What Do You Get When You Crossover A Duck With A
Squirrel? Big Laughs!
By: Agent Darryl, We Got The Geek
It started out simply enough, as every fantasy comic-book hero crossover does:
Who’d win in a fight?
In this case, the question was posed last year in the letters page of the very first
issue of ‘The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl’ by ‘Sex Criminals’ co-creator Chip
Zdarsky. The contenders in this battle? Squirrel Girl’s staunch ally and best
squirrel-friend, Tippy-Toe versus Howard, a completely sane, talking duck just
trying to make his way in a completely insane universe that conspires to threaten
his continuing existence on a constant basis.
Q: Who would win in a fight, Tippy-Toe the Squirrel or
Howard the Duck? – Chip Z.
A few months later saw the launch of Howard’s first regular comic series since
the mid-80s, scripted by none other than Chip Zdarsky himself. At the time,
though, Chip wasn’t certain his stint on the title would last long enough to see this
fantasy animal scrap come to fruition. While promoting the first issue of Howard
in the spring of 2015, he shared the early details of the dream crossover between
water fowl and tree rodent. “I’ve been talking to Ryan North [the writer of The
Unbeatable Squirrel Girl], whose one of my best friends. We’ve known each other
for years and so, it’s funny that we both ended up in this situation where we’re
like, ‘Wait . . . you’re writing the squirrel comic . . . and I’m writing the duck
comic? How did that happen!?’ But then, we get together for lunch and talk and
stuff and it turns out [Joe Quinones] the artist on my book is also really good
friends with [Erica Henderson] the artist on his book. So Joe emailed me, ‘You
know, I’m really good friends with Erica and we’d love to do some sort of
crossover. I don’t know if you guys ever talk about it . . .’ And I’m like, ‘We talk
about it all the time! It’s crazy!’
So there it was, two writers and two artists on two different Marvel titles
conspiring to bring two of the most off-beat, unusual and diametrically opposed
characters together in a crossover nobody knew they needed in their life until
now. But not only were they planning on simply connecting stories between the
two titles, it turns out the lines of destiny between these two kooky characters
and their creative teams would reach much deeper than that.
‘Wait . . . you’re writing the squirrel comic . . . and I’m
writing the duck comic? How did that happen!?’
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