Howard the Duck #19

From the moment your eyes hit this cover, the gag lands perfectly: the title has been revised mid-print, with "Duck" crossed out and "Human" scrawled in its place, announcing a very strange turn of events for Marvel's most existentially beleaguered waterfowl. Cover artists Gene Colan, Tom Palmer, and Joe Rubinstein stage the joke with real visual punch — a human figure in Howard's trademark hat, jacket, and tie strides forward against a blazing red background, while a giant duck-shaped shadow looms dramatically behind him. Steve Gerber's satirical streak is on full display in December 1977 with the subtitle "A Fowl No More!" — a pun so committed it practically demands you flip to the first page.