[LINK] "Chip Zdarsky Strikes Again"

[rfmcdonald]

Torontoist's Will Sloan has a nice interview up with Toronto cartoonist Chip Zdarsky, the offbeat cartoonist who is behind the revival of Howard the Duck as well as the artist for Sex Criminals.

Torontoist: Like a lot of people, my main exposure to Howard the Duck has been through the bad George Lucas movie. Did you know the comics?

Chip Zdarsky: I knew the comics before the movie, or around the same time. I love the movie—I was in Grade 6 when it came out, so I was kind of the perfect age for it. At that age, it’s a walking, talking duck—I’m going to enjoy it on some level. And actually, I really loved the closing song, I don’t know if you…

(*singing*) “Howaaard… the Duck…”

Yeah, yeah… it’s got that great ‘80s movie moment where Howard stumbles onstage, someone throws him a guitar, and he can just play really well. But I loved that song so much as a kid I actually recorded it off the TV.

But I had a weird Uncle Fred, who was the old hippie guy who collected all the underground comics. So whenever I was at his house, I’d go through all the Robert Crumb books I probably shouldn’t have looked at, and Howard the Duck, and I loved them. He kind of bequeathed them to me a few years ago. So when Marvel asked me to pitch on it, I was like, “Oh my God!” and I just pulled out the stack of old black-and-white magazines, and I was ready to go.