The book features another complete, surreal Flaming Carrot story called "Arbor Day." "Arbor Day is an obscure American holiday, but all the popular holidays were taken," explains Burden, creator of Flaming Carrot. "The story has Flaming Carrot going out into the woods to look for a lost pork chop mine. He has a treasure map that he bought at a garage sale, and he's sure that the legendary lost pork chop mine is there, if he can only figure out the clues. He walks along thinking of the nice pork chops, and fixing them with mashed potatoes and corn on the cob. There's also some odd villains, sexy girls in cut-offs and a couple of thrilling fight scenes..."
The issue also contains a 14-page Mysterymen story, previewing the new revisionist superhero series from Dark Horse due out this year. The Mysterymen have recently been optioned for a major motion picture with Universal Studios. The story is pencilled by Steve Sadowski and inked and written by Bob Burden.
"The five dollar cover price may have hurt our orders a little in this market," said Bob Burden, "but look what you get. The book consists of all-new material -- 64-pages worth -- and no reprints whatsoever. It's a better deal than if you broke it down into three, 24-page issues at $3.00 each. I wanted to make it the best package for the money we could offer. And the front and back cover colors were done by Art Suydam, who took time out from his busy schedule to come through for me and make it a better looking book than I could have ever imagined."
Flaming Carrot was a 1980s cult classic that detailed "the further adventures of the strangest man alive" in 30-some issues of the world's first surrealist superhero. Burden's unique, original art style complemented the strong storytelling with stories like "Road Hogs from Outer Space," "Death Gets Drunk," and "The Dead Dog Leaped Up and Flew Around the Room." The award-winning series is considered a seminal influence for a genre of odd, quirky, and humorous superheroes such as the Tick, The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Madman, but Burden acknowledges forerunners in the tradition such as Kirby's Fighting American, Ogden Whitney's Herbie, and Gilbert Shelton's Wonder Warthog.
The annual is intended by Dark Horse to "relaunch" the works of Burden and will be followed up by more regular Flaming Carrot issues, a collected volume of the earlier issues, and the new Mysterymen series. "Our next Flaming Carrot story has him going to Washington to help find the Contract With America which has been lost," explained Burden. "Sponge Boy and a miniature Abe Lincoln accompany FC, and they get there on a new addition to Flaming Carrot's arsenal: the spectacular flying four-piece pit group!"