Howard the Duck #20

Howard the Duck finds himself in a tight spot in this January 1978 Marvel gem, cornered against a brick wall by Sudd, the Scrubbing Bubble That Walks Like a Man — a foaming, sudsy menace threatening to scour our beleaguered waterfowl right off the face of the Earth. Gene Colan's cover pencils and Tom Palmer's inks deliver the scene with terrific energy, capturing Howard's wide-eyed alarm as clouds of bleach, borax, and heavy-duty enzymes billow toward him from the right. Only Steve Gerber's series could pit a sardonic duck against a household-cleaning villain with a straight face — and somehow make it genuinely compelling.