steve and sucked him into the Box. The demons them brought the Box back to Thog, who used it to suck up the wounded Man-Thing as well. Inside the Box, the Man-Thing somehow regained the mind of Ted Sallis. Thog and his demons returned to Sominus where he prepared to place the final Box onto the pyramid and destroy Earth as we know it. Dakimh the Enchanter's spirit then appeared to Gerber inside the Nightmare Box, and told Gerber and Sallis to think purely rational thoughts, and hold their emotions in check. The deficit of emotions in the final Box caused it to react violent with the others in the pyramid, which imploded, caving in on itself and sucking in Thog, his cohorts, and all of the netherworld of Sominus, as well.
    The power of the pyramid of Nightmare Boxes was so great, that all of infinity (aka the cosmos) collapsed into the pyramid as well. Of all the centillions (how's that compare to a Gajillion?) of people from all of those uncountable worlds, only Dakimh, the Man-Thing, Thog, and Gerber were left sane. Dakimh and Gerber were powerless to interfere in the final struggle between Thog and the Man-Thing, but guess what? Thog knew fear (from his plot falling apart) and burned at the touch of the Man-Thing!

(Man-Thing I#22 (fb) - BTS) - Steve awakened back in his own apartment.

(Man-Thing I#22) - Steve Gerber wrote a letter to editor Len Wein, telling him of his encounters with Dakinmh, and that after his recent experiences that included putting his own life in jeopardy, he would not be able to continue writing the Man-Thing anymore. After he completed the letter, Dakimh, accompanied by the Man-Thing appeared at his apartment to check and make sure he was OK. Steve told Dakimh he was giving up the Man-Thing book, and Dakimh thanked him for his contributions, telling him that perhaps their paths would cross again some day.

(Howard the Duck I#16) - Howard accompanied Steve Gerber on a cross-country trip, during which time they discussed numerous things, "Zen and the Art of Comic Book Writing." (see comments).

Comments: Created by his parents and the world around him.

    Roger Stern named Gerber's first Foolkiller (Ross G. Everbest) after Gerber himself. With Ross being Gerber's middle name, and G. Everbest presumably being a play on Reg Everbest, an anagram for Steve Gerber.

    Howard the Duck I#16 missed the deadline. Instead of printing a reprint, which they usually did when this happened, Gerber wrote a whole stream of consciousness essay patterned as discussions between Gerber and Howard.

    Howard the Duck I#19 sports not only a letter from Kurt Busiek, but also a response telling readers, "Arthur Winslow is Don McGregor. Beverly Switzler is Mary Skrenes. And everybody else in the strip, including the villains, is Steve (Gerber). I have NO idea if that was intended as a joke or not.

    Multiple sites reference Adventure into Fear #11 (Dec. 1972) as his first full comic story, which it may be. He also scripted over a Roy Thomas plot in Incredible Hulk #158 that same month, and co-wrote/co-created the Shanna the She-Devil series, first issue of which also came out that month.
    Anyhow, along with various short-term assignments, he had multi-month runs on Fear (Man-Thing), Shanna, Sub-Mariner, Daredevil (where he eventually wrapped up some Shanna loose ends), Iron Man (brief), Tales of the Zombie, Supernatural Thrillers (just long enough to do the first two Living Mummy stories), Man-Thing, Marvel Two-in-One, Marvel Spotlight (Son of Satan)... and then he started his super-cool Defenders run, in 1975. Other significant work later on that decade included Howard the Duck, Marvel Presents (Guardians of the Galaxy), Omega the Unknown and Captain America before Gerber's early Marvel career came to an end.
--Sean McQuaid.
    Thanks also to Ronald Byrd and Darci for pointing out the three comics that came out in the same month. In Man-Thing I#22, Gerber specifically named the Man-Thing as his first assignment for Marvel.

    Michel Gariepy provided links to an old Steve Gerber interview by Foom#7: Page 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16
    and a shorter one from Foom#5

    My son, Henry, was born 3/5/08. Between helping my wife take care of him (I'm typing this with one hand, and a sleeping baby in the other arm), writing for Marvel, and my real job, I just don't have the time to give this profile the time it deserves, but it is my hope that once it's up others can expand on it.

    Steve had started some great stories both for Howard the Duck and the Ultraverse's Sludge. There used to be working links to those plots on Steve's blog, but they don't work anymore. You can find them using the wayback engine, or just look here:
http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix4/gerber_unpublished_howard.htm
http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix4/gerber_unpublished_sludge-slave%20of%20souls.htm

Profile by Snood.

CLARIFICATIONS:
No KNOWN connections to:

• Gerber baby food...as far as I know

images: (without ads)
Man-Thing I#3, that page after the one before it (in red car)
    #22, p2, panel 1 (face)

Appearances:
Man-Thing I#3-4 (March-April, 1974) - Steve Gerber (writer), Val Mayerik (penciler), Jack Abel (inker), Roy Thomas (editor)
Man-Thing I#22 (October, 1975) - Steve Gerber (writer), Jim Mooney (pencils/inks), Len Wein (editor)
Howard the Duck I#16 (September, 1977) - by Steve Gerber (writer/editor), cast of thousands (artists)

First Posted: 03/24/2008
Last updated: 07/21/2013

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

Non-Marvel Copyright info
All other characters mentioned or pictured are ™  and © 1941-2099 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. If you like this stuff, you should check out the real thing!
Please visit The Marvel Official Site at: http://www.marvel.com

Special Thanks to www.g-mart.com for hosting the Appendix, Master List, etc.!

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