Val Mayerik (born March 29, 1950) is an American comic book and commercial artist, best known as co-creator of the satiric character Howard the Duck for Marvel Comics. Biography Early life and career Val Mayerik was born in Youngstown, Ohio. Upon college graduation, he met and began working as an assistant to Ohio-based comic-book artist Dan Adkins, alongside fellow assistant P. Craig Russell. Through Adkins, who was primarily an inker for Marvel Comics, Mayerik broke into comics that summer as penciler, over Adkins layouts, of the eight-page story "Spell of the Dragon", starring author John Jakes' sword-and-sorcery hero Brak the Barbarian. Published in the horror-fantasy anthology Chamber of Chills # 2 (Jan. 1973), it appeared a month after his first published comics work, the full-length "The Monster of the Monoliths" in Marvel's Conan the Barbarian # 21, which Mayerik and Russell penciled over Barry Windsor-Smith layouts. Mayerik quickly found more assignments, penciling Marvel's adaptation of H.G. Wells' The Invisible Man, over Adkins layouts, in Supernatural Thrillers # 2 (Feb. 1973); and doing his first full penciling, with writer George Alec Effinger's adaptation of Lin Carter's "Thongor! Warrior of Lost Lemuria" story "Thieves of Zangabal", in Creatures on the Loose # 22 (March 1973). Howard the Duck Mayerik became the regular artist of the swamp-monster feature "Man-Thing" in Fear #13 (April 1973). Six issues later, he and writer Steve Gerber introduced Howard the Duck. Initially a minor supporting character intended only for an issue or two, the anthropomorphic waterfowl — wearing a suit and tie as a parody of cartoon animal ducks, known for his cigar-smoking and his angry, acerbic wit — Howard eventually became the starring character in his own satiric series, penciled first by Frank Brunner and then Gene Colan. The character shortly afterward became a mainstream pop-culture figure. Mayerik continued to pencil both the "Man-Thing" and "Thongor" series until the former received his own title, for which Mayerik drew the premiere issue (Jan. 1974). While also doing scattered horror/fantasy/science-fiction anthology stories, Mayerik teamed with Gerber on a second series, the Living Mummy, in Supernatural Thrillers, and took over the art on The Frankenstein Monster. With writer Doug Moench, he did a monumental adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes novel The Hound of the Baskervilles in the black-and-white magazine Marvel Preview # 5-6 (April & Spring 1976). He also penciled the final six issues of the 20-issue,