DC Showcase Presents Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew

I had no idea this was coming out. I didn’t think it was ever, ever, ever coming out. I went into the local comic shop yesterday and almost shouted in surprise and delight when I saw it. Finding this was the biggest pick-me-up I could’ve asked for.

So, here are the basics: Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew was a DC Comics series that ran 20 issues between 1982 and 1983. It was created by Roy Thomas and Scott Shaw!, though there were plenty of guest creators. The stars included Captain Carrot, Pig-Iron, Alley-Kat-Abra, Fastback, Rubberduck, Yankee Poodle, and Little Cheese, all against villains like Dr. Hoot, Frogzilla, Armordillo, the Bunny from Beyond, the Timekeeper, the Wuz-Wolf, the Salamandroid, Cold Turkey, and many more — and they even teamed up with the JLA — the Justa Lotta Animals, from an alternate universe.

There’ve been plans for years to release the entire series in a giant Showcase volume, but there were some sort of copyright issues gumming up the entire thing, and I figured we’d never see the series in print again.

I’m unbelievably happy to have this book in my house.

Verdict: Thumbs up. I was just absolutely nuts for this series when I was a kid. I had almost every issue, barring the introductory insert in the old Teen Titans comic and the first issue of the “Oz-Wonderland War” miniseries. And I’d barely been able to read any of those comics in years — they were old and falling apart, so I could barely take them out of the longboxes without having more of the covers flake away.

But I’ve got them again! HUZZAH! I’ve been reading the heck out of these. I’d forgotten how much fun some of these stories were — and how weirdly sophisticated they were sometimes, especially for a funny-animal superhero comic.

The worst thing about this volume is the lack of color — but that’s a common element of all of these phone-book collections. And frankly, it’s a minor quibble, because GOOD GRAVY TRAIN, I am so glad to have these stories again!

If you love funny animals, superheroes, animal puns, crazy superheroes and villains, fun cartooning, and the occasional guest appearance by mainstream DC heroes and villains — all for just $20 — you should go pick this one up.

Time for one more check into our Holiday Gift Bag, with my gift recommendations for comics fans and non-comics fans alike. Today, we’re going with something I recommend every year: Marvel’s Essentials and DC’s Showcase Presents.

These are old favorites around here because they’re some of the best, easiest gifts you can get for someone who loves comics, especially older comics. They’re very thick collections of old, usually out-of-print comics — usually over 500 pages long, black and white printing, on inexpensive paper. They’re sometimes called “phone books,” ’cause they’re about as thick as a big city phone directory. DC and Marvel sell ‘em cheap, too — usually between $15-20 each. Yes, it’s just in black and white, no color, and the paper isn’t the best quality — but if they published these in color or on fancy paper, they couldn’t afford to make these so affordable, and that’s a trade-off you should feel pretty comfortable with.

These collections can be divided between early works, like the first appearances of Spider-Man, the Flash, the Fantastic Four, or the Legion of Super-Heroes, and rarities that haven’t previously been collected because they’re not in high demand, like Rip Hunter, the Rawhide Kid, the Losers, or X-Factor. There’s a huge variety of comics offered this way — superhero comics, war comics, Westerns, horror, sci-fi, fantasy, and more. You can even find a few romance collections out there now. You get major characters and minor ones, and some of the greatest artists and writers in comics history.

People are still looking for good gifts that won’t cost a fortune, and that makes these perfect — they’re extremely affordable, especially when you consider how much comics material is stuffed between the covers. And while Christmas is almost here, this is something you won’t have to put on special order — most comics shops and large bookstores are going to have quite a few of these on hand, so you can stop in, spend a little green, and walk off with an easy last-minute gift. Comics shops and bookstores don’t always have the older editions of these, so if a particular phone book was released more than a year or two ago, you may have to hit up the used bookstores. Still, I try to save this particular recommendation for late in the season every year — it’s a fast, easy gift that’ll go easy on your checkbook while still giving the comics fan on your list some classic stories they’d never get to read otherwise.

Marvel’s Essentials and DC’s Showcase Presents. Go pick some up.

And hey, looking for some of my older recommendations? Check out my archive of Holiday Gift Bag recommendations — there’s six years’ worth of ’em at this point!

Time for one final look into our Holiday Gift Bag, with my gift recommendations for comics fans and people who want to be comic fans. Today, we’re going with an old favorite around here: Marvel’s Essentials and DC’s Showcase Presents.

I recommended these every year, because they’re definitely some of the best, easiest gifts you can get for someone who loves comics. What are they? These are very thick collections of old comics — usually over 500 pages long, black and white printing, on inexpensive paper. They’re sometimes called “phone books,” ’cause they’re about as thick as a big city phone directory. DC and Marvel sell ‘em for cheap, too — usually between $15-20 each. Yes, it’s just in black and white, and the paper isn’t particularly fancy — but if they published these in color or on fancy paper, they couldn’t afford to make these so affordable, and that’s a trade-off you should feel pretty happy to make.

