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When most people think about "comic books," they think of Batman, Spider-Man, the X-Men, and hordes of other superheroes with a prominent place in pop culture. Many comics exist, however, that are not aimed at adolescent males, and feature a sense of style and sensibilities all their own. A great example of this largely ignored genre of comics is Flaming Carrot Comics.
The black and white comic is about Flaming Carrot, a superhero with no special powers who wears a giant carrot mask that is perpetually on fire (except when he's indoors). The Carrot also wears flippers instead of shoes, and if you asked him why, he would tell you, "in case I have to swim." As you can probably tell from that statement, Flaming Carrot is a few tacos short of a combination plate.
The Carrot's origin is equally odd. According to the comic, "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!" No explanation is given as to why he chose a giant carrot mask as his trademark, or why it is on fire.
Flaming Carrot's weapons of choice in the fight against crime are a pistol and a broken glass bottle. "Indomitable, intrepid, undaunted ... he rises boldly from all defeat, disgrace and disaster (even with blood coming out) to soundly throttle the curs, brigands, and balderdashers of today's thin world. He's your kind of hero!" reads the stirring biography seen in issue 25. Although most superheroes are concerned with the welfare of their enemies after they beat them, the Carrot would rather cause mass mayhem and bodily harm to those who oppose him. He once cut off a villain's finger and wore it on a string around his neck for the rest of the issue.
Although most superheroes have a civilian identity that they assume when not saving the world, Flaming Carrot is just Flaming Carrot. The Carrot almost never removes his carrot mask, leaving it on to eat, sleep, and yes, even have sex. When he does, on rare occasion, take off his mask, the scenes are always depicted in such a manner that the reader does not get to see his real face. Only Bob Burden, the comic's creator, knows the Carrot's true identity, and Burden's not talking.
Each issue involves the Carrot going on some sort of adventure. Some issues have a fairly dull plot; the Carrot spent one entire issue going to bars around the Palookaville district of Iron City (the Carrot's home town) picking up women, meeting friends, and having a good time in ways that only the Carrot can. Other stories involve the Carrot teaming up with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and stopping a band of rogue baseball umpires from taking over the Empire State Building, or saving the Earth from nine-foot swinger aliens bent on conquering the planet for its large amount of clubs and hot spots.
The Carrot likes to pal around with a group of quasi-superheroes like himself called the Mysterymen. Members of the Mysterymen go by such names as The Shoveler, Mr. Furious, Screwball, Bondo-Man, and Jumpin' Jehoshaphat. Flaming Carrot has a star-studded rogue's gallery of enemies as well, including such notables as The Poser, Don Wiskerando (and his dead dog), and the Artless Dodger. The Carrot and friends also routinely encounter zombies, vampires, and clones of Hitler's feet.
The Flaming Carrot debuted in 1979 in the pages of Visions #1, a very obscure anthology comic of which only a few copies exist today. After some initial fascination on the part of readers, the Carrot moved into his own book in 1981. Three publishers, 31 issues, and one annual later, the Flaming Carrot stands as one of the independent comic book community's most revered institutions. Flaming Carrot Comics is now published by Dark Horse Comics, and a new issue comes about about once per year. Dark Horse has also published trade paperback collections of the long out-of-print early issues, making it much easier to catch up on the many years of Carrot lore.