Yes... it's Fission Chicken, and he's been around for years... fighting aliens and monsters and
slime demons and Fuzzy Cutekins and all sorts of weird people. The information below
describes some of his greatest battles in the comics! (For Fission Chicken report, click here.)
Clicking on the images below will show a larger version.

	Fission Chicken first appeared in the seminal funny-animal comic book Critters (Fantagraphics Books); Fish's appearances ranged from #15 to # 50, the final issue. (Click here for complete list.) He was on the covers of #33 and #39. Of course, Critters was also home to such luminaries as Steve Gallacci's "Birthright" series, "Lionheart" by Tom Stazer, "Usagi Yojimbo" by Stan Sakai, the "Lizards" stories by Ron Wilber and J. Holland, "Ambrose" by Willian Van Horn, and stuff from Mark Martin and Mike Kazelah and Ty Templeton and Scott Shaw and Cathy Hill and Doug Gray and many talented others.		Coinciding with the end of Fantagraphic's Critters series was the introduction of Fission Chicken's own title from the same company. Issue #1 concerned Fish's run-in with necromancer P.U. Evolcraft (who was stealing a mummy from a museum), and subsequent battle with K'celboo, a giant orange slime demon. Other villains included were the West Side Coven (Evolcraft's competitors) and the Ether Bunny (whose specialty was tossing knockout-gas eggs). Also along for the ride for all four issues was "Duck 'Bill' Platypus" by Kyle Rothweiler... a series that likewise began in Critters. This was a wonderfully crazed strip that brought to mind a combination of Walt Kelly and Dr. Seuss... on acid!
	Fission Chicken #2 detailed the Chicken of Wrath's fight with the movie monster Ferdie Cruller, who had apparently come to life in order to menace movie producer Stu Dinerdud. Fish is treated to some peculiar sights before he figures out what's up! (The covers for all four issues, by the way, were colored by the great Brad Foster!)		Fission Chicken #3 brought us the first half of a two-part thriller: "Attack of the Video Zombies!" The tale involves the disappearance of people who rent too many dumb movies at a particular video rental store; Fish's pal Skip Squirrelhard, P.I. dons an impenetrable disguise (as a raccoon) in order to help him dig beneath the surface....
	...and beneath the surface in Fission Chicken #4 is revealed the subterranean stonghold of the Video Zombies! Once normal citizens, they were abducted from the video store above and reprogammed with video camera units clamped to their heads! F.C. comes close to being overwhelmed by sheer numbers, but Skip makes his way to the control center and puts the bad guys through some changes.		Plan Nine From Vortox! (MU Press) In this full-length, one-shot epic (hmm, guess that makes it a "graphic novel"), Fish, his main squeeze Monica, and his pal Skip encounter the combined forces of the Vortoxians and Ditsyland. Walt's brain returns in a new and horrifying form! Action! Battle! Exploding Ditsy characters! Wow!!!�
	In Valiant Varmints (which kicked off the Shanda Fantasy Arts "Spotlight Presents" series) we get a whole crowd of super-critters... Moon Mouse, Snowbuni, Beatrix Farmer, Superswine, Savage Squirrel, Bullet Crow, Phantom Bunny, and ol' F.C.... each starring in an episode written and drawn by their creators (and on a great cover by Mike Sagara), to solve the wraparound mystery of... Bullethead! By Mike Curtis, Shane Fisher, Carl Gafford, Jeff Wood, Charles Ettinger, Taral Wayne, Gary Fields, Kjartan Arnörsson, Chuck Fiala, J.P. Morgan, and Jerry Mathers as "The Beaver".		F.C also made appearances in Furrlough (Radio Comix) in issues #54 (one-page), #82 (in two panels of "The Suit", a team-up between Skip Squirrelhard and Karno's Savage Squirrel!), and #85 ("What's the Skinny", a tale of weight-loss terror)...
	Fish was also featured in SFA Spotlights #13 -- the New Adventures of Fission Chicken! In "A Gross Imposition," an ancient alien pop psychologist inhabits his body! In "Island of Weird Shit," a mighty peculiar island suddenly appears off the Jersey shore...		Yes, Fission Chicken is engaged in a perpetual battle against the forces of brain death... fighting for you and me! Where next? When? Who knows? Details as they become available... you might have a look at www.fissionchicken.com and see what's happening!

