The great irony of Howard the Duck becoming one of Steve Gerber's signature characters is that the cantankerous duck originally wasn't meant to last. At then-editor Roy Thomas' bidding, Gerber did away with Howard shortly after the character's debut, seemingly dooming him to fall endlessly down a bottomless void between universes in "Man-Thing" #1.
While Gerber and Mayerik may have thought they were done with the duck, fans readily disagreed, begging by mail that Marvel bring Howard back. Leading the charge, according to "Howard the Duck Magazine" #9, was the fanzine "Contemporary Pictorial Literature," better known as "CBL," whose contributors included future comic stars like Roger Stern, Bill Mantlo, and Steven Grant, the last two of whom would later write Howard the Duck comics themselves.
They're probably not the fans behind the most outrageous attempt to bring back Howard, namely a letter accusing Marvel of murder that was accompanied by the remains of a duck Christmas dinner. Suffice to say, Marvel listened, and Howard reappeared in "Giant-Size Man-Thing" #4, ending his long drop by making a surprisingly gentle landing in Cleveland, Ohio.
