Captain Carrot And The Final Ark!

Captain Carrot and the Final Ark is Scott Shaw's attempt to revive the animal heroes he co-created with Roy Thomas many years before. His artwork is the highlight of this small collection and the main reason to get a copy. 

The little three-part story is an offshoot of the sprawling Countdown to Final Crisis series that ran for fifty issues (plus tie-ins) in 2007 and 2008. It was yet one more attempt by DC to try and make some sense of the universe which had been tampered with so many times before. This time the main architect was supposed to be Grant Morrison but things changed and altered and as it turned out little of Countdown lasted very long if at all. This is an old story at this point but there are spoilers ahead nonetheless. 

In the debut issue we are treated to an update on the doings of the Zoo Crew and learn that Alley-Cat-Abra had betrayed the team and in fact was accused of killing member Little Cheese. Little Cheese's spot on the roster is taken by American Eagle, a zealous patriot. The story opens in "Sandy Eggo, Califurnia" where the Crew are attending a comic convention. Shaw is in his element here and the in-jokes are fast and furious. They end up fighting an enemy dubbed "Salamandroid" who very strong and can emit fire. There is plenty of hijinks and dark plots but that all comes to a stop when the Crew are confronted with a larger and stronger Frogzilla. 

In the second installment the Crew spend most of their time battling Frogzilla with the help of  Alley-Cat-Abra who appears magically and explains it was her evil twin who did the crimes she was accused of. The Crew take back into the fold as they defeat Frogzill and head down into the depths of the ocean to confront the real enemy Starro the Conqueror. Also revealed is the nastiness of Rash Al Paca, who had been plotting with the corrupt President Beneduck Arnold. 

But it's too late to end the global warming which has caused waters to rise to massive flood levels and the animals of the planet are forced to enter Boa's Ark to save themselves. With the help of Justa' Lotta Animals from Earth C Minus the Zoo Crew fend off Starro and take the Ark into space where they encounter The New Dogs. But that is only a brief encounter and soon enough the Ark has landed on the main DCU Earth and the Crew as well as all the other talking animals have reverted to normal critters as you and I might find. The JLA is around to help and Zatanna takes the former Rodney Rabbit as part of her act. 

This is a hoot. Apparently Captain Carrot and the Zoo Crew do get back to some sense of normalcy (by their standards) as two them appear later in Final Crisis. It's all very confusing, but the story itself as drawn by Scott Shaw is pretty funny at times. 

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The DNAgents!

DNAgents is possibly the single neatest title for a comic book series I've ever seen. The vintage Indy series from Eclipse came onto the scene at a fertile time in the history of comics, a time when lots of things seemed possible.

Mark Evanier is one of those ubiquitous comic talents, who like his partner on the DNAgents Will Meugniot, actually works on cartoons most of the time. The team these two created echoed the success of Marvel's X-Men and DC's Teen Titans at a time when this kind of comic was its most successful. Even more potent than the backstory of mutants in the Marvel Universe, the DNAgents told the tale of manufactured humans in a corporate environment that seems very real.


Will Meugniot in fact might be the best "Good Girl Artist" in the comic world with the passing of Dave Stevens. Meugniot designed a timeless babe in Rainbow and from what I've seen of his recent artwork, he's not lost an ounce of skill in portraying beautiful women. Of note also is Al Gordon, the inker on this project who gives Meugniot's pencils a real gloss. Mark Evanier is best known I guess these days as a former Kirby associate and Keeper of the Kirby Flame, and as half of the Groo team. But when I think of him, I immediately think of the DNAgents.


I've bought the DNAgents four times. I got the series when it first appeared on the stands all those years ago. I later traded away all my Indy stuff, so about a decade ago I bought all the issues again from the back issue bins. Then I picked up a small reprint of the first six issues titled "Born Orphans". Now I've picked up the black and white reprint of all the Evanier and Meugniot matieral titled "DNAgents Industrial Strength Edition".

This phone book-style reprint offers up fourteen issues of action alongside lots of sketches and ads and whatnot done by Meugniot. In fact that seems to the focus of this volume, all the DNAgents material by Meugniot in one place. That makes it very desirable for me despite having the orignals.

If you've never read the DNAgents I heartily recommend them to one and all. They are to some extent a product of the 80's for sure, but the story is a highly emotional one, and very compelling and climaxes in perhaps the coolest crossover in comics history. But I'll likely have more to say on that later.

Meanwhile enjoy this very colorful and creative cover gallery.















And even after he quit drawing interiors for the comic, Meugniot continued to supply some covers for the run.





Some years later there was this one-shot from Antarctic Press.


And here are several oddities. The Comic Reader cover is apparently the first public appearance of the DNAgents.


This is a cool bust out cover.


And here's an eye-popping bit of original Meugniot art for some cover or other.


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