Rushed Jobbers: CCAHAZC #17
Jul. 14th, 2024 08:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tcampbell1000 posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
scans_dailyA funny thing about Captain Carrot's cheeky approach is that it didn't try to be funny at the expense of superhero-action thrills. Even when fights were just a few pages long, the Zoo Crew faced worthy opponents and had to sweat for their victories. Sometimes it even looked like they might die!
Except for this issue. The three villains appearing in issue #17 have some fun character stuff going on, but in terms of their ability to threaten our heroes, well, uh, they earned some gold "You Tried" stickers.
Not sure if dissing your readership is the way to go here, Alley-Kat-Abra...
A lead-in story explains that Rubberduck (Byrd Rentals), Fastback (Timmy Joe Terrapin), and Pig-Iron have taken some time off, the first two to pursue their civilian careers, Pig-Iron just to chill out.
Byrd Rentals joins Fara Foxette and lots of other stars on the set of The Canine-Bull Run, a car-chase movie. Byrd's made some well-intentioned changes to how he approaches action scenes, since his Rubberduck powers make him far less at risk than any stunt performer. This has unforeseen consequences:
(How does Doc act as a stunt-beast for all these different species? He doesn't even look like Byrd, let alone Robert Redfox. Does he spend hours in makeup and prosthetics before he does a stunt? Or are Earth-C audiences just more forgiving about long shots and dramatic lighting?)
Doc is an inventive saboteur, but he isn't even a little bit prepared to deal with an actual superhero. Byrd's only real trouble is keeping his identity under wraps long enough to discover the source of the "accidents" and do this:
Art is by Stan Goldberg (pencils) with inks by Carol Lay. I gotta say, though, considering how different it looks from Goldberg's usual style on this series, Carol was probably more co-artist than embellisher. For further comparison, Carol got to do her own pencils on the series later on:
As Timmy Joe Terrapin, Fastback takes a job as a museum security guard, back in the days when museums didn't all have closed-circuit cameras running at all times, I assume...
The "statue" poses as multiple statues when Timmy Joe looks at him, then loots the museum whenever T.J.'s back is turned, like a Warner-Brothers cartoon version of those Weeping Angels from Doctor Who. Realizing he's been duped, Timmy Joe turns into Fastback, and...
"The World's Slowest Jackrabbit." There's a classic villain-making formula that goes, "invert a major trait about the hero." Luthor is brains to Superman's brawn, Joker is chaos to Batman's order. But that formula has its limits, know what I mean?
T.J. saves the statue from getting damaged, then...
Of course Timmy Joe gets fired, as usual, because nobody saw him stop the theft, just Fastback.
Another villain-making formula that Captain Carrot used a lot is "create a near-mirror of the hero with a few important differences." Sometimes the mirroring was super-powers only, like when Fastback faced a fellow speedster and Rubberduck fought an android that could change its skin's properties. Sometimes it got more psychological, like when Captain Carrot and Yankee Poodle fought villains whose careers were similar to theirs but marked by more bitterness. You see this sort of thing a lot in comics in general, and the MCU got some flak for leaning too hard on it.
This next story combines the two approaches, giving Pig-Iron an enemy with powers like his and a depressive psyche the total opposite of his. Right near where Pig-Iron is on vacation (because of course), Victor von Frankenswine's misguided descendant brings his monster back from the dead, The monster isn't happy--
--which seems pretty novel-accurate, even if his design is more movie-inspired.
Thing is, Frankenswine's monster may have been hot stuff in the 1800s, but he doesn't have the stamina to go three rounds with a modern superhero. Once P.I. realizes this, he starts trolling the poor monster harder than an obsessive Fortnite gamer:
The villagers aren't sure which pig-monster survived, but Pig-Iron's continued trolling soon removes any doubt.
Cripes, P.I., he just killed himself in front of you because he thought his life was meaningless, this is more brutal than what the narrator said at Swordsman's funeral:
Kidding aside, I don't think Pig-Iron wanted the monster to come to permanent harm. They just don't understand each other. The monster sees Pig-Iron and thinks, "He's a monster like me, so his life must be an unwanted burden just like mine is," when nothing could be further from the truth.
Fastback sequence is drawn by John Costanza, one of the series' frequent letterers. Pig-Iron and closing sequence are Rick Hoberg on pencils, Carol Lay on inks.
Everybody comes back home, just in time to ruin home for everybody:
This issue was a last-minute fill-in substitute: last issue's "next issue" box had announced that #17 would be a story bringing back fan-favorite villain Frogzilla. Fill-in issues, like fill-in artists, were a common delaying tactic in comics' Bronze Age, as art styles got more demanding and deadlines still needed to be met. An anthology fill-in issue like this could be a neat change of pace, and not necessarily any sign of trouble as long as the following issue brought things back on track.
Next issue: A set of three short fill-in stories! Wait, wasn't that this issue? Um...uh-oh.
Except for this issue. The three villains appearing in issue #17 have some fun character stuff going on, but in terms of their ability to threaten our heroes, well, uh, they earned some gold "You Tried" stickers.
Not sure if dissing your readership is the way to go here, Alley-Kat-Abra...
A lead-in story explains that Rubberduck (Byrd Rentals), Fastback (Timmy Joe Terrapin), and Pig-Iron have taken some time off, the first two to pursue their civilian careers, Pig-Iron just to chill out.
