Cutey Bunny is a

cartoon animal Talking animals are a common element in mythology and folk tales, children's literature, and modern comic books and animated cartoons. Fictional talking animals often are anthropomorphic, possessing human-like qualities (such as bipedal walking, ...

superheroine created by

Joshua Quagmire Joshua Quagmire (sometimes shortened to JQ) (1953-2023) was an American cartoonist of underground and mainstream comic books, best known for his creation Cutey Bunny. His comic book work also overlapped with and contributed to the early furry fan ...

for a humorous line of American underground

comic books A comic book, comic-magazine, or simply comic is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by descriptive prose and wri ...

that first appeared through ''Army Surplus Komikz'', which ran sporadically for five issues from 1982 to 1985. She has since appeared through various other comic titles such as '' Critters'' from

Fantagraphics Books Fantagraphics (previously Fantagraphics Books) is an American publisher of alternative comics, classic comic strip anthologies, manga, magazines, graphic novels, and (formerly) the Erotic comics, erotic Eros Comix imprint. They have managed sev ...

and one-shots such as ''Cutey Bunny's Pearl Harbor Beach Party'' from

Rip Off Press Rip Off Press Inc. is a comic book mail order retailer and distributor, better known as the former publisher of adult-themed series like '' The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers'' and '' Rip Off Comix'', as well as many other seminal publications from ...

. As her name suggests, Cutey Bunny's powers and concept are a

pastiche A pastiche () is a work of visual art, literature, theatre, music, or architecture that imitates the style or character of the work of one or more other artists. Unlike parody, pastiche pays homage to the work it imitates, rather than mocking ...

Go Nagai , better known by the pen name , is a Japanese manga artist and a prolific author of Japanese science fiction, science fiction, fantasy, Japanese horror, horror, and erotica. He made his professional debut in 1967 with ''Meakashi Polikichi'', b ...

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

creation,

Cutey Honey is a Japanese shōnen manga series written and illustrated by Go Nagai. First appearing in ''Weekly Shōnen Champion''s 41st issue of 1973, the series ran until April 1974. It follows an android girl named Honey Kisaragi, who transf ...

Plot

Cutey Bunny (sometimes labeled "QT Bunny" for short) is secretly Cpl. Kelly O'Hare, a special agent for the United States, based in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

and employed by an unspecified branch of the

United States Armed Forces The United States Armed Forces are the Military, military forces of the United States. U.S. United States Code, federal law names six armed forces: the United States Army, Army, United States Marine Corps, Marine Corps, United States Navy, Na ...

. She is dispatched on special missions, usually directly by the

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

, and encounters action and adventure; frequent adversaries include Vicky Feldhyser, a kinky

lesbian A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homosexu ...

fox who's described as a "four-ple" agent (one level beyond "triple") for various

intelligence services An intelligence agency is a government agency responsible for the collection, analysis, and exploitation of information in support of law enforcement, national security, military, public safety, and foreign policy objectives. Means of info ...

, and "Uncle Joe", a transparent caricature of

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

Powers

Cutey's powers derive from her amulet, a gift from Ra, the

ancient Egyptian Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...

god of the sun (Ra is an occasional guest-star in the comic; much is made about his befuddlement with modern-day technology, such as

toaster A toaster is a small electric appliance that uses radiant heat to brown sliced bread into toast, the color caused by the Maillard reaction. It typically consists of one or more slots into which bread is inserted, and heating elements, o ...

s and electric coffeepots). The amulet allows Kelly to change instantly into any one of six different costumes, and gain the powers associated with each; for example, as "Rocket Bunny", she can fly with the aid of rocket-powered boots, and as "Samurai Bunny", she wears

chainmail Mail (sometimes spelled maille and, since the 18th century, colloquially referred to as chain mail, chainmail or chain-mail) is a type of armour consisting of small metal rings linked together in a pattern to form a mesh. It was in common milita ...

