Lea Thompson Appearing As Herself In Howard The Duck Comic Book
30 years on from appearing as new wave rocker Beverly Switzler in the mother of all box office flops, Lea Thompson has at last returned to the world of ‘Howard the Duck’ - in comic book form.
Thompson has granted permission for her likeness to be used in the new issue of Marvel’s ‘Howard the Duck’ comic, out this coming week - and rather than appearing as Beverly, Thompson this time meets Howard as herself.
The comic book centres on the anthropomorphic duck from another world as a private eye in Marvel’s New York (one of many aspects of the character which was left out of the notorious 1986 movie), and - as The Hollywood Reporter revealed earlier this week - the actress is to become Howard’s latest client.
And just to make things that bit more meta, Thompson having appeared in the ‘Howard the Duck’ movie (from director Willard Hyuck and producer George Lucas) reportedly comes into play in the story.
Writer Chip Zdarsky tells THR, “We started planning this over a year ago, and a lot of the current storyline has been building toward this appearance, so it makes sense in-story and isn’t just a stunt.”
Zdarsky and artist Joe Quinones (pictured above with Thompson) have been on board ‘Howard the Duck’ since Marvel relaunched the title in March 2015, capitalising on the character’s renewed popularity following his very brief post-credits cameo in ‘Guardians of the Galaxy.’
Discussing her illustrated appearance with Comic Book Resources, Thompson says she was on board right away - and insists she’s not ashamed of the infamous critical and commercial disaster.
“… for years and years, I’ve been bullied about doing “Howard the Duck.” So people are always like, “I hate to ask you …” and I’m like not the kind of person to shrink away. If I did it, I own it.
“It’s just really fun to see people having fun celebrating “Howard the Duck” in all its great silliness and blemishes.”
Still, Thompson admits she hasn’t yet seen the comic, and doesn’t know what her storyline entails:
“I don’t even know… I just said that they could use me, and I took a couple pictures. I met the artist at [Wizard World] Comic Con in Philly this weekend, and so I took a couple pictures for him in different poses. So I hope he would make me look like me.
“So I may be as surprised as you are when you read it. I hope they don’t do something mean to me. I said, “Please! I mean, I’m donating my time and my likeness, so do something nice for me.”
Even so, as she will be forever remembered for having shot a scene in bed with a duck which she remains unembarrassed about, it’s hard to imagine the new ‘Howard the Duck’ comic would do anything liable to leave Thompson too red-faced.
Not so for everyone though, as Thompson notes her own daughters have never seen the film in its entirety: “After the love scene with the duck, they turned it off. They will not turn it back on.”
Picture Credit: Universal, Marvel
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