Howard the Duck #8 (1977)

Leaving Dr. Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum, Howard and Beverly soon find themselves the target of every hired assassin representing interest groups that seek to kill Howard and ruin the All-Night Parties bid for presidency. After a few botches attempts due to assassin incompetence, Howard and Beverly are rescued by Dreyfus who drives them to the All-Night Party campaign headquarters. There, Howard becomes privy to the advertising campaign that is being initiated by G.Q. Studley, who wants to reinvent Howard's image and come up with the best P.R. possible. While they are giving Howard a more friendly look, Studley explains to Beverly that Howard is popular enough to warrant the most targeted candidate for assassination above Gerald Ford or Jimmy Carter. However, when Howard rejects his new look, he fires the P.R. campaign and hires one at random out of the phone book: Mad Genius Associates. Afterward, Howard makes a number of media worthy stories, dumping unrecyclable junk at the door step of the corporation that made them, having parents ride the bus to school with their children, and unveiling his strategy for allowing the military to buy new, more powerful weapons by having the soldiers live in caves. After a flurry of media attention the polls show that 48% of the population wants Howard dead, 30% will vote for him and 22% are undecided. As Beverly spends a night alone in Central Park wondering what she's getting herself into, she is startled by the hotel bellhop, who -- after Beverly leaves -- strangles a duck to death. Later, being visited by various lobbyists at Dreyfus Gultch's estate, Howard turns away all their gifts for allowing their interests influence the government should Howard be voted in. Later, Howard addresses the nation and talks about an open debate over Vietnam, his opinion on political scandals, and on violence in entertainment before Beverly ends the conference. After the conference, Howard is attacked by assassins backing the consumer, automobile and oil industries, narrowly escaping death each time. Returning to the hotel, Dreyfus shows them the front page headline, which features a doctored photo of Howard and Beverly in the bath together.