Please Don’t Feed Your Easter Bunny Uranium Carrots
You shouldn’t be feeding your rabbit many carrots at all, regardless of what Bugs may say. And yet, there is one rabbit–fictional, clearly–who not only eats them but thrives on them.
Atomic Rabbit #1 was published by Charlton in 1955 at the height of America’s fascination with nuclear power and fear of the supposedly immoral influence of comics. The latter situation explains this note that appears on the book’s first page.
Al Fago, who identifies himself as the executive editor, also created, drew, and wrote this comic, so this is entirely his baby. Let’s see if he can live up to his promise of delivering “the highest quality of wholesome entertainment.”
Our first story, “The Discovery,” begins in Rabbitville, where The Fox (is “The” his first name?) is the mayor. Seems like that might present a conflict of interest, but anyway, a poor starving rabbit comes to town and begs a carrot from the former mayor’s wife.
But there’s something funky about this carrot.
The as-yet-nameless rabbit suddenly gains superstrength and the ability to fly, both of which he uses to beat up The Fox, run him out of town, and restore the previous mayor.
Look, I know I was kidding about a conflict of interest earlier, but we don’t have proof that The Fox wasn’t duly elected or that he’s done anything wrong yet aside from being a jerk. We don’t even know that the ex-mayor wasn’t, I don’t know, caught embezzling broccoli. I don’t call using your superpowers to stage a coup very “wholesome,” but there’s another Atomic Rabbit story in this issue. Maybe Fago will do better in round two.
The second story, “Just Water Over the Dam,” begins with this panel.
Oh, good, the untrained, superpowered rabbit has complete presidential immunity. So wholesome!
Anyway, Atomic Rabbit goes to Washington with soil samples from the garden where the power-giving carrots grow to find out what’s going on here. After consulting with President Eisenhower, AR learns that the soil is laced with uranium.
That’s it. No one asks where the uranium came from, or why it only affected Atomic Rabbit, or if there might be side effects. It’s taken for granted that this radioactive substance–and Issue 2 confirms it’s U-235, the type of uranium used in bombs–is harmless at worst and downright benevolent at best.
AR uses his powers and a gift of vegetable seeds from the president to provide for the citizens of Rabbitville, who are short on food for some reason. It’s never explained why. I assume we’re supposed to blame The Fox, an idea that gains credibility when we see how mad The Fox gets when the rabbits celebrate AR. The Fox recruits his young sons to try to sabotage the vegetable field. Atomic Rabbit puts an end to that right quick.
Child endangerment! Wholesome!!
Obviously, I had some fun clowning on what the 1950s thought of as “wholesome entertainment,” but Atomic Rabbit is a fun bit of fluff. It’s always interesting to me how contemporary issues of concern or interest–in this case, nuclear power–find their way into the weirdest places.
Atomic Rabbit ran for eleven issues, from 1955 to 1958, before being rebranded Atomic Bunny and continuing for another eight issues. The idea of a uranium-powered animal was apparently a lucrative one for Fago, who also created Atomic Mouse in 1953 and Atom the Cat in 1957, both for Charlton.
So remember: if anyone ever tells you there is uranium in your backyard, plant some veggies and chow down. Nothing bad will happen!
