A St. Louis native, the comic book giant and creator of Howard the Duck died of complications from pulmonary fibrosis.

Steve Gerber, one of the most singular and celebrated writers in the history of comics, passed away this week following a lengthy bout with pulmonary fibrosis. He was 60 years old.

Born in St. Louis in 1947, Gerber attended the University of Missouri-St. Louis, the University of Missouri, and St. Louis University before starting work as a copywriter for a local ad agency. A connection with longtime fanzine writer and then Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Roy Thomas brought Gerber into the world of professional comics where he became a Marvel staple, working on numerous titles including lengthy runs on The Defenders and ­Man-Thing and creating such well-loved characters as Omega the Unknown and his best known creation, Howard the Duck.

A fight over the rights to his creations led Gerber to leave Marvel, though he would occasionally return both to Marvel and to Howard the Duck himself. Gerber spent much of the 1980s working in the world of animation, where he helped launch Thundarr the Barbarian and worked on a variety of high profile cartoons, including GI Joe and Transformers. He continued to work on comics in recent years, including the series Hard Time with fellow St. Louisan Brian Hurtt, and was working on the miniseries Countdown To Mystery: Doctor Fate for DC Comics at the time of his death.

Further reading:

• Steve Gerber's archived blog
• A remembrance of Steve Gerber by the Comics Reporter's Tom Spurgeon
• A remembrance of Steve Gerber by longtime friend Mark Evanier
• Steve Gerber at Wikipedia
• Publishers Weekly's Heidi MacDonald remembers: part 1, part 2