The quarter bins have been more than good to me over the years, but today we have a book I don't think I've
ever seen a copy of in the cheap bins! But there's probably a reason for that...From 1982,
Captain Carrot and his Amazing Zoo Crew! #7, "The Coming of Bow-Zar, the Barkbarian!" Written by Roy Thomas and Scott Shaw! Guest pencils by Stan Goldberg, inks by Frank C. (For Chiaramonte.)
1982 probably seems like two hundred years ago, if anyone reading this was even alive then, but back then DC also published sword-and-sorcery books, war titles, and one funny-animal number. This issue, the titular Captain--who here looks a
lot more like the Quik Bunny than Bugs, his likely inspiration--and his team are relocating from Piggsburgh to sunny Follywood. There are so many puns and misnomers in this book, fair warning. Two of the Crew, Yankee Poodle and Rubberduck lived out there prior to getting powers, and they were staying at Rubberduck's place: he had been an actor, and had a big house. He also had a houseguest, writer Ezra Hound, who had a problem that didn't seem like a problem: his books were selling too well! But he was getting tired of churning out "Bow-Zar the Barkbarian" yarns and wanted to go back to being a serious poet. Pig-Iron unsubtly suggests killing him off, then; but Ezra complains of nightmares where Bow-Zar was trying to kill him. Hey...wait a minute...
I'd seen that plot before, in 1987's
Conan Saga #7, reprinting "The Sword and the Sorcerers!" from 1970's
Chamber of Darkness #4, written by Roy Thomas, art by Barry Windsor-Smith! That was their test run before the launch of
Conan the Barbarian, featuring a writer having nightmares of his barbarian stories who decides to kill off his hero, only for the barbarian to show up in the here-and-now to defend himself! So this little funny animal-JLA versus knockoff-Conan story has a deeper pedigree than you would think!
I was mildly surprised when I looked up the cover for this issue, that there were newsstand and direct-market versions: I'd have guessed this sold OK on newsstands, but like the plague in the refined, 'mature-reader' comic shops. Too bad, they might have appreciated the reference! But that's why I figure I don't see it often in quarter-bins; as any copies probably would've had to come from collectors rather than backstock.
Hmmm, I wonder just how often Thomas knowingly plagiarized himself throughout his career.
ReplyDeleteI don't think comic book shops were the domain of 'mature readers' yet at that point (ah, the simulated nostalgia …). This is a good one though- it's a shame that funny animals have all but disappeared from non-Disney comics. I got the Showcase volume a few years back- a huge book but solid pretty much the entire way through. There were some surprisingly deep cuts (although maybe not, considering it's Roy Thomas).
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