Greatest Hits

I wasn't too familiar with the Flaming Carrot before I ordered this but I took a shot. Funny,funny stuff. Few comics make me laugh out loud but this one did. Flaming Carrot and his superhero friends, the Mystery Men, are treated as "B" super heros in the world of comics. Anyone who is a fan of The Tick would get a hoot out of the Flaming Carrot.

What a magnificent collection this is. We've always known that FC was a small-town superhero, and now we get to see him at his most provincial: spring-cleaning his laundromat, winning a run-down beachfront burlesque joint in a card game with his cronies, taking it easy while the pot-roast cooks, hanging out with some of the other Mystery Men at a cheap motel happy hour!Burden's strengths lie in two things, I think, and these are the ablitity to produce the most blissfully, jaw-scratchingly random things without any particular explanation, and to make his characters just folks. After reading this collection, which is heavier on story than on Artless Dodger-style freakish Mysteryvillains (small-town evildoers), I feel a warm and abiding fondness for FC and the crew. They've always made me laugh, and now they make me want to bake them muffins.FC discusses Zamfir with strippers. Notes in a moment of reflection that there's no good reason for him to wear a tie. Captain Attack (a Mysteryman) reminisces about blowing up Miami land crabs when he was a boy. The Mystery Men split up for a night on the town: some go to watch a bowling tournament, the others end up at a too-mod bar. Mr. Furious gets drunk and cranky and throws an ashtray at the band. And then they all fight cloned Nazi boots. God, I love Bob.

Flaming Carrot is a rather tongue-in-cheek superhero, with an odd and surrealistic slant - hilarious but not too far out. He was one of the members of the Mystery Men, some members of which appeared in a recent movie but not Flaming Carrot. He fights villains like The Chair, whose only superpower is to turn into a chair, and the Melon Master who throws melons... There's a classic 50's and 60's style to the comic too.