FISSION CHICKEN'S "CRITTERS" ISSUES

Critters #19: "Marketing Experts from Beyond, Part 1" ...the first appearance of Fish's perennial foes, the Vortoxians. He takes an alien mind-control unit from a video billboard at the mall, only to be attacked by a Vortoxian plastic robot (disguised as a reporter for Treacle magazine)...

Critters #20: "Marketing Experts from Beyond, Part 2"... Hooking up the robot's head to a portable scanner, Fission Chicken and his pal Skip Squirrelhard, P.I. track down the control source to a local McDungall's hamburger stand. Dumping our heroes in a basement room, the alien chiefexec Selmor-99 reveals himself, explaining that the Vortoxians are a race of marketing experts who have made themselves into plastic-bodied cyborgs... the better to "sell' their planetcorp Vortox across the galaxy! Selmor-99 then unleashes a swarm of flying mechanical drones to inject the mind-control sweetener "Muta-Sweet" into the brains of Fish and Skip!!

Critters #21: "Marketing Experts from Beyond, Part 3"... Having evaded the flying drones, Fish and Skip contrive to act "injected", and are led to a Success Habit Inspirational Talk in the next room, where another Vortoxian (Kikbak-72) is lecturing a group of Earth people. Fission Chicken pretends to be fully compliant, and even gets up onstage to speak... but then whirls around and welds the alien's plastic feet to the floor with his power ray. The Vortoxians simply pop their heads off and cause them to fly into a waiting escape pod, but their escape is short-lived; Fish captures the pod and uses the alien's heads for book-ends in his apartment!

Critters #22: "The Creatures from Ineptune"... Fish deals with an invasion of heavy-set, not-too-bright aliens in this two-pager. This was the initial F.C. story sent to Critters, but it was held until room appeared in this issue.

Critters #23: "Holiday Cheer, Musical Fear"... In this Christmastime story, necromancer P.U. Evolcraft, out of frustration with crowded checkout lines at the supermarket, decides to sabotage the holiday season by bizarre, occult music over the radio... music that causes the radios playing to come to life, sprouting eyes and teeth, and attacking the populace! F.C finds the solution and gives P.U. his comeuppance.

Critters #24: "Head Games"... While undergoing interrogation from Fission Chicken, the Vortoxian's disembodied heads make a bid for freedom, flying through the window, leading Fish on a wild chase. They're almost recaptured, but escape by causing a nearby ATM machine to suddenly spew out all its money, slipping away in the resultant commotion. The aliens hide in the mailbox of P.U. Evolcraft, who takes them to be demons of some kind and takes full advantage of their ability to drain ATMs at will.

Critters #27: "They Saved Walt's Brain" (Part 1)... Dr. Frankenstang is not having much success in monster-building, when he receives a mysterious offer in the mail... Fish soon catches his assistant "Strep" O'Coccus with a bagful of brains. A big ugly monster crashes through the wall to attack Fish! Frankenstang's benefactor watches from the shadows...

Critters #28: "They Saved Walt's Brain" (Part 2)... The Votoxians Selmor-99 and Kikbak-72 (or rather, their heads) are still hiding from F.C. when they see that Frankenstang's unconscious monster is a Vortoxian product! They re-activate it to do their bidding, but Fish catches up and discovers that the Ditsy entertainment empire is in cahoots with the Vortoxians! He also has a conversation with the living brain of Walt Ditsy...

