the 
C A P T A I N jim
FAQ (version 0.12, updated 1/6/96)
by Daniel Sandler
<dsandler@goober.mbhs.edu>
In HTML format and Surround
Sound, where available
Index
Part I: The History of Captain Jim
In the beginning
In the beginning there was nothing, not even a sausage. A new cartoon
character was born; he was simply dubbed Jim. His existence arose from the
need to move on to more complex and less childish art styles. (This need
has since resurfaced -- the irony, of course, being that Captain Jim is
now the last holdout of *his* era of cartooning.) Jim was a skinny guy with
a big head and yellow hair that spiked out in front. His appearance has
changed little. That's pretty good, considering what he's been through.
The Metamorphosis
Jim was useful as a comic strip character; he did lots of weird things as
a normal person and I have some of his old adventures in comic-strip form
in a closet or a box somewhere. (He does, incidentally, live on as a normal
person in the cartoons I do for school papers etc.)
After a while, however, Jim got boring. So he started doing weirder and
weirder things until he finally got twisted up in some sort of intergalactic
struggle with some greasy, dripping, gooey green guys called Gleepians.
His space epics were hopelessly entwined with his reality, making things
very *very* confusing until the two alter-egos were finally divided sometime
in 1990 with the first formal issues of Captain Jim.
The Saga Begins
It started innocently enough: two sheets of clean white paper from one of
the school printers folded the short way to make one cover page and six
interior pages. Issue 1 appeared; I think the story had something to do
with an energy crystal of some sort. I really can't remember the story very
well, or the ads that went on the backs of the last 4 or 5 issues, because
issues 1-15 of Captain Jim -- along with the Red Folder in which CJ always
resides -- were stolen. I think now that maybe I misplaced them, but I could
have sworn I put the folder down by my locker and when I looked up it was
gone.
During the summer between junior high and high school, I tried my hand at
a new story -- CJ #16. Except, it was just "Jim", because in the
new story Jim has no memory. He wakes up with Gleepians hovering over him
in some kind of medical ward, saying things like "We thought we'd lost
you there." The Basically, Jim thinks he works for the Gleeps. That
issue was ten pages long, but I never continued the story.
Not until late in freshman year did I start CJ again, starting with issue
#17. That story ended at #23 with a cool explosion borrowed from Star
Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country and aI started a news story at #24.
That story segued smoothly into another story, and that complete saga ended
at #55.
I had a dream one night while visiting in Ohio. I decided to make this
dream into an epic tale for Captain Jim. It begins with number fifty-six.
#56 is the first issue available, at this time, over the Internet.
Part II: The CJ Universe
The Intergalactic Federation
Manned spaceflight began to make advances. Small-scale spaceflexers
became popular, so that ships could surf on spacetime at absolute speeds
close to the speed of light (and, later, beyond). This is, however, nowhere
near the speed required to make exploration beyond our solar system possible.
In a moment of pure optimism (and perhaps naïveté?), however,
the Earth began its Intergalactic Federation -- a collection of spacefaring
nations (or hopefuls) to coordinate mapmaking, exploration, and -- someday
-- contact.
That contact was made when the IFS Serendipity -- a mid-sized exploring
cruiser with a crew complement of twenty -- reported an SOS to all near
space stations, citing malfunctioning flex engines as the problem. The message
was cut off, as the Serendipity got hurled out of the solar system by its
engines.
What the crew of the Serendipity collided with has come to be known as the
Corridor, a breach in our intricately folded three-space that opens onto
another section, in another star system in another arm of the galaxy.
On the other side of the Corridor there existed
a small backward world, bent on war and self-destruction. The inhabitants
of this planet Gleep (henceforth known as Gleepians) had at their disposal
limited means for space travel, and had not yet discovered the Corridor
that opened so close to their planet.
The Gleepian language, elegance having been sacrificed for confusion, was
so intricately twisted and frustrated that English caught on quickly. Earth
influence brought about a short-lived renaissance of Gleepian culture, including
advances in astrophysics and in the arts.
There came three main results
from the Gleepian Awakening. With technological development came further weapons
research, and so thoughts of conquest returned to the minds of the Gleepian
people. With the realization of space travel and the discovery of the Corridor,
there were new worlds to mine and include as part of the "natural Gleepian
sphere." Finally, Earth influence so drastically upset the traditional
Gleepian worldview that the planet eventually became hostile to their human
neigbors. The human "invasion," as it came to be called, gave
Gleepian hard-liners a new enemy, militant thinkers a new direction, and
children a new fear. A new generation of Gleepians and Earthlings grew up
discomprehending and hating the weird-looking aliens from across the galaxy.
Never in the histories of both worlds had their respective world populations
been so united.
Daniel Sandler
Will Rice College (Rice University)
6330 S Main
Houston, TX 77005 USA
dsandler@goober.mbhs.edu
This page is located at http://www.stardot.com/cj/cjfaq.html
Send me comments!
Captain Jim story and images ©1996 Daniel Sandler.
Daniel Sandler is not married, has no children, and does not live in Surrey.
