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May 29, 2019

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1555: Army Surplus Komikz feat. Cutey Bunny #5, 1985



The final issue of Cutey Bunny's series participates in the time-honoured tradition of independent/underground comix taking a strip out of mainstream supehero fare. Today's issue basically boils down to anthropomorphic versions of the X-Men versus an amalgam of Justice League, Avengers, and Fantastic Four parodies. Once again, though, the story occurs almost tangentially to the fact that Kelly O'Hare is supposed to be starring in the Army Surplus comic. A between jobs visit to Fatty Tubbins' grandmother turns into a superhero slugfest. The usual cast of Kelly's stories are joined here by her comic co-stars the Space Beavers, and the usual kinds of parodic shenanigans ensue. Though entertaining, I'd have to say this isn't my favourite of the series. To this point, I'd found the stories to be novel in and of themselves, carving out a unique niche in the early indie comics landscape of the 80s. But this issue doesn't do much to distinguish itself from other superhero parodies, and is indeed not quite on par with some of the more nuanced and amusing ones (Dave Sim's Roach character was doing similar things at the time, and doing them to much greater effect).

This is not to say, certainly, that there's nothing to recommend this issue. Quagmire's art is glorious as always, and he most certainly has a level of respect for both his own creations and those that he is aping. But the flair I would associate with the previous issues seems lacking here.

Kelly's adventures continue in the Fantagraphics anthology series Critters, though I've only managed to track down a single issue featuring the buxom bunny. But they're on the list.

"The transmogrification synthesizer...it alterd our molecular structure, so we're just like the characters in the comix...neet, huh?"

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