Critters #30: "They Saved Walt's Brain" (Part 3)... Ditsy and the Vortoxians are planning some brain-swaps: filmmaker Steven Spielbird will get Walt's brain , and spoiled little twerp Michael Jukeson will get Dickey Mouse's brain! The aliens spring a diabolical trap on Fish to insure his non-interference, but he breaks free and takes on an entire horde of Ditsy monsters in a battle royal!

Critters #32: "The Chicken Duplicators" (Part 1)... Dr. Livergut and his assistant Crouton try to promote nuclear power, but Fish just makes fun of them... so they decide to make their own version of the Chicken of Wrath with a "Gene-ee" duplicating machine. Using one of Fish's feathers for a genetic template, they end up with "Nuke Rooster", who seems rather brusque...

Critters #33: "The Chicken Duplicators" (Part 2)... Fission Chicken's fight with his evil duplicate is featured on the cover. (Well he's not an exact duplicate... Nuke Rooster looks robotic, and has big pointy teeth besides.) Fish must stop the doppelganger from stealing nuclear waste, but N.R. seems just as powerful as F.C.; the day is saved when Fish fakes out the fake, big time.

Critters #35: "They Came From Beneath Somebody's Garage" (Part 1)... An empty lot and an old garage are being cleared away for a new shopping mall, awakening some sleeping monsters: the Dero, subterranean creatures of UFO lore! Fission Chicken arrives and is subjected to their weird weapons and their weird creatures. The Dero make their getaway, and Fish finds a book they dropped: "Atlas Slipped" by Ayn Rant...

Critters #36: "They Came From Beneath Somebody's Garage" (Part 2)... After fighting a remaining monster, F.C. finds out that the Dero are big Ayn Rant fans from long ago: long ago, the champion of "Objectionism" was digging a bomb shelter in her backyard, and found some Dero, and they got along real well... in the present, however, the Dero are creating a huge artificial volcano, and calling for her. Fish is held back by an invisible force field, but he gets them to call everything off by the use of an old movie film.

Critters #38: "Toilets of Terror"... The folks at Livergut Labs dump some mutagentic DNA waste down the toilet bowl... resulting in a very noisy, hyper, living toilet bowl with eyes and teeth. Fish smashes it to bits, but each bit grows into a seperate toilet monster! Further combat creates a gigantic, towering toilet monster!! But don't worry, Fish wipes it out before the end.

Critters #39: "The Homogenization Ray"... This thrilling tale takes up the entire issue cover to cover as the Fowl of Fury tails a Vortoxian robot drone to a New York City toymakers convention. Fish unveils a plot to alter the populace of the tri-state area into interchangeable clones! He also encounters the Middle-Aged Generic Mutant Tortoises, much to their mutual displeasure.

Critters #50: "The Beast With Five Toes"... In this extra-big final issue, the evil spirit of a Tibetan demon's foot wreaks havoc at a museum; it even possesses Fission Chicken's foot! But old pal Skip, being a detective, knows the remedy.

Critters "Fission Chicken" Appearance Dates: #15 August 1987, #19 December 1987, #20 January 1988, #21 February 1988, #22 February 1988 (sic), #23 April 1988, #24 May 1988, #27 August 1988, #28 September 1988, #30 November 1988, #32 January 1989, #33 February 1989, #35 April 1989, #36 May 1989, #38 July 1989, #39 July 1989 (sic), #50 March 1990.

Fission Chicken's own title: #1 January 1990, #2 February 1990, #3 March 1990, #4 May 1990.

"Fission Chicken" and all related characters are © John P. Morgan.

 Fission Chicken, Bird of Rock    Fission Chicken, give them fits
 Sees the living dead wake!      Fission Chicken, be rude
 Supersonic Fighting Cock       Smash the bad guys into bits
 Will mash them flat as pancakes!    And make them look like dog food! 

---

A Manticore Graphics production.
©1986 - 2008 John P. Morgan.

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