Flaming Carrot Comics is a surrealist comic book by Bob Burden originally published by Aardvark-Vanaheim, then by Renegade Press and Dark Horse Comics between 1984 and 1993. The book has been relaunched in 2005 with Image Comics.

The title refers to the protagonist, The Flaming Carrot. The origins issue (issue 7) 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!". He wears a costume which consists of a giant carrot mask, which is continually aflame, a white shirt, and red pants. Also, he wears flippers on his feet (in case he has to swim). Most of his dialogue is disjointed, but sometimes thought provoking in a Zen Koan fashion.

Flaming Carrot can be seen as a parody of various aspects of the superhero genre (though his origin story is much the same as that of Don Quixote). He is portrayed as a womanizing, hard drinking, mentally unbalanced individual (calling to mind the gritty anti-heroes of the 1980s), whilst at the same time almost inexorably being on the side of The Establishment, with at least one instance of telling the audience to "avoid between meal snacks and brush after every meal" similar to the very clean cut, all American comic characters of the Golden Age. However, the series contains more depth than a superhero parody. Reflections on philosophy, the absence of meaning in modern life, why someone would choose the life of a superhero, and the effects of waking up from a night of heavy drinking with a speaker surgically implanted in your chest abound.

To date, Flaming Carrot has staved off at least three alien invasions, the Communists, flying dead dogs, the Man on the Moon, Death, and ninja clones of Hitler's feet. The Flaming Carrot lives in Iron City, and was a founding member of a superhero group called Mystery Men. The story of this group was later made into a movie. The movie used neither this character, nor the Strangler (whose super-power was his ability to strangle people).

External links

• Rotten Library Article on Flaming Carrot
• Bob Burden's Flaming Carrot homepage

Dark Horse titles | Image Comics titles