Saturday, February 9, 2013

Captain Carrot joins the Invasion! Sort of...

Earlier today, I posted a plea for help over on the Captain Carrot's Burrow facebook page, asking fans if they knew of a Captain Carrot strip that may or may not have appeared in DC's Invasion! Daily Planet Special Edition. I had remembered that a year or so back, over on the Comic Book Resources DC forums, somebody had mentioned the possibility of such a strip existing.



Well, I managed to find a copy of it online.

But first, a little backstory (although I'm sure it isn't necessary for any long-time readers of DC Comics.)

Invasion! was a three issue mini-series and crossover event that started in late 1988 and continued into early 1989. I remember it well. Even though I was pretty much only reading Marvel Comics by this point, I did actually pick up this mini, as well as a few of the tie-in issues. The reasons behind why I did, unfortunately, are lost to the sands of time.

Anyway, the series itself was plotted by Keith Giffen (Threshold, where Captain K'Rot is soon to make his debut) and scripted by the ever-awesome Bill Mantlo, in his first work for DC after a years-long career over at Marvel Comics. Come to think of it, being a huge fan of Mantlo's work on Marvel's Micronauts and ROM: Spaceknight series may actually have been what got me to pick up Invasion! in the first place. But like I said, the sands of time.

I don't want to get into too much detail about Invasion! itself, as that isn't the main focus of this article. If you would like to know more about it, you can follow this link to the Wikipedia page. Just clickety-click (Barba-trick) on Invasion! Wikipedia. Most, if not all, of the info on the wiki page is dead-on. At least as far as I can see.

Now that you've read all about the Invasion! crossover, you're almost ready for the Captain Carrot strip itself. As a special little extra to go with the main crossover, DC realeased the 16-page afore-mentioned Invasion! Daily Planet Special Edition. The cover boldly states "EARTH TO INVADERS: DROP DEAD!" and contains many fun Invasion! related articles, all written from an in-universe point of view. The Daily Planet released this Special Edition Friday, November 4, 1988, and there is even an editorial on Page 9 written by Perry White himself, and a Metro Report (on the same page) by Clark Kent, whoever that is.


Here's the cover:

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for, the Captain Carrot strip itself. Found on page 13 of the Special Edition, along with other such well-known strips as Out of the Tar Pits, Doonesfield and Baitman
(along with a couple of others, but I'm too lazy to type out the names), Captain Carrot is the second strip from the top. Without further adieu, here it is:


You may want to click on the image to make it a bit easier to read. I chuckled a little when I read it, but at the same time, I had been hoping for a Scott Shaw! piece.

Oh well, you can't win them all.

If anyone has any fun (or even not so fun) recollections of this crossover, feel free to share. I have to admit to not knowing if the Invasion! series was well recieved or not. Like I said, not much of a DCer at this point in time. Fill me in!



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