One in a series of posts dedicated to pop-culture depictions of beavers — as symbolic representations of Americans — from 1904–2003. The series derives its title from Thomas Carlyle’s warning about merely instinctive labor.

During the Seventies (1974–1983) and Eighties (1984–1993), the notion of tough, ferocious beavers became something of a running joke.

LE BEAVER: In issue 9 (February 1977) of the absurdist comic Howard the Duck, our titular hero pursues Pierre Dentifiris, an extremist Canadian nationalist who loathes the United States — particularly after the US military foiled a plot in which he had use beavers to dam Niagara Falls. Spoiler: Pierre has a giant beaver exoskeleton which gives him beaver strength; in this guise, he is known as Le Beaver.

TIME BEAVERS: Time Beavers, by Timothy Truman, is a 1985 graphic novel in which the eternal Time Beavers “battle to protect the very essence of reality.” I’m guessing that the gag is how unlikely the beaver is as a heroic, badass hero.