The series first appeared in Visions #1, a magazine-size comic book publication. Flaming Carrot chronicled "the further adventures of the strangest man alive".[1] Flaming Carrot is often noted for his distinctive exclamation "Ut!"[2] Flaming Carrot adventures have been published by Aardvark-Vanaheim, Renegade Press, Dark Horse Comics, and Image Comics, among others. He has guest-starred and made cameos in comics published by Fantagraphics, Mirage Studios, Atomeka Press, and others.
Concept and themes
The Flaming Carrot was in part inspired by the obscure Golden Age character The Fin.[2] Burden recounted "I took this particular idea and scratched it down one night when I came home about three o'clock in the morning. I'd been out on the town all night, and it was one of those nights when I came home tired and fell asleep with my clothes on".[2] When asked to explain the meaning of the character's catchphrase "Ut!", he stated:
I'll tell you who said it. At Shea Stadium, when the Beatles were all up there, and the fans were trying to rush the stage, and the police were trying to keep them behind the barricades, George Harrison points to one that gets through, and says, "Ut!" It's like oops! It's just a goofy thing that's kind of childlike and fun.[2]
Flaming Carrot Comics and Burden's spin-off Mysterymen project went on to forsake the elitist, perfection-oriented traditional superheroes with characters who were blue-collar, second-string, roughnecks and goofballs with mediocre powers: outcasts that couldn't make it into the major leagues but saved people, risked everything and fought evil.
Hailing from rust-belt mill towns and backwater boondocks of America, Flaming Carrot and his fellow Mysterymen were irreverent, carousing, hard-drinking, ruffians and rabble-rousers, hammering square pegs into round holes, dodging lawsuits, cutting up, skirting the thin line between good and evil and earning a hot meal, a refreshing cocktail and some romance now and then.
Burden commented that "our theme was do the best you can with what you got, never leave a pal behind, lost causes are sometimes the best ones and keep it fun. I'd say, Flaming Carrot was to the regular superheroes what Huckleberry Finn was to Tom Sawyer".
Publication history
The Flaming Carrot first appeared in Visions #1 (1979), a direct-market magazine[2] and in subsequent yearly issues that eventually became the program booklet of the Atlanta Fantasy Fair, with Flaming Carrot stories went on to appear in each yearly edition of the magazine through 1987. Bob Burden illustrated and wrote the book, with lettering by Roxanne Starr, who went on to be one of the first pioneers of computer lettering.[citation needed]
In 1981, Burden, under the company name Killian Barracks Press, self-published Flaming Carrot Comics #1, an oversized one-shot.[3] Four to eight-page Flaming Carrot stories appeared in each subsequent annual issue of Visions through #4 (1982), that last of which contained an apocryphal Flaming Carrot history that convinced Dave Sim, of the self-publishing company Aardvark-Vanaheim, to publish Flaming Carrot as a regular comic,[4] First, however, Sim included back-up stories of the Carrot in the pages of Aardvark-Vanaheim's Cerebus' #61–62 (cover-dated April–May 1984). The Carrot eventually guest starred in the series proper in Cerebus #104 (Nov. 1987).
In the meantime, Aardvark-Vanaheim had published Flaming Carrot #1-5 (May 1984 - Jan. 1985).[5] The company also published a 3-D special, A-V In 3-D #1 (Dec. 1984).
After Dave Sim and Deni Loubert, the couple behind Aardvark-Vanaheim, divorced, Loubert established Renegade Press to publish all of Aardvark-Vanaheim's former titles apart from Cerebus. Flaming Carrot was one of these, and remained with Renegade until the publisher went bankrupt in 1988. Renegade published issues #6-17 (March 1985 - July 1987).[6] Burden also published a short Flaming Carrot piece in the Fantagraphics anthology Anything Goes! (Oct. 1986).
After Renegade, Burden took Flaming Carrot to Dark Horse Comics, which published 14 more issues of Flaming Carrot, #18-31 (June 1988 to Oct. 1994).[7] Dark Horse also published Flaming Carrot stories in its anthology Dark Horse Presents #20 (Aug. 1988) and its annual anthology San Diego Comic Con Comics #1.
Following issue #31 in 1994, the character appeared only sporadically in one-shots over the next decade as Burden focused on writing stories for a number of new properties including a new Mysterymen comic series. In winter 1994, Bob Burden self-published Flaming Carrot Stories No. 1, referred to on the cover as a "Text Version of Future Issue". From 1997-1998, the company published four volumes of the Flaming Carrot Comics Collected Album, which was the first time the series had been reprinted, and the 64-page "Flaming Carrot Comics Annual No.1", featuring a new story. In 1999, Dark Horse published four issues of the spin-off series "Bob Burden's Original Mysterymen Comics", which did not feature the Flaming Carrot. In 2002, Dark Horse published the crossover special Flaming Carrot & Reid Fleming, World's Toughest Milkman, listed as Flaming Carrot Comics #32 in the indicia.
Flaming Carrot was relaunched in 2004 with Image Comics and Desperado Publishing. This series lasted two years, comprising four issues (simultaneously numbered #1-4, and #33-36).
