Monday, January 18, 2016

Gyro Gearloose Joins Captain Carrot and his Amazing Zoo Crew



He may never have quite reached the popularity of Donald Duck or even Uncle Scrooge, but I always thought that Gyro Gearloose was pretty darn cool.  I have always been fascinated by unique inventions, so I would naturally gravitate to stories featuring this master tinkerer.  It was always interesting to me to see what new devices he would come up with.

14 comments:

Futabakun said...

From the combination of his physical looks and his occupation as an inventor, I always imagined the voice of Gyro to sound like Sterling Holloway.

Carycomic said...

Nowadays, he'd probably be dubbed by John Rhys-Davies.

Anonymous said...

More likely, Tim Curry

ENERGY LAW said...

Hmmmm....is it possible that Disney may have been trying to cash in on the "James Bond/Q futuristic spy gadgets" craze when he was created (I believe it was the late '50/'60s this character came out)?? I few times I got a hold of a friend or relatives' Disney digest in the early '80s (never a fan a Disney comics, sorry)I gravitated towards characters like this!

And thank you AGAIN AND AGAIN for bringing back Captain Carrot, one the reasons why I miss the 1980s era of DC and Marvel Comics so much!! FUNNY ANIMALS RULE!!!!

Sonofjack said...

Good call Futabakun. Definitely Sterling Holloway who, of course, was also the voice of Disney's Winnie the Pooh.

I could also imagine Percy Helton providing the voice.

Anonymous said...

Actually, the only bird character that Sterling Holloway dubbed for Disney was Mr. Stork in both DUMBO and LAMBERT THE SHEEPISH LION. Gyro Gearloose didn't become a Disney cartoon character until the syndicated series DUCK TALES. At which point, he was dubbed by Hal Smith (perhaps best known as Otis The Town Drunk on the old ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW).

Kid Charlemagne said...

Like Scrooge McDuck, Gyro Gearloose began as a character in the Disney comic books, and only later migrated to animation.

Anonymous said...

Precisely, why I used the phrase "cartoon character" as opposed to "comic book/comic strip character." :-)

TC said...

Gyro first appeared (as a secondary character in a Duck story) in 1952, and had a solo strip starting in 1956. There was probably more influence from Rube Goldberg than from James Bond, but the spy movie fad, including "Q" and his gadgets, may have helped Gyro's popularity in the 1960's.

He never quite made the "A" list, but Gyro was popular enough to star in his own strip (it ran as a back-up in Uncle Scrooge) for many years. He also starred in four issues of Dell's Four Color comic, and sometimes appeared as a supporting character in Duck stories.

I thought that Hal Smith had a perfect voice for Gyro's "absent-minded professor"-type character.

I also liked Captain Carrot and his Zoo Crew (and Plastic Man, Shazam, and the Inferior Five), but such characters don't fit in well with the current DC (or Marvel) Universe. The Big Two seem to have adopted a policy that everything has to be grim-and-gritty.

Anonymous said...

Given that 2016 is the golden anniversary year for BATMAN: TOS, maybe there'll be a brief resurgence of campiness (as opposed to grim-and-grittiness).

Simreeve said...

TC said...
"I also liked Captain Carrot and his Zoo Crew (and Plastic Man, Shazam, and the Inferior Five), but such characters don't fit in well with the current DC (or Marvel) Universe. The Big Two seem to have adopted a policy that everything has to be grim-and-gritty."

Anonymous said...
"Given that 2016 is the golden anniversary year for BATMAN: TOS, maybe there'll be a brief resurgence of campiness (as opposed to grim-and-grittiness)."

Well, the Captain Carrot/Zoo Crew appearances in 'Convergence' were true to the original (and quite enjoyable), although their post-FP counterparts in 'Multiversity'had been changed to operate (and to know that they operate) on "cartoon physics".
As for other DC stuff that isn't grim-&-gritty, I'll admit that there isn't a lot, but I've read and enjoyed Li'l Gotham (while it lasted...), Batman '66 (the main series has ended, but he's currently in a team-up story with the Man from UNCLE, and other team-ups are also promised...), Wonder Woman '77 (with a third 'special' due early this year), and even some issues of Scooby-Doo Team-Up... and if you want stuff that's closer to mainstream continuity then Harley Quinn is a "cute little psycho" (in her own series the Harley Quinn/Power Girl limited series, and 'Harley Quinn's Little Black Book', anyway, although not when she appeared in in Suicide Squad), Starfire's own series -- which seems to treat her times in the 'Red Hood & the Outlaws' as not having happened (!) -- is quite good from the few issues that I've seen so far (and the writers have brought back PG's pre-Flashpoint friend 'Terra' to befriend Kory), and even Batgirl [from #35 onwards] -- although I think that Babs was better as Oracle -- is relatively light... Oh, and then there was the BatMite limited series, too...

^_^

Worldmusic said...

Thanks "Anonymous" for updating us on "non-gritty" alternatives DC has to offer. I may check some of them out. As a joke, I would be curious about a "gritty" parody of Captain Carrot! I wonder how THAT would pan out. I'm sure it would be hilarious. I really like The Batmouse character that Roy Thomas created when the Crew met and teamed up with the JLA (Just a Lotta Animals) from an alternative Earth!

Simreeve said...

Worldmusic said...
"Thanks "Anonymous" for updating us on "non-gritty" alternatives DC has to offer. I may check some of them out. As a joke, I would be curious about a "gritty" parody of Captain Carrot! I wonder how THAT would pan out."

Wasn't 'Anonymous', was me.


And add 'Gotham Academy' to the list, too!
How on earth did I forget to mention [i]that[/i]?


Re a "gritty" parody of Captain Carrot: Apparently DC did a canon "grittier" Zoo Crew story , in the run-up to Final Crisis: It was called 'The Final Ark', or something along those lines...
:(

Carycomic said...

There was also the cryogenically frozen easter egg Capt. Carrot in a WARP Graphic story featuring Thunderbunny and Golden Man (a grown-up version of the super-teen called Golden Lad from Spark Publications) plus at least a dozen other now-public domain characters from the Golden Age.

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