anderswolleck

One might expect Bob Burden to have a giant orange head and flippers on his feet. But unlike his creation, the Flaming Carrot, Burden has a college education, isnt completely insane but he may have read almost as many comic books. Burden first created Flaming Carrot back in 1979 as a one off character but soon the Carrot had inserted himself into Burdens mind. Since then Burden has created dozens of Carrot stories across a few publishers. But now Burden is nestled in the warmth of Image Comics hearth, who just released Flaming Carrot Volume 1.

Buy Flaming Carrot Volume 1

Daniel Robert Epstein: I heard that you recently got out of the hospital. How are you doing?

Bob Burden: Im on the mend. Im doing quite well. But I go in next week for a final operation.

DRE: I read it might be from something you picked up in New Orleans.

Bob: There were all kinds of stories. Stories that I got some weird illness or food poisoning in New Orleans, stories that I got shot, that I was in a car accident. My favorite was that I was injured trying to do stunts I saw on Jackass.

The diagnosis was diverticulitis. They took a scan and they had to operate.

DRE: My dad just went for the same thing not too long ago so I know all about it.

Bob: It could happen to anybody. I was lucky. There wasnt any cancer. It was just a fluke.

DRE: I ask because Im going to New Orleans on Monday.

Bob: Dont worry, New Orleans had nothing to do with it.

DRE: So is New Orleans is fine?

Bob: Its still there. Theres still some damage and debris, but the city is getting back to normal. Its still a cool place and they have really good food down there. A lot of interesting people. Ive always loved New Orleans. Its a town with a lot of character.

Its probably as safe as its ever been. I would imagine that a lot of the criminal elements are spread out all over the country now.

DRE: So the first Flaming Carrot trade paperback just came out in 2006 from Image. What made you switch from Dark Horse to Image?

Bob: I didnt switch actually, its just that [Desperado Studios founder] Joe [Pruett] wanted to start a new company and he wanted to publish the Carrot. I talked to [publisher of Dark Horse Comics] Mike [Richardson] about it beforehand. I wanted my page rate, ya know, an advance against profits. But Mike was talking 100 a page and that wouldnt work for me.

DRE: Is that a normal rate?

Bob: There is no normal rate unless youre talking about Marvel or DC. For me it starts at $250 a page. Now heres the problem. Mike, and every other non-mainstream publisher, has got people who are working for 100 a page or for less up front, or whatever. So if I need 250, they dont remember that thats been my rate for 15 years, all they remember is how cheap the last guy did something for. It doesnt matter what numbers it did or how well it was written or drawn. Its all about price point. Now I say, why give up 50% of the back end profits for so little up front. I can publish it myself. Sure, my time is better spent writing than running a business, and sure a lot of artists could never conceive of going into publishing. They need a publisher to hold their hand. But I can publish if I want. Hell, I was publishing years before Dark Horse even started up.

DRE: So you will do a story for $250 a page.

Bob: And my writing rate was $100 a page.

DRE: So you would draw pages for $150 a page?

Bob: Not exactly. My own stories are easy to draw. Easy for me. But a badly written story would be more expensive to draw. Since its badly written, you would probably make less money on it than a well-written story.

DRE: Why is a badly written story harder to draw?

Bob: To get up every day and be looking at a drawing board with something on it thats a waste of your time, the readers time and a waste of the paper you print it on is like going to the dentist. You delay. You just cant get into it. It drags. With a good story, you get up in the morning, whistling, bristling and anxious to get in there and draw. A good story just goes ten times as fast. Its a joy to do, not a chore.

DRE: Would you rather write than draw?

Bob: About the same, but theres thousands of artists out there who can draw as good as me or a lot better. But how many good writers are there in comics? Ten or 15? Why should I waste my time drawing when I could be writing?

DRE: Will you be doing any more work for Dark Horse?

Bob: Im always there for Dark Horse. Ive been there 15 years, at their beck and call and maybe once or twice theyve hit on me for something. Actually they just recently tapped on me to do something for their 20th anniversary. I was going to draw Conan but then this stomach thing hit me and knocked me out of the picture. And right now, Im talking with an editor there about finally doing a Mystery Men collected volume.

DRE: The ones that came out in 99?

Bob: Yeah, they were never collected. For me its been kind of a mystery why. Also why were all the Flaming Carrot volumes put on hiatus years ago, when they were doing so well?

DRE: Is working with Image any different than working with Dark Horse?

Bob: Mostly its the same. I delivered finished projects and they print them. They both go over it and may spot a few typos or something like that but neither company was editorially directing the comic book in any way.

DRE: Does the Carrot like being at Image more?

Bob: I dont think he cares or even knows one way or another where hes at. Flaming Carrot is out there having adventures and probably doesnt even know whether the comic is on hiatus or not.

DRE: [laughs] How real is the character to you at this point?