The final appearance of Flaming Carrot was the 2006 Photo Comic Special #1 (#37), featuring "fumetti" style of storytelling using photographs instead of illustration, in conjunction with Sam Gaffin and his Killer Robots project.
Fictional character biography
The Flaming Carrot origin states that "having read 5,000 comics in a single sitting to win a bet, this poor man suffered brain damage and appeared directly thereafter as—the Flaming Carrot!".
Flaming Carrot's villains include the likes of the Artless Dodger, Don Wiskerando, The Bicycle Thief, Garbage Mouth, Mr. Chicken Pants, a giant spider with diapers on, and many others. The Carrot, who lives in Palookaville, a blue-collar district of rust-belt era Iron City,[9] has staved off at least three alien invasions, a Communist takeover of Iron City, flying dead dogs, the Man in the Moon, Death itself, and a cloned horde of evil marching Hitler's boots. Flaming Carrot even died in #6 by falling into a deep toxic waste pit in Palookaville, but was brought back from clinical death in #7, described his sojourn in Limbo in #8 and got back at those who sent him to Limbo in #9.
Flaming Carrot was also a founding member of the blue collar superhero group the Mystery Men, introduced in a flashback/dream sequence in Flaming Carrot Comics #16. The story of this group was later made into the 1999 film Mystery Men and a short-lived spin-off comic book series. The Flaming Carrot himself does not appear in the film, although a handful of characters like Mr. Furious, the Shoveler, and Dr. Heller do.
Powers and abilities
The Carrot wears a costume that consists of a giant carrot mask which extends from above his head to below his crotch, a white shirt, red pants, and flippers on his feet (in case he has to swim). The mask has a continually burning flame at the top and a secret compartment containing a nuclear-poweredpogo stick (the mask and the pogo stick were invented by Dr. Heller of the Mystery Men).[10] Flaming Carrot also wears a crime fighting utility belt which is filled with Silly Putty, rubber bands, laughing gas, random playing cards, sneezing powder, and other similarly frivolous items. Dr. Heller upgraded Flaming Carrot's equipment after bringing him back from the clinically dead. The Flaming Carrot also relies heavily on his 9mmRadom pistol to kill his enemies.
Flaming Carrot is able to go into a self-induced state of "Zen Stupidity" in order to face danger and evil boldly and without trepidation.[11]
Flaming Carrot’s unpredictable antics, irreverent humor, fantastic characters and surreal storylines engendered a cult following and legendary status that still exists to this day. Burden attributes his longevity and success to the storytelling more than anything else: "The stories seem, at first glance, non-linear and spontaneous, and in truth they start that way, but they are really linear. I always somehow manage to orchestrate a beginning, middle and end. I believe I was born a natural storyteller, but journalism school and the Robert McKee books and writing seminars didn't hurt at all. Studying is not about memorizing or mimicking the methods of others. When trying to mentor young, new artists, my main objective is to teach them to teach themselves, to also learn on their own and experiment, take risks... just use knowledge as a jumping off point for wisdom. And always remember, no matter how hard it seems, it's also got to be fun. Never lose sight of that".
Like the primitive, raw New Wave music of the early 80s spawned from the art-student/garage-band movement, the New Wave comics championed creativity over musical experience and expertise. Flaming Carrot was one of the founding elements of the New Wave in comics, where independent, self-published, outside-the-box, creators wrote books that rebooted, reformatted and revived the comics industry. Burden never went to art school or took lessons, but collected and studied original comic art and took tips and critiques from experienced comic and art mentors like Jim Steranko, Stanislav Szukalski and Steve Ditko.
Working outside of the company environment and skirting the creative hegemony of caution and apprehension that is born out of corporate liability and fear, the "Indi Comics" creators of the early 80s set a trend of more literary, more creative and more fun stories for the medium, with a fresh, novel approach to comics: one that brought in new, older and more diverse elements, and set new standards for the traditional, corporate elements of the comics industry to live up to.
The early, pioneering, and seminal New Wave/independent books like Cerebus The Aardvark and Flaming Carrot Comics served as "missing links" to the heritage of the then fading Underground comics. Books like Flaming Carrot carried on the explorations and off-the-wall forays of the preceding undergrounds, and revived the sense of freedom and creativity that the undergrounds had instigated.
Eventually, the comic revolution of the early 80s was absorbed and co-opted by the big companies and the mainstream comics industry, but not before giving inspiration to more commercial properties like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Spawn and The Crow, all of which crowned and validated the indie comics movement with mass-market success. In Burden's commentary: "Even Flaming Carrot succumbed to the pop comics frenzy with the 60 million-dollar spin-off Mystery Men movie from Universal. But walk down artist alley at any comic convention and there's a whole new generation of go-getters and story-tellers sharpening their pencils with a pocket knife, publishing their own short run books, having fun and ready to take on the world".
Cerebus is a comic book series, created by Canadian cartoonist Dave Sim, which ran from December 1977 until March 2004. The title character of the 300-issue series is an anthropomorphic aardvark who takes on a number of roles throughout the series—barbarian, prime minister, and Pope among them. The series stands out for its experimentation in form and content, and for the dexterity of its artwork, especially after background artist Gerhard joined with the 65th issue. As the series progressed, it increasingly became a platform for Sim's controversial beliefs.
