Gumby #2 [2006] (Random Comics Theatre)

Random Comics Theatre

Gumby #2 [2006]

Gumby was a claymation cartoon created by Art Clokey in the 1950s, with cartoons created into the 1960s and some later revivals. I have no memory of ever seeing it as a child, although I did see (and usually actively avoided) Clokey's other famous claymation series Davey and Goliath. Like most of my generation, I think I first encountered the character in the rather absurd version of the character Eddie Murphy did on Saturday Night Live.

For some reason the character appeared in comics in the late 1980s, most famously in two one-shots drawn by Arthur Adams, one written by Bob Burden and the other by Steve Purcell. Then in 2006 Burden returned to the character for this series with artist Rick Geary (the two had worked together one two issues of JUNIOR CARROT PATROL in 1989/90).  Looks like it was planned to continue at last one more issue but only lasted three. Burden even did one of the covers for this issue, which very much feels like a FLAMING CARROT cover.

Each of the three issues is a standalone story, with some light continuity around the girl introduced in the first issue, Cuddles. In this one, Gumby wants to get a fancy pair of boots to impress Cuddles, working some odd jobs and eventually winding up in the same circus where he had an adventure in #1, this time getting a job as a clown and then later getting turned into a golem. And then it starts to get really weird.

A pretty decent story, a long 34-pages in a packed issue which also has a frontispiece (which kind of gives away the ending of the story), a letter column and a biography of Geary plugging his various other works.