Howard the Duck (1976) 9

Off-color jokes aside, today is International Beaver Day. To remember, we’re celebrating a duck.

April 7 has been earmarked International Beaver Day to honor Dorothy Richards, the Beaver Woman. For the uninformed, Richards studied beavers at Beaversprite Sanctuary in New York’s Adirondack Mountains for 50 years.

Howard the Duck (1976) 9

In the four-color world of six degrees of separation, the beaver and Howard the Duck are one shade away for our purposes.

Issue nine of Howard’s book is the culmination of the 1976 American National Election. The drake’s brief affiliation with his bid for the Presidency lasted through part of issue seven, the Howard the Duck Treasury Edition and issue eight before collapsing with issue nine.

Along the way, creator Steve Gerber envisioned a campaign outside comic books. A Howard the Duck for President pin and poster were both offered for postage and handling to readers. Howard even received several thousand write-in votes that November.

The short campaign trail was littered with naysayers and assassins. Howard’s affiliation with the All-Night Party, an independent group offering a choice other than Democrats or Republicans, ended in scandal.

Following the path of a doctored photo of he and human lady friend Bev Swisher sharing a bathtub, Howard found himself in Canada. The man behind the plot proved to be more of a cybernetic beaver calling himself Le Beaver.  Gerber trolled the depths of bad dreams for his origin, having Pierre Dentifris, the self-proclaimed Canada’s Only Super Patriot, attempt to dam Niagara Falls. U.S. bombers destroyed his plans and body, causing him to construct an exoskeleton of a beaver for himself.

In revenge, Dentifris masterminded Howard’s rise and fall as political candidate. While America waded through the wreckage of the election, Le Beaver would invade allowing Canada to no longer live in America’s shadow.

Since we’re still saluting the stars and stripes, his plan obviously failed.

Issue nine marks Le Beaver’s one and only appearance – to date. Howard continues to reside in the Marvel U, even making a cameo in 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy.

Anyway, back to International Beaver Day.

To commemorate, read up on semiaquatic rodents, visit a habitat or just dig this piece of Bronze Age hyperbole and show it the love it deserves.