Tek Jansen
Encyclopedia
Tek Jansen is a fictional character
featured on The Colbert Report and in a comic book series published by Oni Press
. Jansen originated as a recurring joke in the form of a supposed self-published science fiction novel on the Report, reportedly as a parody of Bill O'Reilly
's 1998 novel, Those Who Trespass
. The character later appeared on the show in a series of animated shorts entitled Stephen Colbert Presents Stephen Colbert's Alpha Squad 7: A Tek Jansen Adventure, with Jansen voiced by Stephen Colbert
, and in 2007 became the protagonist of a five-part comic series.
An agent for the elite Alpha Squad 7, Jansen is portrayed as heroic, powerful and irresistible to women: essentially, he is an idealized version of the Reports host
, who supposedly created him.
, Colbert County, Alabama
, the former copy is actually "The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia Of Rock & Roll" with a new cover glued over the original, and the latter copy was merely blank pages. A number of chapters were made available on the show's official website, ColbertNation.com. In the show's April 3, 2008 episode, Colbert claimed that a total of twenty publishers had turned down the novel.
On August 8, 2006, the Report debuted a series of three to four minute-long animated shorts
entitled Stephen Colbert Presents: Stephen Colbert's Alpha Squad 7: The New Tek Jansen Adventures, allegedly in response to a lack of publisher interest in the novel. Jansen is voiced by Colbert himself.
s". Jansen typically both saves the day and seduces every woman in the story, villains included, and the episode invariably ends on a cliffhanger
with a naked Jansen in mortal danger.
The entire first season was included in a bonus disc accompanying copies of The Best of The Colbert Report
.
On June 24, 2006, Comedy Central
announced that Oni Press
would publish a five-part comic book adaptation of the Tek Jansen novel as Stephen Colbert's Tek Jansen Adventures, a multi-part series of comics. The first issue was published on July 11, 2007. The second had been scheduled for a December 26, 2007 release, but was delayed due to the Writers Guild of America strike
. It was finally released on July 2, 2008. Issue 3 was released on August 3, 2008. Issues 4 and 5 were released in 2009. On August 12, 2009, the five issues were collected into a 136-page graphic novel.
Each comic has two stories, the first one—written by John Layman
and Tom Peyer
, with art by Scott Chantler—part of an ongoing serialized story, and the second one—written by Jim Massey
with art by Robbi Rodriguez—a stand alone "backup story".
Colbert and his staff were very involved in guiding the style of both the writing and the artwork. Artist Scott Chantler recalls that it was assumed the comics would follow the "animated" look of the cartoons, however Colbert wanted a more serious dramatic tone "that played it as straight as he does on the show", and the artwork was toned down to suit this theme. Chantler describes the style as similar to that of a space adventure comic from the early 1960s: "heroic and dramatic, but still appealing and fun, and funny in spite of itself. The theory I'm going on is that this is a cool old comic of which the animated segments are silly Saturday morning versions (even though the reverse is actually true)". Writers John Layman and Tom Peyer also recall having to tone down Jansen's character, whom they initially wrote as "Stephen Colbert in space", with "a robot eagle sidekick and he was going after alien bears". Of Colbert's contributions, Jim Massey says the most influential was his desire that the comics not contain any reference to present-day Earth.
From these humble beginnings, Jansen has become an elite agent who has had hundreds of girlfriends. He has wrestled with numerous villains, and continues to face off against Thurmond Chang and "those affiliated with the Thurmond Chang Gang". He also appears at one point to have had a sidekick
, Porpy the Porpoise a "zany" space porpoise
.
His sidekick
, Porpy the Porpoise, is described as a "zany" space porpoise
. While his appearances on the television series have pattered out somewhat, his involvement in the graphic novel is ongoing and is included in almost all of the comics. Porpy was prominently featured in "Porpy's story", a short side-story in which Porpy's background is alluded to by Tek, but not told fully, as Tek becomes distracted by an adventure and forgets about Porpy altogether. In the television show Porpy is voiced by stock porpoise sounds and bubbles.
", Jansen is essentially an idealized version of Colbert's character. The cover of the fictitious novel depicts Colbert (wearing a space suit) as Jansen, and Colbert also provides the character's voice in the animated series. The animated series frequently mentions the fact that Jansen has "obviously had hundreds of girlfriends", and he invariably seduces and beds every woman he encounters, including his enemies. The theme song, which debuted on November 8, 2006, describes Jansen as a "super awesome spectacular ultra-spy", and further notes that his "exciting exploits would sell millions of books".
Chantler says he attempts to draw Jansen "as if he were the most confident man in the universe" and that "this is a character who's convinced he's right about everything". Although his behavior is regularly a source of comedy, Jansen has no sense of humor about himself and is rarely seen to smile in either the animated series or the comics. The only exception in the animated series was a two-second laugh with a pair of Jansen's subordinates in the second episode of the first series, with a comically abrupt ending.