Bob: I have to spoil it for you. Flaming Carrot is not real. Pure fiction. As much as it may spoil peoples image of me, I know that hes not real. There certainly must be some people out there that believe that The Carrot is a real live person existing out there somewhere in the wide, wild world. Some maybe even fantasize that they are him while daydreaming at work or at school.

DRE: I used to.

Bob: Right, youve definitely got people daydreaming at school or work fantasizing about being Spider-Man or Batman or Wolverine or whatever. I think it would be interesting to meet the character thats sitting in his office at work with the door locked tight and reading a Carrot comic and fantasizing about being the Carrot. Maybe some big Microsoft executive?

DRE: How easily does the Carrots dialogue come to you?

Bob: His retarded banter? It comes naturally. Its born and bred. But there must be a secret to it. Like I go into a trance, my eyes roll back in my head, I turn on a tape recorder and the dialogue comes out.

DRE: But you dont talk the way the Carrot does.

Bob: Because I went to college, maybe? Sometimes people expect me to be, in at least some small way, like my character. Actors get typecast and so can writers.

DRE: I interviewed Ben Edlund who created The Tick which I always felt had roots in your books. He said some interesting things like that The Tick was a mental plaything for him, do you feel similarly with The Carrot?

Bob: When I created Flaming Carrot, I was creating a throwaway character. I didnt think he would become a stock character or a prime character. But I found that you can just run with a disposable character. You can do whatever you want with him. Marvel and DC characters are so sacred that you have to play it safe and that means mediocrity. Though they are changing all that some lately.

DRE: How many issues of the Carrot do you do a year?

Bob: I did four or five issues in 2005 but this year Im pretty much working exclusively on Gumby. I would be doing some more Carrot but I had that operation.

DRE: Lets say youre at the drawing table and you do eight hours of Carrot in a row. Does your brain feel tired?

Bob: Not at all. Brain is strong but the back was a little fragile after all the years of sitting. But since Ive been taking this Hyaluronic Acid stuff from the health food store I feel like Im 21 again. The stories do not take that long to write. I often map out a Carrot story fairly quickly. Then Ill spend a day or two arranging, chopping it up and making it flow properly. I try to see that theres going to be some sort of a gag or a closure at the end of each page.

DRE: What comes first, the plot or the surrealism?

Bob: Either one can follow the other. I throw it all out there, spread it all out and go over it. Sometimes you have to pull out some really good surreal element if it doesnt fit into the story. The surrealism has to be integral and is balanced with the story. In other words if theyre just doing weird stuff like having 48 midget orchestra on a desert island when somebody washes up there and theres no correlation to the plot, then thats not surrealism. Its odd and peculiar but it isnt surrealism.

DRE: How do you define surrealism?

Bob: Sort of like when something becomes super real. In general surrealism is something that grabs you, stops you, arrests you and says Look at this. It pulls you out of the general tedium of the day and shoves you into a hypersensitive and aware state. Salvador Dalis pictures of giraffes in the desert with their manes burning is arresting or super real. But then so is Christina's World by [Andrew] Wyeth. It could be walking through the woods and out of the corner of your eye seeing a snake coiled and suddenly everything becomes focused and real. Youre no longer floating or thinking about what youre going to have for lunch or something. Youre focused and youre living a hundred percent in the moment.

DRE: Does putting your mind in that surrealistic mode ever make you want to just sit down and watch CNN at the end of the day?

Bob: No its not like that for me. But lately I do like to get away sometimes but not much over the last 20 years. The only think I watch regularly, its so stupid, so bourgeois, I almost always wind up watching the funny headlines on [The Tonight Show with] Jay Leno on Monday nights. Otherwise Im pretty much always floating around from one project to another like a mad scientist.

DRE: Why does the Carrot still appeal to you after all these years?

Bob: I can still pretty much do whatever I want with it. Im not good at faces. With the Carrot I dont have to keep drawing the characters face over and over again. Im not the kind of artist that does model sheets and draws the same character over and over and over again from different angles throughout a story. I have a cartoony style and theres a lot more leeway than if I drew realistically. Thats my biggest problem in this comic book business. Im a cartoon guy. If Im going to work on a serious story I have to have somebody else draw it for me. So all the stories that Ive drawn over the years have been humorous.

DRE: Do you watch any of these Adult Swim cartoons that are on now?

Bob: Yeah. They do a good job for the budgets they have.

DRE: Do you think of them as surreal or just weird?

Bob: A lot of that is surreal. Theyre doing some interesting stuff there. I bet they pay those kids almost nothing. Actually take that last part back, I dont know how much they pay them.

DRE: Dont worry, they pay them nothing.

Bob: Well its not for me to say. I imagine the producers are trying to show how tiny a budget they can get away with. But to me its wasting money. Theyre filling time. Theyre developing a cult audience, but the legs will be limited because they never wind up developing the characters or the story. Its all hit and run story telling. They do a very good job of grabbing a certain demographics attention and loyalty, but the one thing they dont have there is a story. On the one hand its brilliant and at the same time, to a large extent, its post-modern juvenile. They are like the 21st century version of drawing mustaches on movie posters and running away snickering.

