Bob Burden is best known for Flaming Carrot, Gumby and The Mystery Men, the latter inspiring the movie starring Ben Stiller and William H. Macy.

But now he's going back to the very beginning.

Thrilling Visions 2 Sketchbook shows the Flaming Carrot's early years in sketch form as well as early art and experimental drawings. I really love Bob's work and some of this is some of his best. Seriously, look at the image above from the seventies, aren't you already playing the scene out in your head?

If you meet Bob Burden he seems quite normal. After you've read his books, you're under a totally different impression. He could be a founding member of the Illuminati, alive today through transfusions of vampire blood. He could be the party animal, that, after eight Bloody Marys, reaches up into the midnight sky and grabs the moon down. He could be "the man who proved the earth was flat".

Like fellow surrealist Federico Fellini, Burden started out his career as a cartoonist. Burden produced both single panel caption cartoons and continuity strips. Much of his really interesting, early stuff was odd and quirky single panel cartoons with strange, striking captions, or cover mock-ups. And this will all be showcased in his new Art-Book, THRILLING VISIONS, Vol. 2 – PANDEMONIUM BOULEVARD!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFW39oawrSc[/youtube]

In general, these early cartoons were very similar to – or in the same vein as – Kliban's work (NEVER EAT ANYTHING BIGGER THAN YOUR HEAD, etc.) or that of Gary Larson (FAR SIDE), only rendered in a more realistic, quirky and often disturbing style.

Lucky for us, Bob Burden went on to do his iconic and seminal Indy comic series FLAMING CARROT (instead of going the Gary Larson route, and making millions of dollars as a syndicated cartoonist).

Now he is sharing it all. THRILLING VISIONS Vol. 2 – PANDEMONIUM BLVD. is a treasure trove of surreal cartoons, early concept sketches, recollections on a life as a surrealist, and even the origins of the Flaming Carrot. And all the other bizarre, deranged and utterly wonderful no-Carrots things he was working on at the same time.

So this series, this new book, 250 pages – what's in it? Bob told us:

This will have early stuff, and drawings all the way up to this decade. The first volume was a start and this will round it out. There'll be never before new characters and comic ideas, a lot of surreal drawings, some hot chicks – I love drawing the female form – and a lot of wild stuff…

The cover is by Dave Stevens… and you. How did that happen?

The details are in the book but Dave grabbed a drawing I had been working on – we were sitting in the hotel bar after the convention closed – and he finished it. Ten minutes of my work and about a minute and a half by him. That's how good he was. He liked the shape of the girl, the posture, and didn't want me to mess it up. You really know how limited you are and what real talent is when you see someone like Dave in action.

Well, you're not so bad.

I'd say I'm as fun artist, not a great artist or even a good artist. There are so many good artists out there. I can practice all I want and I'll never be as good as Dave or someone like Jamie Hernandez or Bernie Kriegstien or Mike Mignola or Kubert, Ditko, Kirby… and I saw that, that day when Dave worked his magic on that drawing in a couple of minutes. Breathtaking. Sometimes I could just sit and watch Dave or Jamie draw, at a show, or I visited Dave now and then and it was like I was watching an opera, seeing a real artist draw. So I guess I had to make up for it with the writing! With the ideas. I was an idea guy. And that's what this book is about. It's about CREATIVITY. Surrealism. It's about having fun. There's memoirs. Anecdotes. Tutorials. Reflections. Epiphanies. All one or two pages, here and there. Just like in the first book.

Comics in the 80s. You were there. During a revolution, really. An explosion of talent.

Those were great times. The Indy days. Comics were not just about the latest hot cover artist, or some endless soap-opera-continuity of mainstream titles. Not just about vampires and zombies. It was also about fine art, new frontiers, freedom of expression, creativity, a certain sense of wonder.

Why Kickstarter?

