Published May 5, 2026, 2:00 PM EDT Star Wars by way of Looney Tunes My favorite Star Wars parody is a short-lived 1980s 'funny animal comic' Lucasfilm 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.…