The reason I'm bringing it up is that series creator and lead actor Brent Butt seems to be something of a comic book fan. The show's opening credits sequence features him sitting in front of a gas pump reading a comic (which he recently identified on Twitter as being Comet Man #1) and there's more than a few instances of him reading comics throughout the show. Indeed, he seems to be pretty well versed in pop culture generally. There was an amusing sequence in a first season episode in which someone suggested another character might be a stalker, which was then nicknamed Kolchak, whose lead actor Darren McGavin was misidentified as having starred in The Fugitive and was later misnamed as Kojak leading the police to look for a bald fugitive stalker... with a talking car, because someone else mixed up Night Stalker with Knight Rider.
In any event, Brent is not infrequently shown reading a comic (usually with the cover folded back so he can read one-handed) and I believe some later episodes expressly focus on aspects of his being a comic book fan. This photo seems to show him engrossed in an issue of Savage Dragon. (A nod which creator Erik Larsen later returned by showing Savage Dragon wearing a "Corner Gas" t-shirt.)
As it turns out, before becoming a comedian/comic actor, Butt had aspirations of being in the comic industry. Along with his friend Colin Oleksyn, in 1987 they created a comic book called Existing Earth in which Butt did the artwork! (Except for the covers, which were by Terry Gilecki.) As near as I can tell, they only produced two issues, but the series was nominated for a Golden Eagle Award.
![Existing Earth #1](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmKnPmEnJE_uXeWWKI7xvIhyphenhyphenZFJLR3U1ueiE6zK9ol2INc7V_dV2GtCu5HHc8R1UD20_9i9O-cTs44AGlRKagCmjHckY_E39UoGxGo7ttgmOLtvBR_wqrAXiWaZSr-GhOhqA2L/s320/7b17669028a2660937c6822523d4bee4_xl.jpg)
![Existing Earth #2](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAfln63EAM29mQi51oeMtIc4jl7wbaUMiyE-3T2MPCiVZSWPYmn4dr2i2D5jMgN9Fmf9ukc3rMsFZhCGxypanCncpAerRhC7rxRM5iIAclubtJA-DR6kuPxuNMktC12mUU9I3l/s320/f0271381f5a31e0cd98e4a6aa7f1ad14_xl.jpg)
2 comments:
Love this show!
There are at least two episodes, I think both in the last season, where comics are a major point. One about New Years Resolutions where Hank gives up comic books and another where Brent and Hank go to the city to see their favourite creator at a convention.
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