Flaming Carrot's Greatest Hits

by Bob Burden

Collects Flaming Carrot comics #12-18.

It's the twisted genius of Bob Burden unleashed! See Flaming Carrot answer domestic disturbance calls, feed ducks at the park, go shopping for knickers at the convenience store, play checkers at the barber shop, save an injured bumble-bee, and much, much more!

Thrill as Flaming Carrot leads the Mystery Men in an epic struggle to the death against ruthless Nazi boots! You truly haven't lived until you've experienced the adventures of the vegetable inferno for yourself!

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Fiction, Comic Book

232 pages, Paperback

First published April 8, 1998

About the author

Best known for his Flaming Carrot and Mystery Men creations.


Wrote numerous Gumby comics. Also, has a short story in Dark Love which was released in 1989.

Reviews

[D.M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A flying dead dog, giant monster invasion, superpowered bikini teens and the Mystery Men...it's all just another typical Flaming Carrot adventure. Burden's introduced a brilliant concept with the Mystery Men (in spite of the abortion that was the big-screen adaptation): a crew of not-quite-super heroes, with a penchant for destruction in the path of doing what seems right. The characters themselves are inspired, from Mr. Furious to The Shovel, from Bondo-Man (the man of living Bondo) to (Madman-prototype) Screwball. Great, twisted fun.
This book collects Flaming Carrots Comics issues 12 through 18, and includes a new 2-page Mystery Men comic piece, as well as a previously unpublished (and stranger than usual) Invincible Man & Nifty Boy comic tale. Dark Horse publisher Mike Richardson provides an introduction, pretty much about meeting Bob Burden (an account which may or may not be true).

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I feel good! Is a good day for killing monsters! ...Play bagpipes now!"

[Adam Oster · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although somehow taking a back seat to Burden's more popular creations, like the Mystery Men, The Flaming Carrot is, quite simply, pure irreverent brilliance. From the basic concept of a man who breaks his brain reading too many comic books in one sitting and decides to don a giant flaming carrot head while he fights 'crime', to the actual adventures this man goes on, there is very little about The Flaming Carrot to not love, unless, of course, you're hung up on traditional narrative styles.

Burden takes all the pieces of comic book tradition and turns them on their head by simply making his main character purely insane. He talks like Bizarro Superman (although probably making less sense), picks up women like old-school Batman, and seems to live the life of detective Archie.

And this collection does all of that justice, while truly highlighting the fantastic talent that Bob Burden truly is.

If you love comics and have never given The Flaming Carrot a try, I can't suggest you do so immediately enough.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ut! It's great to have the chance to read this wonderfully oddball series once again via this collection. Flaming Carrot Comics was one of the first comics to bridge the gap between the underground and the mainstream, and do it well. Carrot is the champion of the second tier working class superhero, as well as being a normal person driven insane by reading too many comic books in one sitting. This edition contains some of Carrot's best adventures, in my opinion, including the flying dead dog, the attack of the Nazi boots, and Uncle Billy's mail-order jungle girl. But the defining tale here is the one in which Carrot and his fellow Mystery Men paint the town red in a night of wanton debauchery and bar-hopping. Burden's humor is always off-kilter and a bit goofy, and his art is a mix of the golden-age and 1970s underground. Still as funny and original as it was twenty-five years ago. One of the greatest comics of the eighties, and well worth revisiting.

[Gina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Flaming Carrot is one of your odder superheroes, but I kind of like that about him. The setup and plots are fairly absurd, but it is not all lighthearted because you do have actual deaths, both of innocent bystanders and of the various threats, and in case of a beautiful jungle girl. Those monsters were cute, and I really thought they could just send them back through the portal, though I guess the comedic payoff was higher given the way it actually did go.

[J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

As the cover says: surreal. There's no other word to describe it. Halfway through, I almost gave up, but by the end, I'm starting to get into it. It's definitely of the rare genre funny-but-not-the-kind-that-makes-you-laugh.

[Ken French · Rating 4 out of 5]

I forgot how wonderfully skewed this comic was. I also never realized (until a friend pointed it out) that Flaming Carrot was the genesis of the movie Mystery Men.