Gerhard is the professional name of a Canadian artist known for the elaborately detailed background illustrations in the comics series Cerebus the Aardvark.
Dave Sim is a Canadian cartoonist and publisher, known for his comic book Cerebus, his artistic experimentation, his advocacy of self-publishing and creators' rights, and his controversial political and philosophical beliefs.
The Jack Kirby Comics Industry Awards were a set of awards for achievement in comic books, presented from 1985 to 1987. Voted on by comic-book professionals, the Kirby awards were the first such awards since the Shazam Awards ceased in 1975. Sponsored by Amazing Heroes magazine, and managed by Amazing Heroes managing editor Dave Olbrich, the Kirby Awards were named after the pioneering writer and artist Jack Kirby.
Evan Dorkin is an American comics artist and cartoonist. His best known works are the comic books Milk and Cheese and Dork. His comics often poke fun at fandom, even while making it clear that Dorkin is a fan himself.
Ms. Tree is a comic book series named for its lead character, co-created by writer Max Allan Collins and artist Terry Beatty. Her name is a paronomasia, or play on words, of the term "Mystery".
Jim Valentino is an American writer, penciler, editor and publisher of comic books, best known for his 1990–1992 work on Guardians of the Galaxy for Marvel Comics, and for co-founding Image Comics, a company publishing creator-owned comics.
Bob Burden is an American comic book artist and writer, best known as the creator of Flaming Carrot Comics and the Mystery Men.
David E. Boswell is a comic book writer and artist, illustrator, and photographer based in Vancouver, British Columbia who has worked in the comics industry. He is the creator of the series Reid Fleming, World's Toughest Milkman.
Aardvark-Vanaheim is a Canadian independent comic book publisher founded in 1977 by Dave Sim and Deni Loubert and is best known for publishing Sim's Cerebus.
Renegade Press was an American comic book company, founded by Canadian Deni Loubert, that operated from 1984 to 1988. Notable titles published by Renegade included Flaming Carrot, Ms. Tree, and normalman.
Journey: The Adventures of Wolverine MacAlistaire is an independent comic book created by William Messner-Loebs about Michigan frontier life in the 19th century. An ensemble piece, it tells the story of the Fort Miami settlement and the characters, both real and fictional, that occupy it. Among these is the title character, Joshua "Wolverine" MacAlistaire.
Neil the Horse is a comic book character created by Canadian cartoonist Katherine Collins in 1975. Neil is a happy, singing and dancing horse who likes bananas and milkshakes. Neil's adventures were syndicated in Canadian newspapers, published in a comic book series, and adapted for a radio musical.
normalman is a limited series of American comic books created by Jim Valentino. It began in November 1983 as a four-page story in Cerebus #56 before being launched as a full-color 12-issue series which was published by Aardvark-Vanaheim before moving to Renegade Press. There was also a crossover with Journey. The story of normalman concluded in normalman 3D Annual #1.
Denise "Deni" Loubert is a Canadian comics publisher, co-founder of Aardvark-Vanaheim, and founder of Renegade Press. She is the ex-wife of Dave Sim, with whom she founded Aardvark-Vanaheim and published Cerebus from issues #1 to #77 (1977–1985).
High Society is the second collected volume, and first volume-length story, of Canadian cartoonist Dave Sim's Cerebus comic book series. It focuses mainly on politics, including Cerebus's campaign for the office of Prime Minister, in the fictional city-state of Iest in Sim's world of Estarcion. It is generally considered the best book for beginning Cerebus readers to start reading, and has been called "one of the finest storylines of the 1980s". The story was published in individual issues from May 1981 to May 1983 (#50), with the collection published in 1986.
Church & State is the third novel in Canadian cartoonist Dave Sim's Cerebus comic book series. In it, Cerebus once again becomes Prime Minister, and eventually Pope. The story was published in individual issues from July 1983 to June 1988 (#111).
Cerebus phonebooks are the paperback collections that Dave Sim has collected his comic book series Cerebus in since 1986. They have come to be known as "phonebooks" as their thickness and paper stock resemble that of phone books. The format had a large influence on alternative comics publishing and was key in the move from the periodical-centric publishing style that was once dominant.
Beasts of Burden is a comic book series created by writer Evan Dorkin and artists Jill Thompson and Benjamin Dewey, and published by American company Dark Horse Comics. The title centers on an eponymous team of intelligent animals that investigate different paranormal events that occur in their small neighborhood of Burden Hill. The initial group consists of five dogs and a cat. They are often seen consulting with "Wise Dogs", local shamanic elders of their community.
Roxanne Starr is an American graphic designer and comic book letterer.
↑ "Flaming Carrot Bibliography". Flamingcarrot.com. Archived from the original on 2000-04-11. Retrieved 2011-07-18.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
Barr, Roger (n.d.). "You Too Can Be a Flaming Carrot!". I-Mockery.com. Archived from the original on June 29, 2011. Retrieved July 9, 2012. Instructions for making a Flaming Carrot costume
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