Bob Burden is an American comic book artist and writer, best known as the creator of '' Flaming Carrot Comics'' and the ''

Mystery Men ''Mystery Men'' is a 1999 American superhero comedy film directed by Kinka Usher (in his feature-length directorial debut), written by Neil Cuthbert, loosely based on Bob Burden's '' Flaming Carrot Comics'', starring Ben Stiller, Hank Azaria, ...

''.

Early life

Burden was born the eldest of three siblings in

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is a Administrative divisions of New York (state), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and county seat of Erie County, New York, Erie County. It lies in Western New York at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of ...

. His father worked at

Westinghouse Electric Corporation The Westinghouse Electric Corporation was an American manufacturing company founded in 1886 by George Westinghouse and headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was originally named "Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company" and was ...

and moved the family often, to cities like

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

and

Milwaukee Milwaukee is the List of cities in Wisconsin, most populous city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the List of United States cities by population, 31st-most populous city in the United States ...

. Burden graduated with a degree in journalism from the

University of Georgia The University of Georgia (UGA or Georgia) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Athens, Georgia, United States. Chartered in 1785, it is the oldest public university in th ...

. After graduation, he worked as a collectible and antique salesman.

Career

Burden's best-known creation is the Flaming Carrot which first appeared in 1979

direct market The direct market is the dominant distribution and retail network for American comic books. The concept of the direct market was created in the 1970s by Phil Seuling. The network currently consists of: * three major comic distributors: ** Luna ...

magazine. He worked as writer and editor with

lettering Lettering or Lettering design is an act or result of artfully drawing letters, instead of writing them simply. Lettering is considered an art form, where each letter in a phrase or quote acts as an illustration. Each letter is created with attent ...

by Roxanne Starr. It has received some scholarly recognition: a cover story and interview in Atlanta's prestigious '' Art Papers''; an original cover drawing in

Sotheby's Sotheby's ( ) is a British-founded multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine art, fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...

art auction; and reviews in ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture publication based in Greenwich Village, New York City, known for being the country's first Alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, ...

'' literary supplement. Burden's ''Mystery Men'' was the subject of a 1999

film adaptation A film adaptation transfers the details or story of an existing source text, such as a novel, into a feature film. This transfer can involve adapting most details of the source text closely, including characters or plot points, or the original sou ...

, directed by

Kinka Usher Kinka Usher is a director of television commercials. He also directed the 1999 feature film ''Mystery Men''. Early life Kinka Usher was born in Nice, France, one of five children. His mother, an Italian by birth, owned a ballet production compan ...

and starring

Ben Stiller Benjamin Edward Meara Stiller (born November 30, 1965) is an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. Known for his blend of slapstick humor and sharp wit, Stiller rose to fame through comedies such as ''There's Something About Mary'' (1998), ' ...

and

Geoffrey Rush Geoffrey Roy Rush (born 6 July 1951) is an Australian actor. Known for often playing eccentric roles on both stage and screen, he has received List of awards and nominations received by Geoffrey Rush, numerous accolades, including an Academy Aw ...

. Besides ''Flaming Carrot Comics'' and ''Mysterymen'', Burden wrote a

Gumby Gumby and Pokey figures ''Gumby'' is an American cartoon character and associated media franchise created by Art Clokey. He is a blocky green humanoid made of clay. Gumby stars in two television series, '' Gumby: The Movie'', and other medi ...

story, a two-part Cholly & Flytrap story with

Arthur Suydam Arthur Suydam (; born May 18, 1953) is an American comic book artist known for his work on Marvel Zombies, Deadpool, Black Panther, and KISS Zombies. He has done artwork for magazines including '' Heavy Metal'', ''Epic Illustrated'' and '' Nation ...

, and ''Robot Comics'', a series which was reprised as the "Robot Crime" story for the 20th anniversary of '' Heavy Metal''. Burden has also produced some prose work, including a short story called "You've Got Your Troubles, I've Got Mine", and an anthology of short stories by various writers, including

Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author. Dubbed the "King of Horror", he is widely known for his horror novels and has also explored other genres, among them Thriller (genre), suspense, crime fiction, crime, scienc ...

, called ''

Dark Love ''Dark Visions'' is a horror fiction compilation, with three short stories by Stephen King, three by Dan Simmons and a novella by George R. R. Martin. It was published by Orion on August 10, 1989. The collection was first published, with the ...

'', from

Penguin Books Penguin Books Limited is a Germany, German-owned English publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers the Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the ...

. Though he has drawn a number of comics, Burden has said that he considers himself solely a writer: "I'm a writer, okay? The fact that I draw art is purely coincidental to that, but I'm not really what you'd call a competent illustrator."

Awards

Burden's works have won numerous awards including the

Inkpot Award The Inkpot Award is an honor bestowed annually since 1974 by Comic-Con International. It is given to professionals in the fields of comic books, comic strips, animation, science fiction, and related areas of popular culture, at Comic-Con Internati ...

for Outstanding Achievement in Comic Arts, the ACE Award, and perhaps the most prestigious award in comics, the Will Eisner Comics Industry Award for the Best Single Issue (''Gumby's Summer Fun Special''). Burden also has two 1998 Eisner Award Nominations, for ''Invincible Man'' and ''Flaming Carrot's Greatest Hits Volume Three''.

References

External links

* Artists from Buffalo, New York University of Georgia alumni Living people American comics writers American humorists American comics artists American short story writers 1952 births Inkpot Award winners {{US-comics-creator-stub