Set right after Howard releases himself from an insane asylum - with an assist from the demonic half of Damion Hellstrom's soul - and right before Dr. Bong bursts on the scene, Gerber and Mayerick put Howard and Beverly back in Cleveland, sharing a place with Bev's friend Paul and Winda, a girl Howard met in the asylum.
The three "hairless apes" return with some new furnishings, including a carpet. Which turns out to be a flying carpet that whisks the girls off to the isolationist city of Bagmom. Howard and Paul win a radio contest with the help of a smart-alecky magic lamp that nets them two tickets to that same city, and away they go. Bagmom turns out to be in a power struggle between the traditional, religious, isolationist sultan, and his Westernized son (who sold the carpet and the lamp as college furnishings he didn't want), who is making deals with Roxxon to get the country's oil.
Howard's mood swings wildly in this issue. He starts depressed, then blows up at Winda and Beverly when his coffee gets spilled. He's irate at the Roxxon guys for not being concerned the sultan has abducted two Americans, but is willing to humor the sultan when he's presented as one of the strange mysteries of the West that could be theirs, if only they play ball with the delightful Roxxon Corporation. When the prince escapes in a biplane with the girls as hostages, Howard is oddly willing to leap on a modified horsey-ride statue with wings and engage in air combat.
It's hard to really tell what's going on with him. It seems like he's still capable of rising to the occasion when an immediate problem presents itself, but he might be reaching his limit, hence the cycle of low points and explosions. Two issues after this in the monthly book, Gerber spends an entire issue having an existential crisis about the meaning of his work, portrayed through a series of conversations with Howard. So maybe they're both wondering what the heck they're doing.
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