This was totally a coincidence, but Redburn, the fiery "rooster" character, was introduced right at the beginning of the Year of the Fire Rooster...

Well... actually, it's that I'm a Rooster (1993) and I'm also a Sagittarius, and I needed to have both my zodiac signs in my comic. But it IS a coincidence that the timing of his introduction and the year matched. Even I couldn't have planned for that!