A battered Zik tries to get up, groaning from his painful experience in the singularity machine. Tanaka leaps to help him up, making sure his friend is okay.  Always aware of danger, Zik asks about the gorillaurs, but Misha has bolted from the lab out of a side door. They’ll have to be careful when they leave!

But as they venture outside, Tanaka hears the gorillaurs beating a hasty retreat up the mountain. Their terror at the infernal singularity machine has overcome any avenge to protect their maker! Zik expresses his relief at not having to face such formidable creatures again in his current state.

As the pair of them trek back through the jungle towards the landing zone, Tanaka asks about what it was like within the singularity.  Zik says that it was confusing; a mass of images swam before him, but he thinks it was mostly images from the future. He even saw an older version of his mother! But Tanaka is confused at that, since Zik’s mother perished in an avalanche. Maybe there are other universes that Zik was able to glimpse into!

Then Tanaka feels he must confess that he was tempted to join Wagner in the singularity. He thanks Zik for setting him straight, and promises to lift himself out of his depression and keep acting to better the future. Zik thanks Tanaka right back for having shut down the machine in time. Tanaka was quite the hero today!

Acting fast, Defender Zik helps the amazed young boy out of the burning skycar and swoops back up to the shuttle! He hands the kid to Ryan and promises to head back over to get the kid’s mother. After zooming back, he repeats the process with the lady and hauls her out of the careening vehicle in the nick of time! As they scream into the sky, the skycar smashes into the jungle with a mighty explosion.

Everyone lands on a nearby beach, and the young boy runs out to meet his mother. Crisis averted!

Zik turns to James Anchor and thanks him again for arriving in the nick of time. Our heroes seem to have gotten away! But Zik thinks it may have been too easy. Think about it: Queen Elcyra wasn’t aiming her torpedoes properly, and she all but ceased fire right after the Kodiak landed its first shot. Zik thinks she let them go! But why?

Meanwhile, Trent and Amelia have arrived on the bridge in their new space suits! This will keep them much safer while traveling in the dangerous environment of space! (Seriously, why the heck do people on Star Trek wear pajamas to work?)

And, clinging to the hull, deader than a doornail, is the clonoid that Queen Elcyra planted on the hull of the Kodiak…

WOW! It’s the end of the first chapter of Zik, The Gallant Defender of Zoz! Prison Planet has been quite an epic tale, clocking in at 147 pages! I’d like to take a moment to thank the people who have supported me in getting here, especially Adam Black and Raven Perez for their art and story-writing advice. These guys are great coaches! Also, all the great readers who have been tuning in every week to see the continuing adventures of their favorite space hero, and especially the awesome site members who have signed up to get the extras. And lastly, my awesome family for being supportive as I spend countless hours drawing and drawing and drawing. Thanks!

Episode 2 starts very shortly! Next week I will be featuring some amazing fan art that up until now has only been available for site members. The week after that, a whole new Zik adventure begins, along with a major shift! Stay tuned, you’ll be blown away!

Allow me to introduce Zik’s buddy James Anchor! James is the brain-child of my seven year-old son Vincent (hence the cute pet mouse on the shoulder of a seasoned warrior). His ship, the Kodiak, was a collaborative effort we did with Lego, the prototype for which I will see if I can find a picture of and post in the Members Area. With that kind of firepower, will he be able to give Queen Elcyra a run for her money?