Kickstarter is a real good system for me. Well, I can reach readers directly. They get the books directly from me and I think they like that. It's efficiency of scale rather than economy of scale. By getting the money up front, I can put out a better product at a better price. It makes the whole different ball game. And later I can sell it at shows and through Diamond. But without Kickstarter, there'd be nothing at shows.

Your first two Kickstarters have been printing work that is already done. What's next?

I was told that people would be more likely to donate to a project that is already done. Already in the can. I guess they worry about someone taking all the money in and then not doing the project. Makes sense. I'm planning my next project to be HIT MAN FOR THE DEAD. We may Kickstart that too. I already have an artist working on it.

Who?

It's secret.

Bob, I've already been to the site.

Oh yeah, its live. Hitman for the dead dot com. Oops. Well I'm working with Andrew Robinson on it. We have a little video done up on the site there I think.

It would be a good kickstarter.

But I want to have an issue in the can first. That's what Andrew's working on. I'm financing it myself. Though we have other sources sniffing around.

Not Dark Horse?

Haven't heard a peep from them.

So where did all this come from? What is the origin of Bob Burden?

I've always loved comics. Storytelling. It's the hottest medium. It's the most immediate medium. You can get an idea, and, boom – as a cartoonist, it's down on a napkin ten seconds later. Whereas, a movie might take a year, or a book six months to get across.

And the cartoons that affected you? Influenced you?

I was a comic book fanatic as a kid, but also cartoons fascinated me. Yes. But don't get me wrong: I loved comics too. They were my first love. I still have runs of PLASTIC MAN, POPEYE, CAPTAIN MARVEL from the 40's and 50s. Kirby FIGHTING AMERICAN. I still have the first Amazing Fantasy 15 I bought off the stands as a kid. But the gag writers I liked were Gahan Wilson, Charles Adams, George Price and a guy named T. S. Sullivant. When I was really young I went on a Dennis The Menace kick and had about ten paperback collections of his cartoons."

Where did you go to art school?

Nowhere. I was always drawing. As far back as I can remember I was scribbling and carving and messing things up. Drawing just came naturally to me.

You were an early tagger.

I guess so. You just want to say "hey, here I am!" or "I was here!" When I was like five, I wrote my name on my parent's bedroom furniture. And Zorro too. I caught hell for that.

So you're going to have some early primitive stuff.

I'm still primitive. Just look at the stuff.

An American primitive.

But some things work better drawn crudely. Some movies might be a lot better at a low budget.

While Burden's offbeat view of the world around him evolved into full length comic book stories with his FLAMING CARROT series and the four delightful, all-ages GUMBY comic books, his odd, single panel non-sequitors certainly lived on, sporadically and faithfully, on the covers of his comics, and among the hundreds of sketches and faux covers Burden did over the years for sales at conventions.

While his comic stories take a minute to sit down and read, Always a small press, not ready for (or too good for?) prime time, exquisitely preposterous kind of guy, these two volumes have enough buckshot and salt to go viral in the modern, short-attention-span, internet world…

Sean Fernald writes;

A true pioneer of the Indy, New-Wave comics explosion of the 80's, Bob Burden's blue collar, second string, totally wacked-out characters and whimsical, offbeat stories always grabbed me. His Flaming Carrot Comics, Mysterymen, and award wining Gumby stories entertained, inspired, and deranged a whole generation of both readers and creators. When I asked him once, how he became an artist, he told a story of how, as a young boy, he picked up a baby bird that had fallen from its nest and onto a driveway. As he held the bird between his hands, he breathed on it gently. Moments later, the bird came around – woke up – and flew off. Bob told me, that he knew then, that he would be an artist, and a good one. What that all had to do with being an artist, I am still unclear, but like his drawings, it made some kind of sense, some kind of weird, oblique sense, particularly with both of us well into an open bar at some con party. Some years later, at a similar party, I asked him about the bird again. I wanted him to tell the story again for a friend. Bob shook his head and said with all seriousness: "Dam thing keeled over at a black-jack table in Reno last year. Heart attack. Split his aces three times, and still got wiped out."