These collections can be divided between early works, like the first appearances of the Atom, Iron Man, the Teen Titans, or the Hulk, and rarities that haven’t previously been collected because they’re not in high demand, like Moon Knight, Metamorpho, Dazzler, or Adam Strange. There’s a huge variety of comics offered this way — superhero comics, war comics, Westerns, horror, sci-fi, fantasy, and more. You get major characters and minor characters, and some of the greatest artists and writers in comics history.

People are still looking for good gifts that won’t cost ‘em an arm and a leg, and that makes these just what the doctor ordered — they’re amazingly affordable, and they’re stuffed full of enough comics to keep any comics fan reading for weeks. And yeah, Christmas is almost here, but this is something you don’t have to put on special order — most comics shops and large bookstores are going to have a ton of these on hand, so you can stop in, spend a little cash, and walk off with an easy last-minute gift. It’s why I try to save this particular recommendation for late in the season every year — it’s a fast, easy gift that’ll go easy on your checking account while still giving the comics fan on your list some classic stories they’d never get to read otherwise.

Marvel’s Essentials and DC’s Showcase Presents. Go pick some up.

And hey, looking for some of my older recommendations? Just click on the button down at the bottom of this post that says “Holiday Gift Bag” — it’ll take you to all of my previous posts on this subject — that’s five years’ worth of gift recommendations at this point!

We have time for one more look into our Holiday Gift Bag, full of some of my recommendations for comics fans and people who want to be comic fans. Today, we’re going with an old favorite around here: Marvel’s Essentials and DC’s Showcase Presents.

I’ve recommended these every year, because they’re some of the very best, easiest gifts you can get for someone who loves comics. What are they? These are very thick collections of old comics — usually over 500 pages long, black and white printing, on inexpensive paper. They’re sometimes called “phone books,” ’cause they’re about as thick as a big city phone directory. They sell ‘em for cheap, too — between $15-20 each. Some people complain that the paper’s too cheap, or they want comics in color — but then they couldn’t afford to make these so affordable, and that’s a trade-off you should feel pretty comfortable making.

These collections can be divided between early works, like the first appearances of the Flash, Thor, the Justice League, or Spider-Man, and rarities that haven’t previously been collected because they’re not in high demand, like “Howard the Duck,” “Batgirl,” “Killraven,” or “The Metal Men.” There’s a huge variety of comics offered this way — superhero comics, war comics, Westerns, horror, sci-fi, fantasy, and more. You get major characters and minor characters, and some of the greatest artists and writers in comics history.

The economy is still weaker’n spit, and lots of folks are on the lookout for gifts that won’t cost ’em an arm and a leg. These are perfect for that — they’re amazingly affordable, and they’re stuffed full of enough comics to keep any comics fan happily reading for weeks. And you don’t even have to get these on special order — most comics shops and large bookstores are going to have a ton of these on hand, so you can stop in, shell out a little cash, and walk off with an easy last-minute stocking stuffer. The comics fan on your list gets some classic stories they’d never get to read otherwise, and you get a nice little break for your pocketbook, too.

Marvel’s Essentials and DC’s Showcase Presents. Go pick some up.

And hey, looking for some of my older recommendations? Just click on the button down at the bottom of this post that says “Holiday Gift Bag” — it’ll take you to all of my previous posts on this subject.

Time for one more look into our gift recommendations for comics fans and people who want to be comic fans. Today, we’re going with an old favorite around here…

Let’s talk about Marvel’s Essentials and DC’s Showcase Presents. I’ve recommended these every single year, because they’re some of the very best, easiest gifts you can get for someone who loves comics. What are they? These are very thick collections of old comics — usually over 500 pages long, black and white printing, on inexpensive paper. They sell ’em for cheap, too — between $15-20 each. That’s cheaper’n spit, man, especially for huge books like these.

These collections can be divided between early works, like the first appearances of Green Lantern, the Avengers, the Legion of Super-Heroes, or Spider-Man, and rarities that haven’t previously been collected because they’re not in high demand, like “Moon Knight,” “The Creeper,” “Dazzler,” or “Dial H for Hero.” There’s a huge variety of comics offered this way — superhero comics, war comics, Westerns, horror, sci-fi, fantasy, and more. You get major characters and minor characters, and some of the greatest artists and writers in comics history.

The economy is still pretty rotten, and lots of folks need to be able to get good gifts for not a lot of money. These are perfect for that — they’re amazingly affordable, and they’re stuffed full of enough comics to keep any fan reading along for weeks. You don’t even have to get these on special order — most comics shops and large bookstores are going to have a ton of these on hand, so you can stop in, shell out a little cash, and walk off with an easy last-minute stocking stuffer. The comics fan on your list gets some classic stories they’d never get to read otherwise, and you get a nice little break for your pocketbook, too.

