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Monday, February 17, 2014

Gumby Summer Fun Special by Art Adams and Bob Burden

In the mid 80's, Gumby the little green boy of clay, was hot and Comico the comic company decided that they wanted to put out his comic. What resulted was a little Copper Age gem.

They hired Bob Burden the creator of the surreal superhero Flaming Carrot to write it and Art Adams who was a young new hot shot to draw it. 
Bob Burden had gotten his start in the early 80's on his wonderfully bizarre Flaming Carrot Comics,  a surreal comic about a guy who reads 2 thousand comics in one sitting only to come out as the Flaming Carrot.
Art Adams got his start drawing the mini series Longshot for Marvel Comics in the mid 80's. He quickly became a fan favorite and went on to prestigious work like the X_Man annual #9.
He was so well respected at the time that of all the artist in the industry, they hired him to do the cover of the fund raiser book, Heroes for Hope, a book who's proceeds would go to famine relief in Africa. And rightly so. He did a stunning job here.
So in 1987 when both of these creators were hot, Comico hired them to work on a Gumby one shot, Bob
as the writer and Art as the artist with stunning results. Check out this excerpt from it.
 One of the things that makes Bob Burden's story so much fun is that, while he has this wonderful sense of  childhood with the "kicking the can" scene, he doesn't shy away from the more adult themes of depression, and even has fun with it. You get the sense that anything could happen on the next page in this whimsical tale. And with Art Adams drawings, it's a tantalizing visual feast as well.



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