Writer Steve Gerber died Sunday night from complications caused by his long battle with pulmonary fibrosis. Steve was the creator of characters like "Howard The Duck" and "Omega the Destroyer", but more importantly, and maybe especially relevant in the wake of the WGA strike, he was an early combatant in the war over creator's rights. Gerber helped blazed the trail for better deals from the major comic book companies, and anyone who entered the field in the wake of those changes (like me) owes him a debt of gratitude.
Steve was working on DC's "Doctor Fate" right up to his death, and just like a true writer, he was blogging from his hospital bed last week. Tom Spurgeon has a lengthy and informative obituary up at his site:
http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/steve_gerber_1947_2008/
And Mark Evanier also has an excellent post at:
http://www.newsfromme.com
