The World of Killer Carroot (and YES... that's how its spelled) has been floating around in my brain and on every random scrap of paper since 1980.
Did you ever have that best friend who moved away? You know, that friend who you wrote lots of letters to. First the letters were one or two a week, and then within a year or so you had dwindled down to one every few months before they ended altogether. Well that's how Killer Carroot was born. Back in the days before eMail (circa 1980) my best friend moved away to Arizona. His name was Larry Hunt. Larry was a FANTASTIC artist. Even today, I can't hold a candle to the stuff this kid was drawing when he was only 13. Unlike most "pin pals" our letters were not so much as "written", rather they were drawn. We sent elaborate cartoons back and fourth to each other, without a "Dear Larry" to be found anywhere. In one of my early "letters" to Larry was a parody of Attack of the Killer Tomatoes with a Wizard of OZ kinda' twist. In this "letter", Larry was attacked by a roving band of 50 foot tall killer carrots. Which in turn were devoured by a pack of mutant rabbits. All of the 50 foot carrots were eaten except the smartest of the carrots which was the runt of the group (if you can call a 6 foot carrot a "runt") named Killer Carroot. All of this turned out to be a dream by the way, but none the less, Killer Carroot was born! (although if you ask Killer himself what his history is, he'll deny all knowledge of what I just wrote, and he'll probably tell you some long drawn out story about a CIA cover-up and phycotrophic dream manipulating drugs) Even though I first published Killer Carroot in local syndication between 1986 to 1989, the pressure of creating a daily cartoon strip was way more than I could handle as a University student with diverse interests. Soon Killer Carroot slipped into quite retirement... but still making the occasional appearance in one off panels and custom creations. Ten years after Killer Carroot had disappeared from the comic section of local newspapers, Killer Carroot was once again reborn in digital realm as very much a vanity project. Thus I created the first incarnation of KillerCarroot.com. There Killer and his pals romped and played on a far less hectic publication pace. Unfortunately at the time, thanks to some easily offended fundamentalist sticky butts who employed me back then (you know that thing they laughably call "my real job"), I was forced to shut down the website (apparently some of my cartoons are a bit off-colored, inappropriate, and offensive). Once again, Killer Carroot slipped away into the long winter of our discount tents. ;) Fast forward to today... Well those sticky butts are long gone, and 20+ years latter, I decided to bring the world of Killer Carroot back on-line. I really have no desire to jump back into the daily cartooning hell (hopefully you picked up on that earlier mention of a "real job"), but I know there are still a few Killer Carroot fans out there. Given that I am a lazy sod, I really have no desire to put a lot of work into updating the site beyond re-posting old cartoons and adding a few new ones. As such the quality of the digital conversions are all over the place. I like to think of it as digital nostalgia. I also have a Patreon page where you can be a bit more active in the creative process, and maybe donate to a good cause (The American Heart Association). If you get a chance, stop by and become a Patron, it might just be fun :) |