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
featured on The Colbert Report and in a comic book series published by Oni Press
Oni Press
Oni Press is an American independent comic book publisher based in Portland, Oregon. It was founded in 1997 by Bob Schreck and Joe Nozemack with the goal of publishing the kinds of comics and graphic novels they themselves would want to read...
. Jansen originated as a recurring joke in the form of a supposed self-published science fiction novel on the Report, reportedly as a parody of Bill O'Reilly
Bill O'Reilly (commentator)
William James "Bill" O'Reilly, Jr. is an American television host, author, syndicated columnist and political commentator. He is the host of the political commentary program The O'Reilly Factor on the Fox News Channel, which is the most watched cable news television program on American television...
's 1998 novel, Those Who Trespass
Those Who Trespass
Those Who Trespass: A Novel of Television and Murder is a 1998 novel by US television personality Bill O'Reilly. The story focuses on the revenge a television journalist exacts on network staff after disputes very similar to O'Reilly's real tensions with CBS...
. The character later appeared on the show in a series of animated shorts entitled Stephen Colbert Presents Stephen Colbert's Alpha Squad 7: A Tek Jansen Adventure, with Jansen voiced by Stephen Colbert
Stephen Colbert
Stephen Tyrone Colbert is an American political satirist, writer, comedian, television host, and actor. He is the host of Comedy Central's The Colbert Report, a satirical news show in which Colbert portrays a caricatured version of conservative political pundits.Colbert originally studied to be an...
, and in 2007 became the protagonist of a five-part comic series.
An agent for the elite Alpha Squad 7, Jansen is portrayed as heroic, powerful and irresistible to women: essentially, he is an idealized version of the Reports host
Stephen Colbert (character)
The Reverend / Sir / Dr. / Stephen T. Colbert, D.F.A., brain-child of Google, is the persona of political satirist Stephen Colbert, as portrayed on Comedy Central's The Colbert Report. Described as a "well-intentioned, poorly informed high-status idiot", the character is a self-obsessed right-wing...
, who supposedly created him.
Novel
Jansen was introduced on The Colbert Report on the October 26, 2005 episode as the protagonist of Stephen Colbert's fictitious self-published 1,800 page novel, Stephen Colbert's Alpha Squad 7: Lady Nocturne: A Tek Jansen Adventure. The novel became a recurring joke, with Colbert occasionally discussing the manuscript and reading passages while lamenting that no publisher has distributed the book yet. Although a copy of the novel was seen on the show and at the Stephen Colbert Museum and Gift Shop in TuscumbiaTuscumbia, Alabama
Tuscumbia is a city in and the county seat of Colbert County, Alabama, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 8,423 and is included in The Shoals MSA....
, Colbert County, Alabama
Colbert County, Alabama
Colbert County is a county of the U.S. state of Alabama. Its name is in honor of brothers George and Levi Colbert, Chickasaw Indian chiefs. George Colbert operated a ferry across the Tennessee River in 1790 near present day Cherokee....
, the former copy is actually "The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia Of Rock & Roll" with a new cover glued over the original, and the latter copy was merely blank pages. A number of chapters were made available on the show's official website, ColbertNation.com. In the show's April 3, 2008 episode, Colbert claimed that a total of twenty publishers had turned down the novel.
Animated series
Animated cartoon
An animated cartoon is a short, hand-drawn film for the cinema, television or computer screen, featuring some kind of story or plot...
entitled Stephen Colbert Presents: Stephen Colbert's Alpha Squad 7: The New Tek Jansen Adventures, allegedly in response to a lack of publisher interest in the novel. Jansen is voiced by Colbert himself.
Season One
The first six episodes were designed, animated, and produced by J.J. Sedelmaier Productions and producer Samantha Scharff. They tend to be formulaic in nature, regularly working in Jansen's signature exclamations (such as "Solar Plexus!" and "Parum-pum!") and reference to his having had "hundreds of girlfriendGirlfriend
Girlfriend is a term that can refer to either a female partner in a non-marital romantic relationship or a female non-romantic friend that is closer than other friends....
s". Jansen typically both saves the day and seduces every woman in the story, villains included, and the episode invariably ends on a cliffhanger
Cliffhanger
A cliffhanger or cliffhanger ending is a plot device in fiction which features a main character in a precarious or difficult dilemma, or confronted with a shocking revelation at the end of an episode of serialized fiction...
with a naked Jansen in mortal danger.
The entire first season was included in a bonus disc accompanying copies of The Best of The Colbert Report
The Best of The Colbert Report
The Best of the Colbert Report is a single-disc DVD compiling memorable segments from The Colbert Reports 2005, 2006, and 2007 seasons. It was released by Comedy Central on November 6, 2007....
