Chi-Fen-Ku (2007-2015)

Following the two previous past productions by MDCartoons, Scarlet, Tuck and Barrington (2006) and Hedley and Smedley (2006-2015), here's one from 2007: Chi-Fen-Ku

This series is being developed by Morgan Leger and myself as a duel project, inspired by "dumb-superhero" comics and cartoons, such as Hong Kong Phooey, Darkwing Duck, and Bananaman.


The series is set in London, and involves a college student named Derek, who somehow has the ability to transform into a samurai hero called Chi-Fen-Ku whenever he eats a Japanese dough-ball. He uses this ability to fight crime in the city, and in various locations around the world.

This, like Hedley and Smedley & Scarlet, Tuck and Barrington, is played mostly for comedy, but of the three, it has a slightly more serious tone than the others. But it is still mostly a comedy series.

Morgan and I have split the character development between us, with the two of us working on the personalities of two characters each, so I can't really go into too much with the two he's fleshing out. I'll be more descriptive about the characters developed by myself:

CHI-FEN-KU:

Chi-Fen-Ku is a samurai hero and alter-ego who Derek transforms into when he eats a Japanese dough-ball. His appearance is that of an Anime-like character and he speaks with a traditional, but British, superhero voice.

Despite the appearance of a competent and cunning champion, Chi-Fen-Ku is extremely egotistical and foolish. On his missions, he often monologues his every move out loud, giving his enemies a chance to temporarily defeat him. An example of this would be that, should a villain be pointing a gun at him, he would say "As the vile villain pulled the trigger, the daring Chi-Fen-Ku swiftly dodged to the left!", which would lead the villain to point the gun in that direction, barely missing Fen-Ku as he moved in that direction when he fires.

Despite his foolishness, he becomes far more competent when the villains engage in the final stages of their plans, where he has just seconds to act. An example would be that a hostage would be suspended over a pool of piranhas, for instance, and seconds before they're dropped in, he gets his act together and defeats the villains, thus saving the hostage.

Derek seems to psychologically be able to transform back into himself as soon as a job is done, and often expresses humorous concern that he might transform DURING a mission, but he tries not to think about it; he most always transforms back AFTER mission is over.

DEREK:

Derek is an 18-year-old college student who transforms into Chi-Fen-Ku. At college, he is a poor student. He isn't smart, he lacks commitment to anything, and often falls asleep, due to the fact he spends most nights fighting crimes as his alter-ego. He likes to mostly waddle through the college term, waiting for the next mission so he can transform again, as he's more interested in being Chi-Fen-Ku than himself.

TOMIKI:

Tomiki is a 19-year-old Japanese photography student at Derek's college. She is one of only two people who know that Derek and Chi-Fen-Ku are the same person.

In college, she continually tries to help Derek improve on his classes, and often gets extremely annoyed with him whenever he fails, or flat-out refuses, to take her advice.

She is the official photographer for the college paper, and uses this to follow Chi-Fen-Ku on his missions to take photos of him in action against criminals. This often gets her captured, turning her into a damsel-in-distress. However, this is an infrequent turn of events, as she is a skilled martial artist, and often helps Derek as Chi-Fen-Ku train for missions, nearly always beating him!

She dislikes PC Flanagan, who gives Derek info on criminal activities.

PC FLANAGAN:

Ronald Flanagan is an Irish sergeant of the London Police. He is overworked due to the level of crimes in the city, and often calls for Chi-Fen-Ku when things get out of hand. Like Tomiki, Flanagan knows Derek and Chi-Fen-Ku are the same person, and often visits Derek between classes at his college to give him missions for Chi-Fen-Ku to carry out, much to Tomiki's frustration, as she thinks he exploits Derek's ability to become a superhero so he can avoid doing any work himself.



The series will follow a "criminal-of-the-week" style for a while, as we have no plans for main villains, and each comic, like "Scarlet, Tuck and Barrington" and "Hedley and Smedley", will be 12 pages in length. Though we intended to make the third comic an original creation, Leger and I couldn't think of anything, so I tossed in some old ideas of mine and we ultimately went with this one. The characters barely look ANYTHING like they did in 2007, and the concept is targeted more at comedy, whereas the original was more serious, so in a way, that makes this technically an original production.

We have NO promises as to when these will be released. Only that we're working on them at a leisurely rate, as I'm known for abandoning stuff when I burn myself out over too much work thrown at myself, illustration-wise.

I would like to thank for helping out with colours, and for teaching me how to draw Anime for Chi-Fen-Ku himself. Seriously, he taught me within the space of 1 hour!! God, he's awesome!!

Anyway, let me know what you think.