History
Spider Comics, the company behind Chickenman, was created on the 1st of January 1997, by Tim Cheesman and his brother Gary, who were aged 14 and 12 at the time.
It's creation came about as a result of the boredom of the Christmas holidays and the fact Tim Cheesman had just discovered the Marvel Comics masterpiece 'Wolverine Unleashed', which inspired him to create a superhero of his own.
The company was divided into 200 one penny shares, of which Tim and Gary both owned 100. Tim Cheesman was appointed as the companies first employee in the role of "Managing Director". After a lenghty interview process he was also given the job of being solely responsible for role of creating a comic, with his brother Gary also given the same task.
Chickenman was born that night in the managing directors office (which also doubled as his bedroom), along with Gary Cheesman's creation 'Fred The Dog', which only lasted for one issue, partially due to the fact it was crap. Unfortunately the only copy of 'Fred The Dog' has long since disappeared, and has most likely been reduced to a mushy pulp at some landfill site, so we are unable to show it to you here. For those who are interested the one page story consisted of a very large blood hound called Fred, who took great offense to his master giving him the wrong variety of dog food, and chose to eat him instead.
The first issue of Chickenman is one of the few done in full colour, and saw the introduction of two other major characters, Chickenman's canine sidekick 'Chickendog' and his wife 'Chickenlady', though this marriage didn't last long, with the two becoming mortal enemies in later issues. In issue one Chickenman was pretty much a normal superhero, with special powers and the wish to do good. However, he displayed the rather non-superhero trait of having no qualms about killing the bad guys.
In the remaining days of those Christmas holidays, the second issue, "Chickenman vs Bugs Bunny" was produced. This issue saw a major change in Chickenman. Becoming somewhat 'rat-arsed' at his local pub, he is forcibly ejected they land lord. Not too pleased about this he stumbles around the streets, and just happens to bump into Bugs Bunny. For some reason said rabbit enrages Chickenman, who attacks Bugs. This then develops into a full blown fight and ends up with Chickenman running over Bugs Bunny with a steam roller.
This formulae of alcohol, swearing, violence and gratuitous amounts of blood became the norm from then on, with Chickenman rarely being seen without a can of "Beer" in his hand.
Upon the start of the new school term, Chickenman was shown round Tim's friends and acquaintances, who embraced it open arms.
A certain Steven Creasey was most impressed, and created the now infamous character "Davis", with his unusually small body and comically large head. This issue was such a success that Creasey created a number of additional characters (mainly in Mr Spencers science lessons, with the back of his and Tim's work books being crammed with the original drawings of many classic characters) and expressed an interest in becoming a shareholder in Spider Comics.
Gary Cheesman, who had lost faith in the company despite Chickenman showing signs of huge success, was only too happy to sell his shares to Tim, who in turn sold 17 to Steven Creasey for the sum of 30p, almost double the value Tim paid for them only the day before. This 13p was the company's first income, and remains the only profit Spider Comics has ever made.
Chickenman carried on, using both Tim's own characters and those created by Creasey. This has remained the case ever since, with the exception of "Elvis" in issue 10, who was created by Andrew Kett.
The next major development in the Chickenman story came in issue 13, where Chickenman was killed accidentally (or at least as accidentally as you can throw a knife at someone) by Chickenlady. Due to a series of events that I won't reveal here as it would spoil the story (this being only the second issue, along with number one, to have a proper story rather than a vague reason for violence), Chickenlady ended up becoming the Devil, and determined to destroy Chickenman at all costs.
This development allowed Chickenlady {also known as Devil Lady} to bring characters back to life so they could attempt to kill her husband. This led to Davis returning many times, only to die again, making him one of the most regular characters.
By now it was a year since Chickenman first came out, and "Chickenman Birthday Special #1" was produced to mark the occaison. This saw everyone Chickenman had killed being bought back to life for a party, which as you've no doubt guesses, quickly turned into a violent blood bath.
It was also around this time that the first spin off comic from the Chickenman stable was released, "Uncle Roy", which starred Chickenman's uncle, an overweight Norfolk farmer who was involved in a feud with the even more overweight Farmer Ned, who's farm backed onto his. This was an interesting variation on the Chickenman theme, discarding the traditional values of swearing and violence, instead opting for comical accents and toilet humour.
Despite the general high opinion of "Uncle Roy", Tim was dissatisfied with it's general style, and in the second spin-off series "Spider Comics Team Ups", starring Chickenman and Uncle Roy, both Uncle Roy and Farmer Ned were slaughtered, stopping "Uncle Roy" from ever having more than one issue. "Spider Comics Team Ups" also has never had a second issue made, but it's not to be ruled out.
A third spin-off, "The Many Beers Of Chickenman" in which each issue Chickenman drinks a differerent type of beer to his usual brand "Beer", and each type somehow genetically alters him, was produced, with Gareth Burrell helping with the creation of the mutant Chickenmen. So far only one full issue of this has been produced, though production was begun on a second issue that currently remains unfinished, almost two years later.
A second anniversary issue of Chickenman was made, but the whereabouts of this remain unknown.
Chickenman itself carried on succesfully until the end of year 12 in 1999, when Tim Cheesman and his family were forced to move to another part of the country. This ended the succesful Cheezy/Creasey partnership and since then only two new issues of Chickenman have been made, despite the fact Cheezy produced all the issues entirely by himself, with Creasey only helping in the creation of some characters.
It is Tim's personal opinion that the second most recent issue, made in July 1999 is in fact the best ever, with appearances of all the favorite characters and many more jokes than usual. He also considers this second last issue to be the most recent "proper" Chickenman adverture, because although the latest edition made in August 1999, is technically part of the Chickenman series, it was made specifically for the enjoyment of the person who stars in it, Cradle Of Filth frontman Dani Filth (who never received it due to Tim leaving it at home when he went to meet him), rather than to be enjoyed by people in general as most previous adventures were (with one other exception, based solely on personal jokes with his penpal).
So, what does the future of Chickenman hold? Well, come back here to find out any new developments, as all/any new issues will be posted right here on this site, along with any relavent updates to the history.
This history is correct up to January 27th, 2000. Any further developments will be added below this line.
UPDATE!
January 28th, 2000
There is currently a new issue of Chickenman in production, the first since August 99. Making a special guest appearence is Monkey, star of the the comic strip of the same name on Dan's Monkey Site.
UPDATE!
January 30th, 2000
The new issue, "Hey Hey, It's Chickenman and Monkey" can is now completed, and can be found on Dan's Monkey Site, and shall of course appear on Chickenman Online as soon as the bibliography section is up and running.
UPDATE!
March 12th, 2000
All the regular Chickenman adventures are now online, including the Chickenman and Monkey tale, plus a brand new adventure, "Chickenman vs Communist Ben".
UPDATE!
March 14th, 2000
The discovery of three never before seen Chickenman tales, that had been completely forgotten, was made last night. This discovery reveals some innacuracies in the previously reported history of Chickenman.
Firstly, two of the tales were actually written after the companies relocation to Peterborough and before the "Dani Filth" issue that was thought to have been the last issue made before a 5 month break in production, showing that the relocation didn't have the immediate destructive effect on the company that was first thought.
Secondly, the production break following the "Dani Filth" issue only actually lasted five months, not 6 as previously thought. This is due to the production of "Chickenman vs Father Christmas" in December 99, meaning the "Monkey" tale was produced after only a month of inactivity.
Finally, there is yet another new issue of Chickenman currently in production. With the "Communist Ben" issue being only a week or so old this could mean good news for Chickenman fans, as it looks likely the company is getting back into a regular production schedule for the first time in nearly a year!
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