Byrd Rentals joins Fara Foxette and lots of other stars on the set of The Canine-Bull Run, a car-chase movie. Byrd's made some well-intentioned changes to how he approaches action scenes, since his Rubberduck powers make him far less at risk than any stunt performer. This has unforeseen consequences:
(How does Doc act as a stunt-beast for all these different species? He doesn't even look like Byrd, let alone Robert Redfox. Does he spend hours in makeup and prosthetics before he does a stunt? Or are Earth-C audiences just more forgiving about long shots and dramatic lighting?)
Doc is an inventive saboteur, but he isn't even a little bit prepared to deal with an actual superhero. Byrd's only real trouble is keeping his identity under wraps long enough to discover the source of the "accidents" and do this:
Art is by Stan Goldberg (pencils) with inks by Carol Lay. I gotta say, though, considering how different it looks from Goldberg's usual style on this series, Carol was probably more co-artist than embellisher. For further comparison, Carol got to do her own pencils on the series later on:
As Timmy Joe Terrapin, Fastback takes a job as a museum security guard, back in the days when museums didn't all have closed-circuit cameras running at all times, I assume...
The "statue" poses as multiple statues when Timmy Joe looks at him, then loots the museum whenever T.J.'s back is turned, like a Warner-Brothers cartoon version of those Weeping Angels from Doctor Who. Realizing he's been duped, Timmy Joe turns into Fastback, and...
"The World's Slowest Jackrabbit." There's a classic villain-making formula that goes, "invert a major trait about the hero." Luthor is brains to Superman's brawn, Joker is chaos to Batman's order. But that formula has its limits, know what I mean?
T.J. saves the statue from getting damaged, then...
Of course Timmy Joe gets fired, as usual, because nobody saw him stop the theft, just Fastback.
Another villain-making formula that Captain Carrot used a lot is "create a near-mirror of the hero with a few important differences." Sometimes the mirroring was super-powers only, like when Fastback faced a fellow speedster and Rubberduck fought an android that could change its skin's properties. Sometimes it got more psychological, like when Captain Carrot and Yankee Poodle fought villains whose careers were similar to theirs but marked by more bitterness. You see this sort of thing a lot in comics in general, and the MCU got some flak for leaning too hard on it.
This next story combines the two approaches, giving Pig-Iron an enemy with powers like his and a depressive psyche the total opposite of his. Right near where Pig-Iron is on vacation (because of course), Victor von Frankenswine's misguided descendant brings his monster back from the dead, The monster isn't happy--
--which seems pretty novel-accurate, even if his design is more movie-inspired.
Thing is, Frankenswine's monster may have been hot stuff in the 1800s, but he doesn't have the stamina to go three rounds with a modern superhero. Once P.I. realizes this, he starts trolling the poor monster harder than an obsessive Fortnite gamer:
The villagers aren't sure which pig-monster survived, but Pig-Iron's continued trolling soon removes any doubt.
Cripes, P.I., he just killed himself in front of you because he thought his life was meaningless, this is more brutal than what the narrator said at Swordsman's funeral:
Kidding aside, I don't think Pig-Iron wanted the monster to come to permanent harm. They just don't understand each other. The monster sees Pig-Iron and thinks, "He's a monster like me, so his life must be an unwanted burden just like mine is," when nothing could be further from the truth.
Fastback sequence is drawn by John Costanza, one of the series' frequent letterers. Pig-Iron and closing sequence are Rick Hoberg on pencils, Carol Lay on inks.
Everybody comes back home, just in time to ruin home for everybody:
This issue was a last-minute fill-in substitute: last issue's "next issue" box had announced that #17 would be a story bringing back fan-favorite villain Frogzilla. Fill-in issues, like fill-in artists, were a common delaying tactic in comics' Bronze Age, as art styles got more demanding and deadlines still needed to be met. An anthology fill-in issue like this could be a neat change of pace, and not necessarily any sign of trouble as long as the following issue brought things back on track.
Next issue: A set of three short fill-in stories! Wait, wasn't that this issue? Um...uh-oh.
no subject
Date: 2024-07-14 10:37 pm (UTC)Surely if he's the top stunt animal around, he'd be a bit more confident in his job security...
The light hearted wacky talking animal series, where one of the protagonists threatens to drop a villain to his death!
Foolish jackrabbit, pretending to be a statue and stuffing everything in a sack.
Should've just claimed he was there to take them to be restored.
Would've been able to walk right out the door with them no muss. Probably been able to get the guards to help him carry it to the van.
So Pig-Iron runs into the work of some... young Frakenswine?
Oh, sorry. "Fronken-schwon".
Though clearly he takes exception to the "we" part of "we belong dead".
(""We belong dead?" Where doeth it thay that?!")
... why did he even have that lever?
(yes i know it's a bride of frankenstein reference already)
Though I am wondering how much of a fill-in it counts as when there wasn't exactly much of an ongoing plot to begin with...
Wondering way too much, really.
no subject
Date: 2024-07-14 10:57 pm (UTC)You're totally right that Doc needs very little provocation to go to murder, and he doesn't even care that he's endangering Byrd's co-stars as well. Pick your explanation:
a) Well, even with this many panels per page, a seven-page story has to move things right along.
b) Doc is giving off a pretty menacing vibe right from his first panel (and he nearly runs over Fara on his way in), so maybe his was the kind of personality that didn't need a lot of coaxing to go psycho-killer.
c) He had a supervillain costume ready so probably he's been planning this lifestyle change for a while and this just accelerated the timetable. ;-)