A team-up for the ages! The Flaming Carrot, the oddball surreal superhero, joining forces with Herbie Popnecker, the star of an equally-strange comic book series from the 1960s! If I recall correctly, Carrot creator Bob Burden had actually sought out Herbie’s creator, Ogden Whitney, for an artistic collaboration but Mr. Whitney had unfortunately passed away in the 1970s. Burden is more than up to the task of presenting the inherent weirdness of Herbie, however. FUN MIKE FACT: the Flaming Carrot’s secret identity is a long-standing mystery, and I was half-convinced that the Flaming Carrot was, in fact, a grown-up Herbie. One would think this particular issue would have put that theory to rest, but frankly, given the sorts of adventures both characters were involved in, that still isn’t a deal-breaker!

A classic example of the “villain as hero” comic book series, The Joker had a short but memorable run in the 1970s. Because he was the villain, despite being the star of the book he usually met with a Comics Code Authority-mandated defeat at the end of each issue. However, plenty of guest-stars, heroes and villains, popped up in the comic, including Superman’s nemesis Lex Luthor, the Creeper, Catwoman, and, as in the issue pictured above, Sherlock Holmes! Okay, in the story it was an actor playing Sherlock Holmes, but close enough! An oddball classic by Denny O’Neil, Irv Novick and Tex Blaisdell!

This issue from DC Comics’ short-lived adaptation of the popular 1970s sitcom, illustrated by Ric Estrada and Bob Oksner, was written by Mark Evanier, now known for his collaboration with Sergio Aragones on Groo the Wanderer and his work on various iterations of the Garfield cartoon. However, he had also worked on the actual Welcome Back, Kotter TV show as an editor and writer, making him quite ideal for this particular assignment!