R.J. WALDO

Real Name: R.J. Waldo

Identity/Class: Extradimensional/alternate reality (Earth-85331) human

Occupation: Businessman (see comments)

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Fenwick, Mabel

Enemies: Beverly, Howard the Duck

Known Relatives: Mabel (wife)

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Unrevealed

First Appearance: Comics Feature#33 (January-February 1985)

Powers/Abilities: R.J. Waldo was exceptionally rich and used to getting whatever he wanted.

Height: 2'10" (by approximation)
Weight: 65 lbs. (by approximation)
Eyes: Unrevealed
Hair: Black

History:
(Comics Feature#33) - At the request of his beloved wife, Mabel, rich businessman R.J. Waldo took up the pursuit of Howard the Duck, charging his butler, Fenwick, with the task of procuring the drake. However, even though he was always willing to indulge Mabel's every whim, R.J. found this current demand a bizarre one. Not used to being denied getting what he wanted and possessing a short temper, he found Howard's constant ability to evade capture frustrating, triggering temper tantrums.

Comments:  Created by unspecified members of the Marvel Productions staff, which included Stan Lee, Scott Shaw, Larry Houston, Will Meugniot, Bob Richardson, Dick Robbins and Bryce Malek. Stan was the creative director and chief pitch man, so it's very likely he was part of the development, if not the originator of the concept.

   "In the summer of 1980, Marvel Entertainment Group President James E. Galton and Marvel Comics Publisher Stan Lee,...traveled west from their New York corporate headquarters to establish an animation studio in Los Angeles. In conjunction with the Emmy and Oscar-award winning animator David H. Depatie and his longtime production associate Lee Gunther, Galton and Lee formed Marvel Productions, Ltd.... The primary reason why Lee and Galton wanted to start a production company was that they had been repeatedly disappointed with the ways in which other producers had portrayed the Marvel Comics characters in cartoons, live-action TV and feature films, and they felt they could do a more accurate job of bringing their characters to the large and small screen." - Robert Strauss, Comics Feature#33

   If the idea of Marvel setting up a Marvel studio to make movies around their characters so they could do a more better and (generally) more faithful versions of them sounds familiar, then it should, because that's basically the story of how we've ended up with the MCU. Naturally, Stan Lee had the idea decades earlier, though with far more mixed results, not least because while they developed ideas, they were then still trying to get other studios to buy them and pay to turn the ideas into finished products. They had numerous live-action movies in early stages of development - Captain America, Doctor Strange, Fantastic Four, Roger Corman's Spider-Man and X-Men are mentioned in Strauss' article in Comics Feature - but the only one mentioned that actually made it to the screen during the lifetime of Marvel Productions was...the live action Howard the Duck. They also got ABC sold on a live-action Daredevil series to the point where a pilot script was completed, but it was in animation that they had the most success, both with Marvel characters (1981's Spider-Man, Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, 1982's Incredible Hulk, and later Pryde of the X-Men) and developing cartoons on behalf of others (Dungeons and Dragons, G.I. Joe, Transformers, etc.). However, more successful doesn't mean completely successful, and there were still a lot of ideas that never made it beyond the development stage. There's not a ton of information available on most of these, but the article in Comics Feature#33 did at least provide concept art for a few, and snippets have emerged over the years from those who were involved in the development stage.

   One of these was the Howard the Duck cartoon series, which would have seen our titular hero being pursued by millionaire R.J. Waldo at the behest of his wife. Given we only have art to go on, it's not 100% certain what she wanted with Howard (to eat him, to keep him as a pet, something else?) or what R.J. Waldo's backstory was. Since he has a butler he's presumably rich, and the ten gallon hat and name "R.J" brings to mind Dallas' J.R. Ewing, which makes me suspect he was going to be a Texan oil millionaire, but that's really only speculation.

   Decades after this Howard the Duck cartoon fell through, in 2019 another was planned for Hulu, which was to be helmed by Kevin Smith and was intended to feature Howard hunting for the mystic Darkhold as he believed it was the only means for him to return home while simultaneously trying to avoid being captured by Dr. Bong, who wanted to eat him. Unfortunately, as with this 1980s Marvel Productions' Howard cartoon, the Hulu show also never came to fruition.

   From the single image we have, he appears to be only a little taller than Howard the Duck, which would make R.J. Waldo a dwarf around the height of the real world actor Verne Troyer.

    This profile was completed 8/20/2021, but its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 20th anniversary 's celebratory event.

Profile by Loki.

CLARIFICATIONS:
R.J. Waldo has no known connections to:

Mabel

  

Mabel was the demanding wife of R.J. Waldo, and had told her husband that she wanted Howard the Duck.

 

--Comics Feature#33

 

Fenwick

  

Fenwick was R.J. Waldo's butler, and had been tasked with capturing Howard the Duck. Though he was willing and used to fulfilling his employer's desires, Fenwick was nevertheless nonplussed by this latest order.

 

--Comics Feature#33

 

images: (without ads)
Comics Feature#33, p45, pan2 (main image)
Comics Feature#33, p45, pan3 (R.K. temper tantrum)
Comics Feature#33, p45, pan3 (Mabel)
Comics Feature#33, p45, pan2 (Fenwick)

Appearances:
Comics Feature#33 (January-February 1985) - credits unknown

First Posted: 09/21/2021
Last updated: 09/20/2021

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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