Atomic Mouse
From WikiFur, the furry encyclopedia.
Atomic Mouse is a pioneer of the funny animal comic genre that first appeared in March 1953 and continued for 54 issues through June 1963. The creation of the series is credited to cartoonist Al Fago, but his brother Vince Fago invented the character and did many of the stories. At the time Vince was doing a daily comic strip and wished to disassociate his name from comic books. Atomic Mouse was the first and most successful superhero series from Charlton Comics running into the 1960's with original material and occasional reprinted runs thereafter into the 1970's.
In the comic, Atomic Mouse protected the citizens of Mouseville from the evil Count Gatto and his sidekick Shadow with the help of superpowers gained from U-235 pills developed by Professor Invento.
[edit] Modern age revival
Atomic Mouse was briefly reprinted in the '80s by the American Comics Group, and saw a revival through Shanda Fantasy Arts, first appearing in SFA Spotlight #11 in May 2001, then getting his own series in September 2001. Vince Fago, the creator and original artist, gave his blessing and even contributed some art for the new version. The new comics provided a striking contrast by juxtaposing reprints of Vince Fago's original series with all-new stories and art in which Atomic Mouse is "transported" from the classic comics into modern-day "reality" to protect the city of Rodentia.
In the new series, a planet of funny animals is threatened by a meteor and Professor LaSerne creates a machine that brings images to life, placing an Atomic Mouse comic in front of it. Subsequently Atomic Mouse goes to the publishers of the comic, and they provide him a home and headquarters where he protects the city of Rodentia from such villians as the Mustard King (Poupon DeJean), Professor Pizarro and Super Rat. He has a romantic relationship with Lillian Mouse (a mouse of color) who writes and draws the comic, and a backup series focuses on the Legion of Almost Villians, who are five minor powered crooks who seek to enhance their reputation by defeating AM, who is unaware of their existance. They even spawned a spinoff group, the Legion of Substitute Villians. Atomic Mouse relaxes in a civilian identiry of Vince Mouse, taking his name from the character's creator, and once had an adventure with the Charlton funny animal version (meeting Atomic Rabbit in the process).
The series is currently on hiatus at Shanda Fantasy Arts, but will return in 2009 with a one-shot episode called "Atomic Mouse vs Power Jack and the Power Force".
