Nobody remembers Space Ark, the most underrated Star Wars parody of the ’80s

Don’t get me wrong, I love Spaceballs as much as the next guy, but my favorite Star Wars parody is a much deeper cut. Back in the 1980s, there was an explosion in independent comics. Developed as an alternative to DC and Marvel’s mainstream superhero comics, these books spanned every genre, from gritty action comics like Grimjack to absurd comedies like The Flaming Carrot. A good lot of them were also what’s known as “funny animal comics,” a term that really just applies to anthropomorphized animals, which were only sometimes comedic. The best-known example is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but there were also properties like Usagi Yojimbo, a series about a samurai rabbit that’s still running today, and still independently owned by creator Stan Sakai.