Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Captain Carrot Checklist

First of all, I would like to wish everybody a Happy New Year from all of us here at the Burrow (meaning me). I hope everybody had a safe holiday season, and got lots of good stuff for Christmas.

Recently, I had somebody ask me for a list of ALL of Captain Carrot's appearances in the DC universe, like I'm some kind of Captain Carrot pro or something. Well, I'm pretty sure I managed to find them all. And I'm glad to say, I own ALL of these, with the exception of one book.

So let's get to it, shall we?

First up, we have New Teen Titans # 16,the FIRST APPEARANCE of Captain Carrot and the Zoo Crew. Guest-starring some Superman guy. Not sure what ever happened to him.


Next, we have the actual Captain Carrot and his Amazing Zoo Crew series, which only ran (sadly) for 20 issues starting in 1982. But what a fun 20 issues they were. And please note, if you're planning on grabbing the back issues, issue one continues where the 16-page preview in New Teen Titans left off. So you might want to make sure you read that book first.


After the main series was cancelled, the story continued in the 1986 3 issue mini-series, Captain Carrot and his Amazing Zoo Crew: The Oz/Wonderland War. Being a huge fan of L. Frank Baum's Oz books (and the rest of the Fabulous Forty), I was thrilled when this series first hit the shelves. It is absolutely a fantastic read. Each of the three issues are double-sized, as the story was originally intended to be a 6 issue mini. Check it out!


As far as I can tell, that was it for the good Captain for quite a few years, until 2000 when the gang made a brief one-page appearance in the Superman and Batman: World's Funnest graphic novel. (There's that Superman guy again. And Batman? Never heard of the loser. Sounds like a Bat-Mouse ripoff to me.) In this graphic novel, Bat-Mite (?) and Mr. Mxyzptlk have a big fight or something, which sends them bouncing all around the DC multiverse, where they bump into the Zoo Crew. This is the one appearance I don't have, so I could be mistaken about the details of the story. I know the Zoo Crew is in the book though; I've seen the page they're on.


Another few years of Carrotlessness follow, until Geoff Johns brought the Crew back in, quite appropriately, the 2003 run of Teen Titans. Our favorite heroes appear in issues 30 and 31 of that series, in what was supposed to be a darker look at the characters. The story is presented as a comic book that one of the Teen Titans characters is reading, so the Captain Carrot pages are sprinkled intermittently throughout the two issues. I don't want to spoil anything by going into more detail, but a lot of what happened in these two books was not well recieved by fans. But don't worry, it's all fixed by the time of the characters' next appearance.


Roll on 2007 and the 3 issue mini-series, Captain Carrot and the Final Ark. This was advertised as part of the Countdown to Final Crisis tie-in series, but to this day, nobody knows how or why. I'm pretty sure Scott Shaw himself has gone on record as not knowing how the two things tie together. I loved the book when I first read it, but that might have been Captain Carrot withdrawal at work. I still like it, but not as much as when it first came out. I think a large part of that has to do with was the way the series ended, and the fact that it has been pretty much the last appearance of the REAL Zoo Crew.


EXCEPT for this brief appearance. In Final Crisis #7, the Zoo Crew make their actual LAST appearance to date. As an afterthought. If you've read it, you'll know what I mean. The one good thing this issue accomplished is that it returned the Crew to the way they were before the ending of the Final Ark miniseries. Other than that, they're just...there. They don't do anything important, and they aren't even drawn well (no offense to the artist that issue, but you can tell the Zoo crew were just tossed in. The rest of the book is gorgeous). Like I said, an afterthought.


In my eyes, it wasn't a good ending for one of my favorite teams at DC. I liked some of the ideas Scott Shaw had for the continuing adventures of Captain Carrot and the Zoo Crew, that would have taken place after the Final Crisis series (If I can find the link to the interview where he goes into detail, I'll post it here). I would have been completely on board with his new story. Unfortunately, the head honchos at DC shot that idea out of the water without even giving it a chance. They must have had something better in mind for our favorite furry heroes.


Or not.

Well, there you have it, folks. The complete (as far as I know) checklist of Captain Carrot's appearances to date. If anybody knows of ANYTHING I've missed, PLEASE let me know, on here or over on the facebook page. I would love to find out that I'm wrong, and there is still something out there I wasn't aware of.

Now to go track down that elusive copy of World's Funnest, and stock up on Pepto Bismol for Captain Crotch's New 52 appearance in March.

9 comments:

  1. I'll have to check it to verify it, but I think Captain Carrot makes a brief appearance in JLA: World Without Grownups graphic novel...

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  2. Really? I'll have to look into that. Let me know what you find out, Marcus.

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  3. Looks like your are right about appearances. Here is another site for cross referencing.
    http://www.dcuwiki.net/w/Zoo_Crew_of_Earth-26_(52_Multiverse)_Chronology

    Also would be fun to find the old Wizard April Fools issue that claimed there was a Vertigo Captain Carrot miniseries on the horizon. I believe that was shortly before their appearance in the Geoff Johns Teen Titans series.

    The Irredeemable Shag

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  4. Damn, I hate when I'm right. Yeah, that's pretty much it.

    Shag, I will definitely have to try and track that down. I didn't even know about it.

    Marcus, Captain Carrot does indeed make an appearance in JLA: World Without Grownups, but it isn't actually the character himself. He's just a wooden standup leading into Bedlam. This is on page 82 of the book.

    Fastback also appears in a "poster" showing all of DC's Speed Force users in the Flash one-shot, Speed Force #1, an 80 page giant that came out in 1997 (?).

    It looks like I may have to do another checklist of cameo, not-actually-the-character or not-in-story appearances. hehe

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  5. Depending on how much you want to broaden the definition of an appearance, you've already noted that the constituent members and the Zoo Crew as a whole are all in the original "Who's Who", as you've mentioned in early posts. They've also appeared as licensed properties, such as on t-shirts, stuffed animals, posters, television characters on screens playing in the background of scenes, etc. The next level would be original art used in ads or other promotional copy (I'll leave that to any character's hard-core fans to determine if it has or hasn't been reproduced from covers or story art.) Finally there's parody and fan art. These are generally never considered, but I found three examples:

    OUTSIDERS #6(04/86)[Baxter series]-- a back-up story drawn by Jim Engel and reprinted in the non-Baxter ADVENTURES OF THE OUTSIDERS #44 (04/87)

    AMBUSH BUG NOTHING SPECIAL (09/92)-- they're probably in other Ambush Bug titles, too.

    USAGI YOJIMBO #100 (01/07)-- published by Dark Horse, this is a cartoon rabbit themed celebrity roast for Usagi.

    Somebody should also check the last arc of Morrison's run on ANIMAL MAN (#22-26). Mine are stowed away at the moment.

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  6. Sean, I have that WORLDS FUNNEST if you want a scan of the Captain Carrot page(s) just let me know. :-)

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  7. Hey Russell, thanks for the offer, but I actually just found a copy on ebay. It's on it's way to me right now. :)

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  8. Okay, no prob....always willing to help out a fellow Fire & Water blogger.

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  9. I checked Animal Man 22-26. No sign of CC and gang in any of those issues.

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