Part genius, part madman, Bob Burden has been captivating comic book audiences with his Flaming Carrot comics since they first appeared on the scene in the mid 80’s. Flaming Carrot is the thrilling tale of a mysterious unknown who decided to become a super hero after a night’s read of 5,000 comic books… which severely damaged his brain.
Against villains as vile as the Artless Dodger, Ali Baba and the 40 Housewives, The Puppet Monster Man and many more. Spewing forth nonsense and armed with a belt of useless trinkets and random playing cards, The Flaming Carrot wages a one man war against… random threats.
An almost immediate hit series, Bob Burden’s creation captures the zeal and energy of the independent comic book movement of the 80’s which included Dave Sim’s Cerebus, Eastman and Laird’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Stan Sakai’s Usagi Yojimbo.
Burden has almost always worked as both writer and artist, slaving over his drawings which have an eerie cut-out look to them, as if they were based on photographs. After moving his creation to Dark Horse Comics (shortly before the Mysterymen movie), he began collaborating with the most unlikely of mainstream artists on the Mysterymen Comics mini-series including Justice Society of America’s Stephen Sadowski.
It was after reading Mysterymen, unhindered by his trademark art, that I realized the intense and grim absurdity of Burden’s mind. Not to bring the room down or anything, but seeing Sadowski’s pencils on the story of the Discman changes the flavor entirely. The realistic and more commonly associated ’super-hero’ style brings a level of tragedy as the main character watches his life crumble around him as he obsesses over the power of the discs. I deeply enjoyed the series and heartily recommend it, but I shudder every time I think back on it.
A scant year ahead of the ‘comic book movie’ craze, the Mystery Men feature film was… somewhat lacking. Full of inspired acting from William H Macy as the Shoveler and less so from Janeane Garofalo, one-joke Paul Reubens and Ben Stiller, the film does feature some incredibly funny sequences. Eddie Izzard’s speechless Disco Boy character Tony P gets a laugh out of me every time.
Izzard’s Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace-inspired pool cue battle with The Shoveler to ‘A Fifth of Beethoven’ is one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen in any movie. Yet the film is so decidedly unfunny in large chunks that it is easily missed.
It’s a shame that the instead of telling an absurd tale of super heroics the film decided to rely more heavily on the ‘misfits do right’ story… complete with musical montage featuring Smash Mouth’s fizzle/hit ‘All Star.’The style of Burden’s writing was very off-center at its time but would appear at home with the humor of Fox’s The Family Guy if it were released now.
In his series, The Flaming Carrot hangs out playing strip poker games with sock puppets and sleazy women while aliens invade the planet or hops around drunk on his pogo stick ‘on patrol,’ leaving shattered shingles of the houses he’s leaped upon in his wake. A deranged and unhinged character in a deranged and dangerous world, The Flaming Carrot offers no real comfort that he’s at least ‘on our side,’ instead he casually dismisses global threats as unworthy of his time… unless he suddenly decides that they are in which he becomes gripped by a feverish rage.
As his mind jumps from one statement to the next, the logic of the comic itself also changes at a breakneck pace. Unlike anything, ahead of its time and more fun that sticking your head in a blender, The Flaming Carrot remains the funniest underground comic series published today.
Suggested reading/viewing:
Flaming Carrot Comics:Man of Mystery
Flaming Carrot: Fortune Favors the Bold
Flaming Carrot Comics:The Wild Shall Wild Remain
Sergio Aragones’ Groo: Library
Mystery Men