Marvel’s Essentials and DC’s Showcase Presents. Go pick some up.

DC Showcase Presents Ambush Bug

I broke my personal rule designed to limit my comics spending when I saw this one in the store, partly because I was amazed that DC would put out a Showcase focusing on Ambush Bug, partly because Ambush Bug’s pseudo-adventures are very funny, and partly just because I’d always wanted my own copy of 1983’s DC Comics Presents #39, starring Superman, Ambush Bug, and the Legion of Substitute Heroes.

So what do we get here? We get Ambush Bug’s early appearances, when he was just a lunatic teleporter tormenting Superman, but these quickly give way to Keith Giffen’s wonderful and continuity-free Ambush Bug miniseries, specials, and stocking stuffers, with guest-starring roles for Cheeks the Toy Wonder, Jonni DC Continuity Cop, Argh!yle, Quantis the Koala Who Walks like a Man, Scabbard, Mitsu Bishi, the Ambush Bug from Japan, DC editor Julius Schwartz, and of course… DARKSEID.

There aren’t a whole lot of actual plotlines going on here — most of it is just an excuse for Giffen and his co-conspirators to write a bunch of funny gags about comics. They may not be in color, but this is gonna be the only place you’ll find all these old comics for so little dough.

Verdict: Thumbs up. I count 478 pages of classic Ambush Bug comics for less than 20 bucks. Go pick it up, dawg.

It’s time to start thinking about Christmas shopping, and that means it’s time for me to start recommending some stuff you can get for the comics fan on your gift list. We’re gonna start off with something I recommended last year — Marvel’s Essentials and DC’s Showcase Presents.

These are, without a doubt, the best bargains in comics, hands down. You get about 500 pages of comics, all for about $17. They’re often called “phonebooks,” ’cause that’s about how thick they are. They’re black-and-white, and the paper quality isn’t top-notch, but these are comics that are designed to be read, not just collected and stored away in mylar.

Even better, these collections can be divided between early works, like the first appearances of the Flash, the Punisher, Green Lantern, or the Fantastic Four, and rarities that haven’t previously been collected due to low demand, like “Tales of the Zombie,” “Enemy Ace,” “The Astonishing Ant-Man,” or “Aquaman.” The variety of comics offered in these is really astounding — you get superhero comics, war comics, Western comics, horror comics, sci-fi, fantasy, you name it. You get major characters and minor characters, and some of the greatest artists and writers in the biz. They don’t have many romance comics yet, but whenever some flunkie at Marvel remembers how many romance comics Stan Lee and Jack Kirby worked on back in the ’50s, we’ll probably get some collections of those, too.

Let’s face it, the economy is in the dumper, and folks are looking for good ways to trim down their holiday spending. These collections are perfect for that — they’re extremely affordable, and each one has more than enough reading to keep comics fans happily reading for weeks. The comics fan on your list gets some classic stories they’d never get to read otherwise, and you get a nice little break for your pocketbook, too.

Marvel’s Essentials and DC’s Showcase Presents. Go pick some up.

Let’s face it, economic conditions this holiday season are not all that great, and you may be thinking that these comic book anthologies that collect just 4-6 issues at a time are too expensive, at $20 or more a pop. But there are some bargain options out there for you.

 

Marvel calls them “Essential”; DC calls them “Showcase Presents.” In both cases, they’re very affordable collections of old comics. Price? About 17 bucks. What makes them such bargains? Well, they’ve got at least 500 pages of comics. And these are comics that have been out-of-print and unavailable for a long time. They come in two basic flavors — classic Golden and Silver Age stories of popular characters like Batman and the Hulk, and less-classic but still fun stories of more obscure cult favorites, like Killraven, the Haunted Tank, Hawkman, and Dazzler. You can get the original Stan Lee-Steve Ditko “Spider-Man” comics, those old Superman comics with Brainiac and Kandor, the first appearances of the Legion of Super-Heroes, old stories about Howard the Duck, the Man-Thing, Jonah Hex, the House of Mystery, and many, many more.

 

If there’s a downside, it’s that all the comics are in black-and-white, and the paper quality isn’t the greatest. It costs more to print comics in color, and more to use high-quality paper. But you’re still getting the original stories with the original art. It is a trade-off, but it’s a trade-off in the readers’ favor.

 

If you’ve got a comics fan on your list, consider picking them up a volume or two of these. They’ve got Madagascaran Metric Buttloads of classic old comics for a fraction of what you’d pay for the originals. It’s a gift for them, plus a gift for you at the same time.

 

Go pick some up.