Towards the end of elementary school, I had the idea for a comic book series called The Feeble Friends (a parody of Super Friends), about a group of anthropomorphic animal superheroes. Their leader was Super Chicken, who…didn’t really have any powers – just a gun that shot corn.
I created two issues in Microsoft Paint. The original files are lost, but I still have the black & white print copies:
Issue #1
Clumsy cameraman Mr. Chicken meets a space canary who gives him a metal egg; inside this egg is food that grants superpowers to whoever eats it (and the food is different depending on who holds the egg). Mr. Chicken transforms into Super Chicken and fights the interstellar criminal Robot Rooster.
Meanwhile, Mr. Chicken’s feline co-worker finds the egg and eats the food within, becoming Lightning Kitty. Together, Super Chicken and Lightning Kitty combine their strength to defeat Robot Rooster.
Issue #2
In an underwater-themed adventure, a new superhero named Typhoon Fish joins the team against the tyrannical Octopus-Squid, who’s forcing the denizens of Sea City to work in his restaurant. I love how it ends with everyone just eating Octopus-Squid.
I had plans for many, many more stories. I kept a memo book on my desk in school, and whenever I had an idea for an issue, I’d write the title and draw a mock-up of the cover. I remember one of them involved a time traveling phone booth like in Bill & Ted, and it was called “Trapped in Time with a Dime.”
I forgot how many issues I planned, but there were a lot. New heroes were going to join the team, and there was a rogues gallery of recurring villains that would periodically team-up with each other. In the end, however, I only ever made these two issues.
The Feeble Friends: The Animated Series
Years later, when we were learning how to use Macromedia Flash in high school, I decided to start my first animated series and I brought back the Feeble Friends idea.
I ended up making eight episodes in total.
Revisiting them now, it’s easy to say they’re not great with many flaws to pick apart: Animation was crude, you only ever saw one side of the characters and most of them were drawn without any rounded edges or curves. Dialogue was slow and repetitive, and annoyingly wholesome.
Most backgrounds were solid colors with a couple lines, and buildings were rectangles with words emblazoned on top in Times New Roman font. No music, minimal sound effects, zero voice acting…
But we all have to start somewhere! And despite its shortcomings, Feeble Friends is endearing to me on some level, and rewatching these episodes is like being with an old friend.
The main reason I stopped making these was due to technical issues. Flash kept crashing because every new episode was built on the previous one, so the files got incredibly huge.
All the episodes are here for you to watch, and they now have music to make them less boring.
The Episodes
Episode 1: The First Feeble Adventure
A visitor from space gives Mr. Chicken an egg that transforms him into Super Chicken.
Episode 2: The Big Problem
Super Chicken encounters Atomic Atom, who drinks a growth serum that turns him into a giant.
Episode 3: The Cheese Castle Conflict, Part 1
Mr. Chicken and his new colleague Mr. Kitty get kidnapped by the inhabitants of Cheese Castle.
Episode 4: The Cheese Castle Conflict, Part 2
Mr. Kitty eats the Power Egg food and becomes another superhero – Lightning Kitty!
Episode 5: The Raccoon’s Trap
Raccoon Bandit poses as a real estate agent and tries to murder Super Chicken and Lightning Kitty as they search for a base of operations.
Episode 6: Robot Rooster’s Return
Remember Robot Rooster? He’s back and he wants revenge.
Episode 7: Saving Sea City
Mr. Fish asks Super Chicken and Lightning Kitty to help liberate Sea City from the evil Octopus Squid and his shark minions.
Episode 8: Candy Clown’s Circus
The Feeble Friends must survive the deadly traps of Candy Clown’s circus.
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