armor and can wield a

katana A is a Japanese sword characterized by a curved, single-edged blade with a circular or squared guard and long grip to accommodate two hands. Developed later than the ''tachi'', it was used by samurai in feudal Japan and worn with the edge fa ...

to deadly effect. In the 5th and last issue of ''Army Surpluz'', the amulet interacted with other forces (such as Wunner Bunny's magic lasso) to transform Cutey into Dark Cutey (one of many parodies of Marvel's

Dark Phoenix "The Dark Phoenix Saga" is an extended X-Men comic-book storyline published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Chris Claremont and artist John Byrne, the storyline first appeared in ''X-Men'' #129 (January 1980). It focuses on the superhero Jea ...

) who promptly tempts her teammates with the merchandising potential of being "dark" like her.

Development

Kelly is drawn as a shapely

anthropomorphic Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics to ...

bunny Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also includes the hares), which is in the order Lagomorpha (which also includes pikas). They are familiar throughout the world as a small herbivore, a prey animal, a domesticated form ...

, often dressed in something fairly revealing, as befits Quagmire's sense of

burlesque A burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects.

. Superhero Multiverse describes her as "the world's first

African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

rabbit superheroine". She sometimes wears her hair in

cornrows Cornrows (also called canerows) are a style of three-strand braids in which the hair is braided very close to the scalp, using an underhand, upward motion to make a continuous, raised row. Cornrows are often done in simple, straight lines, as the ...

. She is very bright, athletic, friendly, and clean-cut, usually uttering no oaths stronger than "Gosh-a-rootie!" Cutey Bunny should not be confused with her

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

counterpart and occasional co-star, Cutie Bunny, whose secret identity is Heather ap-Glendower (or ''-Glendowner''), and who has no special powers beyond great athleticism. Cutie was introduced by Quagmire as a

parody A parody is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satire, satirical or irony, ironic imitation. Often its subject is an Originality, original work or some aspect of it (theme/content, author, style, e ...

of the "

Earth-Two Earth-Two (also Earth 2) is a setting for stories (a "fictional universe") appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. First appearing in ''The Flash'' #123 (1961), Earth-Two was created to explain differences between the original ...

" story concept once employed by

DC Comics DC Comics (originally DC Comics, Inc., and also known simply as DC) is an American comic book publisher owned by DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC is an initialism for "Detective Comics", an American comic book seri ...

to explain the history of their

Golden Age The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology, particularly the ''Works and Days'' of Hesiod, and is part of the description of temporal decline of the state of peoples through five Ages of Man, Ages, Gold being the first and the one during wh ...

superheroes. Cutey Bunny made an appearance in the independently produced "Army Surplus Komikz, Featuring Cutey Bunny" series in the early 1980s. It ran for five issues between 1982 and 1985. Issue #5 was distributed by

Eclipse Comics Eclipse Comics was an American comic book publisher, one of several independent publishers during the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1978, it published the first graphic novel intended for the newly created comic book store, comic book specialty stor ...

in 1985, its logo featured on the cover. Despite blurbs for upcoming issues in ''

Amazing Heroes ''Amazing Heroes'' was a magazine about the comic book medium published by American company Fantagraphics Books from 1981 to 1992. Unlike its companion title, '' The Comics Journal'', ''Amazing Heroes'' was a hobbyist magazine rather than an anal ...

'', no further issues were published.

References

Sources

* Robbins, Trina. ''The Great Women Super Heroes'' (Kitchen Sink Press, 1996) , ch. 11 (incl. illo) * Rovin, Jeff. "Cutey Bunny", entry in ''The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Cartoon Animals'' (Prentice Hall, 1991) {{ISBN, 0-13-275561-0

External links

Cutey Bunny's Official Website (The QUAGMIRE)Cutey Bunny's Facebook page.
1982 comics debuts 1985 comics endings Comics about talking animals Comics about anthropomorphic rabbits and hares Fictional rabbits and hares Underground comix Animal superheroes African-American characters in comics