DRE: So you wouldnt consider it straight up surreal?

Bob: No, its surreal. Adult Swim is one of the few things today holding up the banner. Yeah.

DRE: Is the Flaming Carrot still a true hero of the working class?

Bob: That was the original idea, the blue collar, working class superhero.

DRE: Are you still working class?

Bob: I work all the time. My class is still undetermined.

DRE: If Flaming Carrot is still working class. What does that make Gumby?

Bob: Gumby doesnt relate to class. Hes middle class, I guess. But primarily, Gumby is pre-adolescent, hes a kid. He embodies the essence of childhood. Gumby embodies nostalgia and that sense of wonder a child has. A sense of unbridled optimism and faith in the world before television and schools beat the soul down to obedience and a negative lack of optimism.

DRE: Who is putting out the Gumby comics?

Bob: Me and a guy named Mel Smith. The opportunity to license Gumby came along and we decided to partner up. He does the publisher thing and Im the writer and art director. But hes giving me a lot of input on the creative side and I wind up throwing my two-cents in on the business part.

DRE: How much is your Gumby comic in the spirit of the original Gumby?

Bob: Officially, were creating the comic book world of Gumby. Its all in the spirit and tone of what was done before. The original Gumby stories were clay animation shorts, very brief with not that much time to develop a complex plot. In the originals, Gumby was usually confronted with some problem, he solved it and that was the end of the story. With the comic series we have more room and have to develop the characters a little more. In the first story arc we have Gumby get his first crush. A new little girl moves in next door. That gives us the chance to introduce the audience to Gumbys home town as he shows her around, but then things get crazy when the kids free some mistreated clowns from the circus and go on a rampage.

DRE: It sounds like you have a lot of freedom with the new Gumby incarnation.

Bob: We do have freedom but weve still got to keep it wholesome. We cant have Gumby go nuts and start cutting peoples heads off. We cant have Gumby use bad words. I think a lot of the people that came to Gumby before us, tried to take it in that direction, deconstruct it like a Married With Children or Beavis and Butthead version of Gumby.

DRE: There used to be a time when Flaming Carrot was on the shelves alongside books like Reid Flemings Worlds Strongest Milkman, The Tick and Sam & Max. Was being weird in independent comics a trend that ended along with so many other books in the mid 90s?

Bob: I dont know how those things work as trends. I know that Peter Sellers is timeless for me but Monty Python, which I loved in my college days seems to have worn thin at times. Its funny how things change. Cerebus changed dramatically from what it was when it first started out.

DRE: Yeah it became a very complex book but it started as a satire of Conan.

Bob: and Flaming Carrot started out as a one-shot, one trick pony and just kept going all these years. For better or worse, I guess.

DRE: As Im sure you know, the Mystery Men movie has a very large cult following.

Bob: I guess they were tracking its cult status when they did that Who Wants To Be A Superhero TV show. To me, it really becomes a cult film when the Superstation has an all Mystery Men night. I think it would be great if they went ahead with that.

DRE: What did you think of the movie?

Bob: In the weeks before it premiered, we all thought it was going to do great. When youre in Hollywood and youre right in the middle of it all, it can be hard to see it clearly. I thought Mystery Men was about as good as an Adam Sandler or Will Ferrell movie. But I think that someone assumed that by putting Ben Stiller in there, it would be another Theres Something About Mary. When it didnt track like that towards the last few weeks, some of the key people began to distance themselves. I think everyone underestimated the competition. Blair Witch and The Sixth Sense opened that same weekend as Mystery Men.

In retrospect I think the movie could have done better with a little better luck. Sure, there were a few inherent problems with the internal logic of the film. I felt I could have solved some of these problems but nobody wanted to hear about it. I think they were pretty tired of mucking around with it and decided to just throw it out there and not worry about it. There comes a time when you have pull the trigger.

DRE: You havent done any Hollywood work since then. Do you not want to?

Bob: Ive been out there but nothing much you see, No big 60 million dollar movies yet. Im not as active out there since this Gumby thing or the operation hit. But I was before and will be again soon. We have had a few things optioned and had a few offers since the Mystery Men movie but no home runs yet.

DRE: Would you want to do a cartoon?

Bob: I would like to do an animated Mystery Men. But Dynamite Girl and Dynamite Girl are ready for animation. Dynamite Girl has got a lot of attention and actually almost got sold a couple of times. Both could be live action just as easily. Mullet Force 6 is sort of what the Mystery Man should have been. The team members have mediocre powers like the power to control furniture with his mind, one is a good guesser and they are real blue collar. Really, the blue-collar thing didnt come across in the Mystery Men movie.

DRE: Are Dynamite Girl and Mullet Force 6 anything but webpages at this point?

Bob: No but Mel and I are tossing around the idea of our new company launching some of these as comic books.

by Daniel Robert Epstein

SG Username: AndersWolleck