.
| Season 1 - Episode Title | Writers | Airdate |
|---|---|---|
| Operation: Heart of The Phoenix - Dead or Alive: A Tek Jansen Adventure | Peter Gwinn Peter Gwinn Peter Gwinn is an American comedy writer and improviser from Evanston, Illinois. He attended Carleton College in Northfield, MN. He has taught at both the I.O. and Upright Citizens Brigade theaters and is the founder of the musical improv group Baby Wants Candy. He is the author of the 2003... and Rob Dubbin |
August 8, 2006 |
| Operation: Destiny's Underbelly: Entrapped!: A Tek Jansen Adventure | Peter Gwinn and Laura Krafft Laura Krafft Laura Krafft is a comedic writer and actress. An ImprovOlympic and Second City alum, she is a former staff writer for The Colbert Report.- Writing assignments :*The Colbert Report Bust Magazine Columnist, "News from a Broad",... |
September 18, 2006 |
| Operation: Aurora Strikes Midnight: Courage's Arrival: A Tek Jansen Adventure | Peter Gwinn and Eric Drysdale Eric Drysdale Eric Drysdale is a writer for The Colbert Report and The Daily Show on Comedy Central. He has won five Emmys and been nominated for two more. Drysdale was born in New York City on March 20, 1969, and lives in New York City with his wife and dog... |
October 11, 2006 |
| Operation: Homecoming's Doorstep: Cat On A Luniharp: A Tek Jansen Adventure | Peter Gwinn and Tom Purcell | December 6, 2006 |
| Operation: Hounds of Hell: Ragtime Billy Peaches: A Tek Jansen Adventure | Peter Gwinn and Glenn Eichler Glenn Eichler Glenn Eichler is a comedy writer who started out as an editor for the National Lampoon magazine. From there, he moved over to work as story editor for the MTV television shows, Beavis and Butt-head and The Maxx. He was later responsible for creating and producing the television show Daria, a... |
January 10, 2007 |
| Operation: Dragontongue: Chocolate Blades Of Thunder: A Tek Jansen Adventure | Peter Gwinn and Jay Katsir | February 7, 2007 |
Season Two
On September 12, 2007, the Report debuted the first of a projected eight new Tek Jansen episodes. This second series, which is being produced by FlickerLab, covers the early history of Jansen, from his humble beginnings as a young, physically awkward space dog vendor. Unlike Series One, which has little to no continuity between episodes, Series Two follows a continuous narrative. Though projected as an eight-part series, no new episodes have been completed since episode 3 debuted in January, 2009.| Season 2 - Episode Title | Writers | Airdate |
|---|---|---|
| Beginning's First Dawn: A Tek Jansen Adventure: Chapter 1 | Peter Gwinn and Glenn Eichler | September 12, 2007 |
| Beginning's First Dawn: A Tek Jansen Adventure: Chapter 2 | Rob Dubbin and Frank Lesser | April 3, 2008 |
| Beginning's First Dawn: A Tek Jansen Adventure: Chapter 3 | Glenn Eichler, Peter Gwinn, Eric Drysdale, and Michael Brumm | January 5, 2009 |
Comics
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel that carries comedy programming, both original and syndicated....
announced that Oni Press
Oni Press
Oni Press is an American independent comic book publisher based in Portland, Oregon. It was founded in 1997 by Bob Schreck and Joe Nozemack with the goal of publishing the kinds of comics and graphic novels they themselves would want to read...
would publish a five-part comic book adaptation of the Tek Jansen novel as Stephen Colbert's Tek Jansen Adventures, a multi-part series of comics. The first issue was published on July 11, 2007. The second had been scheduled for a December 26, 2007 release, but was delayed due to the Writers Guild of America strike
2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike
The 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, more commonly referred to as simply the Writers' Strike, was a strike by the Writers Guild of America, East and the Writers Guild of America, West ....
. It was finally released on July 2, 2008. Issue 3 was released on August 3, 2008. Issues 4 and 5 were released in 2009. On August 12, 2009, the five issues were collected into a 136-page graphic novel.
Each comic has two stories, the first one—written by John Layman
John layman
John Steele Layman is an American comic book writer and letterer.-Biography:Once an editor for Wildstorm, a branch of DC Comics, Layman turned to writing comics full-time in 2002 and mainly writes for Marvel Comics....
and Tom Peyer
Tom Peyer
Tom Peyer is an American comic book creator and editor.He is probably best known for his 1999 revisioning of Golden Age super-hero Hourman, as well as his work on the Legion of Super-Heroes in the 1990s. An editor at DC Comics/Vertigo from 1987 to 1993, he served as assistant editor on Neil...
