REID FLEMING/FLAMING CARROT CROSSOVER #1

By: Mike Whybark
Review Date: Monday, December 09, 2002

For years, the image of Bob Burden's vegetable crimefighter, FLAMING CARROT presided over the best booth at my local watering hole, the benighted Comet. Obscured once in a misguided attempt to rid the place of graffiti, he soon reappeared, freshly painted, to drink with new legions of the hip or poverty-stricken.

Finally, a few years ago in another regrettable effort to clean the place up, the booth itself was removed, and the Carrot was covered with a deep red coat of paint. I never knew if the mural was the work of the Carrot's creator or the work of an admirer; nonetheless, I can accurately state that I've gotten drunk with the FLAMING CARROT more times than I can count.

Imagine my happiness to discover that when Mr. Carrot left Seattle, it was in part to hang out with his brother in surrealism, REID FLEMING, and in this book at any rate, to wreak their particular brand of mayhem across the freeways and studios of metropolitan Los Angeles.

The plot in this one-shot crossover title is, well, a little strange. Our heroes, along with a little alien, are on a TV gameshow called "Celebrity Standoff," and not doing very well. Christopher Walken spends some time with the boys, who then get into one of LA's traffic snarls in a scene that culminates with rode rage of such proportion that the angered participants carry their cars across the roofs of the traffic.

Somewhere in here, following the Hollywood dictum "If it's funny, it will be funnier with a monkey," first laid down in Buster Keaton's immortal classic THE CAMERAMAN, our heroes acquire a monkey.


This sort of random, satirical silliness has been a feature of both the Milkman and the Carrot since day one, and bringing these two surreal tough guys together is such a natural that I can't help wondering if it's happened before - I couldn't find any mention of such a thing in my research, but it's clear that REID FLEMING and FLAMING CARROT go together like chocolate and peanut butter, or ketchup and fries, or possibly toothpaste and a toothbrush.

If you enjoy Bill Griffith's ZIPPY THE PINHEAD or chuckle yourself silly over superhero parodies in general but haven't ever picked up an issue of either REID FLEMING or FLAMING CARROT, by all means, have a drink, sit down. If you're familiar with the boys, come on in. If the idea of a mysterious Lassie-like vampire holding Los Angeles in the grip of terror brings a smile to you lips, step right this way.