TWO HERDS ARE BETTER THAN ONE! by Roy Thomas, writer
Last issue, under the perhaps-mistaken notion that someone out there might be taking notes, we covered the past history of so-called "funny-animal (hate that phrase) super-heroes," especially DC's Terrific Whatsit and the five-page chapter in ALL-STAR COMICS #30, 1946, in which the Golden-Age Flash cavorted through a world that could well be called "Earth-C," for "Earth-Cartoon."
This time, to bring things full circle, we figured we'd go into the specific genesis of CAPTAIN CARROT AND HIS AMAZING ZOO CREW!—which began, really, even before DC COMICS PRESENTS #34, which featured the return of Hoppy the Marvel Bunny.
I'd always liked to write odd variations on and parodies of the super-heroes who've intrigued me for a third of a century. In the early 1960's, I wrote (and even drew, if you can call it that) a takeoff on the Justice League called "The Bestest League of America," for Alter Ego, an early comics fanzine. No "funny-animals," exactly; the whole thing was done with humorous humans, influenced more by Harvey Kurtzman's great early MAD comics than anything else. But it's really only a hop, skip, and stumble from there to funny-animals. At the end of one 1964 Bestest League story, in fact, I even tossed in a panel of the characters of the legendary "Pogo" strip, arrayed in JLA costumes—my first published funny-animal super-heroes!
But it remained, all the same, for DC COMICS PRESENTS #34 to bring it all together—at least for me.
In the course of working on the plot of #34 with my friend and fellow DC writer Gerry Conway; we hit upon the idea of sticking in a single panel showing a funny-animal version of the JLA, called Just'a Lotta Animals. Its membership, designed by Gerry and myself (with two names added by my then-fiancee, now-wife Danette, just to keep the creative record straight), would consist of Super-Squirrel, Batmouse, Aquaduck, Wonder Wabbit, Green Lambkin, and the Crash—a turtle, what else?
Next thing we knew, DC's publisher Jenette Kahn and editorial director Joe Orlando had taken a liking to the idea; and, instead of that single panel, we were soon set with a monthly comic-book tentatively titled SUPER-SQUIRREL AND THE SUPER-ANIMAL SQUAD, with a lead-in in DC PRESENTS in which Superman would more or less "introduce" the characters in the course of sharing an adventure with them. This would get over, hopefully, Gerry's and my central point—that Earth-C is as real a world, to us, as Earth-One, Earth-Two, Earth-Shazam, or any other.
(And who's to say it isn't, anyway? How do we know that animators and cartoonists from George "Krazy Kat" Herriman through Walt Disney through Hanna-Barbera have not simply been drawing echoes of an alternate earth—just as, in DC mythology, writers like Gardner F. Fox were tuned into parallel worlds when they created the original Golden-Age super-heroes! A super-animal is, after all, only one step more absurd than a super-man. A big step, admittedly, but none the less....)
Anyway, Gerry and I, working closely with editor Dick Giordano, soon lined up our friend and veteran TV animator Scott Shaw—himself likewise a fan of Kurtzman's MAD and of action-oriented super-hero comics as well as the funny stuff, an important point for us!—to design the characters with us.
Then things got weird.
First DC discovered that, because of licensing agreements on such as Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, we'd probably never be able to license Super-Squirrel and his pals to TV, movies, or whatever.
Thus, Gerry and I got to do what, in many ways, we would have sooner done anyway: namely, create a whole new group of characters, who would owe no specific debts to any already-existing heroes. This would give us more freedom in the long run, and the prospect started our creative juices flowing (though whether it's nectar or sap which flowed is for hundreds of thousands of comics fans to decide, not us).
Over the next few weeks, Captain Carrot was born—with powers much different from those of Super-Squirrel, who had been merely Superman with a bushy tail, intriguing as the idea was to us. And so were Fastback, Alley-Kat Abra, Yankee Poodle, and Rubberduck. Scott Shaw suggested a character called Pig-Iron as a potential villain—and Gerry and Dick and I liked the concept so much we shoehorned him into the group as a sixth member, where we'd previously intended to have only five.
Since then, things have flowed fairly smoothly, with one little problem: Due to the problems of switching over from animation work to drawing a monthly comic-book, Scott Shaw was unable to draw both the first two regular issues by the date they were needed, so veteran illustrator Alfredo Alcala, a neighbor of ours in L.A., volunteered to step in and pencil this issue. Hopefully, the script and Bob Smith's imaginative inking and embellishing have tied things together.
Next issue, Scott will be back—and so will I, since Gerry's busy with other projects and anyway we'd already decided that, though he and I would confer on the stories, I'd do the actual scripting—as the mysterious group called A.C.R.O.S.T.I.C. tackles the entire Zoo Crew.
Oh, and about that name: We had a heck of a time coming up with a title for the group, we may as well admit it. JUST'A LOTTA ANIMALS became, of course, the super-group drawn by Captain Carrot himself, in his identity of Roger Rabbit, bunny cartoonist/writer... perhaps a first of sorts, but we'll leave that to others to sort out. So we needed a name, and we wracked our collective brains for literally weeks.
Then, at an editorial conference in New York, someone—Jenette Kahn would have to tell you who, 'cause I dunno—suggested the name "Zoo Crew." Jenette loved it; Joe loved it. Dick called me about it, and I loved it. So the book, at last, had a title—CAPTAIN CARROT AND HIS AMAZING ZOO CREW! (Complete with that wonderful exclamation point, an addition of editor Giordano's.) Whew!
One final note: I have just applied, under California law, to change the license plate on my Firebird to "ZOO CREW."
Wouldn't it be weird if somebody's already used it?
Letters we want—all 26 of 'em, in any order you want, preferably in an envelope, making some sort of literary sense. Send 'em to: CAPTAIN CARROT, c/o DC Comics, Inc., 75 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10019.
Need we add—send 'em by hare mail?
Hey, Roy—Hunted up (Whoops! Wrong expression!) Ah, tracked down (Uh-oh, there I go again!) Anyway, Andy Helfer, special projects editor here at the office came up with "AND HIS AMAZING ZOO CREW")—Dave
All characters, insignias, and images are Copyright 2006 DC Comics. I make no claim whatsoever on these copyrighted characters, and these annotations are done purely for fun, for no profit whatsoever.The annotations, however, are mine and mine alone. This means that permission is required in order to reproduce, in full or in part, any part of these annotations.