, with art by Scott Chantler—part of an ongoing serialized story, and the second one—written by Jim Massey
Jim Massey
Jim Massey is an American humorist and comic book writer. He is most famous for his work on Death Takes a Holiday, Maintenance and Stephen Colbert's Tek Jansen.-External links:*** on MySpace...
with art by Robbi Rodriguez—a stand alone "backup story".
Colbert and his staff were very involved in guiding the style of both the writing and the artwork. Artist Scott Chantler recalls that it was assumed the comics would follow the "animated" look of the cartoons, however Colbert wanted a more serious dramatic tone "that played it as straight as he does on the show", and the artwork was toned down to suit this theme. Chantler describes the style as similar to that of a space adventure comic from the early 1960s: "heroic and dramatic, but still appealing and fun, and funny in spite of itself. The theory I'm going on is that this is a cool old comic of which the animated segments are silly Saturday morning versions (even though the reverse is actually true)". Writers John Layman and Tom Peyer also recall having to tone down Jansen's character, whom they initially wrote as "Stephen Colbert in space", with "a robot eagle sidekick and he was going after alien bears". Of Colbert's contributions, Jim Massey says the most influential was his desire that the comics not contain any reference to present-day Earth.
Fictional biography
In his youth, Tek Jansen was a shy and physically awkward space-dog vendor who worked at sport and political venues and had never even had a single girlfriend. However, after inadvertently learning of his future nemesis Thurmond Chang's sinister plans to take over the universe and witnessing the murder of the Alpha Squad agent sent to stop him, Jansen found himself unexpectedly plunged into a new adventure. In his dying moments, the Alpha Squad agent handed Tek his nano fiche with instructions to deliver it to Alpha Squad headquarters, thus setting him on a new path.From these humble beginnings, Jansen has become an elite agent who has had hundreds of girlfriends. He has wrestled with numerous villains, and continues to face off against Thurmond Chang and "those affiliated with the Thurmond Chang Gang". He also appears at one point to have had a sidekick
Sidekick
A sidekick is a close companion who is generally regarded as subordinate to the one he accompanies. Some well-known fictional sidekicks are Don Quixote's Sancho Panza, Sherlock Holmes' Doctor Watson, The Lone Ranger's Tonto, The Green Hornet's Kato and Batman's Robin.-Origins:The origin of the...
, Porpy the Porpoise a "zany" space porpoise
Porpoise
Porpoises are small cetaceans of the family Phocoenidae; they are related to whales and dolphins. They are distinct from dolphins, although the word "porpoise" has been used to refer to any small dolphin, especially by sailors and fishermen...
.
His sidekick
Sidekick
A sidekick is a close companion who is generally regarded as subordinate to the one he accompanies. Some well-known fictional sidekicks are Don Quixote's Sancho Panza, Sherlock Holmes' Doctor Watson, The Lone Ranger's Tonto, The Green Hornet's Kato and Batman's Robin.-Origins:The origin of the...
, Porpy the Porpoise, is described as a "zany" space porpoise
Porpoise
Porpoises are small cetaceans of the family Phocoenidae; they are related to whales and dolphins. They are distinct from dolphins, although the word "porpoise" has been used to refer to any small dolphin, especially by sailors and fishermen...
. While his appearances on the television series have pattered out somewhat, his involvement in the graphic novel is ongoing and is included in almost all of the comics. Porpy was prominently featured in "Porpy's story", a short side-story in which Porpy's background is alluded to by Tek, but not told fully, as Tek becomes distracted by an adventure and forgets about Porpy altogether. In the television show Porpy is voiced by stock porpoise sounds and bubbles.
Characteristics
Described by some reviewers as a "Mary SueMary Sue
A Mary Sue , in literary criticism and particularly in fanfiction, is a fictional character with overly idealized and hackneyed mannerisms, lacking noteworthy flaws, and primarily functioning as a wish-fulfillment fantasy for the author or reader...
", Jansen is essentially an idealized version of Colbert's character. The cover of the fictitious novel depicts Colbert (wearing a space suit) as Jansen, and Colbert also provides the character's voice in the animated series. The animated series frequently mentions the fact that Jansen has "obviously had hundreds of girlfriends", and he invariably seduces and beds every woman he encounters, including his enemies. The theme song, which debuted on November 8, 2006, describes Jansen as a "super awesome spectacular ultra-spy", and further notes that his "exciting exploits would sell millions of books".
Chantler says he attempts to draw Jansen "as if he were the most confident man in the universe" and that "this is a character who's convinced he's right about everything". Although his behavior is regularly a source of comedy, Jansen has no sense of humor about himself and is rarely seen to smile in either the animated series or the comics. The only exception in the animated series was a two-second laugh with a pair of Jansen's subordinates in the second episode of the first series, with a comically abrupt ending.