Jack Flanders
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Jack Flanders is the protagonist of a series of audio dramas produced by the ZBS Foundation. He is the creation of writer and sound artist Thomas Lopez and is played by actor Robert Lorick.
Jack is an adventurer who travels the Earth exploring places both physical and a metaphysical land called the Invisible Realms. His character adapts as the story requires, ranging from a bumbling fool to a competent and professional detective into spiritual mysteries. Well-versed in the occult, folklore, primitive magic and various mystic phenomena, he is able to withstand most reality-altering experiences and generally has an open mind towards all things.
Being a character of audio drama, his physical appearance is not entirely clear, but he is generally thought to have blond hair, due to the CD cover art, and to be about 50 years old. In Tropical Hot Dog Nights (2007) his woman-friend Claudine describes him as "six-foot-two with blond hair". In Somewhere Next Door to Reality, a shop assistant says that he resembles the French poet Jacques Prévert. As the nephew of those adventurers from a past age, Lord and Lady Jowls, Jack is somewhat of a man out of time, dressing in white suits and ascot ties, as well as pith helmets and other adventurer's garb.
He attended University of California, Berkeley in the late '60s, although it is not known what he studied. He loves coffee, and likes to sample the local brews during his adventures. He occasionally drinks beer but seldom drinks wine or spirits (he does drink Port in one episode of The Fourth Tower of Inverness, and he drinks rum in The Mystery of Jaguar Reef). He may have smoked during his student days ("not since I read the Surgeon General's report", he says in The Fourth Tower of Inverness) but not since, and now has some difficulty tolerating the presence of people who smoke. On one occasion, at least, while living in London prior to the first adventure (Fourth Tower of Inverness), he swallowed hashish ("purely by accident") and saw a unicorn as a result. In Moon Over Morocco, he says that he meditates and never uses any drugs. He doesn't exercise. For a "few years", he says in Return to Inverness, he was a vegetarian but gave it up. "You have to have the right body type to be a good vegetarian", rejoins chef Wham-Bam Shazam.
He is clearly very attractive to women, and his adventures usually include a romance. Beyond a rare kiss, no physical contact with any woman is ever depicted, and romantic feelings are implied rather than stated. Usually, the women seem to be more interested in him than he is in them. In Dreams of India, he pursues a woman without success. Besides The Madonna Vampira, who appears in The Fourth Tower of Inverness and Return to Inverness, Claudine (a woman from another plane of existence who first appears in Somewhere Next Door to Reality) is the only love interest of his who appears in more than one adventure story.
His business card reads "What appears to be coming at you is coming from you." He first heard this motto in Brazil during the Dreams of Rio story.
The early stories were broadcast on college radio stations and on NPR during the 1970s and 1980s. Currently, they are sold directly on CD and as mp3 downloads via the ZBS Foundation website.
Jack Flanders story episodes are regularly featured on Mike Watt's The Watt From Pedro Show podcast.
[edit] List of Jack Flanders stories
- The Fourth Tower of Inverness (1972)
- Moon Over Morocco (1973)
- The Ah-Ha Phenomena (1977)
- The Incredible Adventures of Jack Flanders (1978)
- Dreams of Rio (1987)
- Travels with Jack Adventures
- Dreams of the Amazon (1992)
- Dreams of India (1992)
- Dreams of Bali (1992)
- Dreams of Sumatra (1993)
- The Mystery of Jaguar Reef (1996)
- Midnight at the Casa Luna (1998, 2000)
- Return to Inverness (2000)
- Travelling Jack
- Dreams of the Blue Morpho (2002)
- Somewhere Next Door to Reality (2002)
- Do That in Real Life? (2003)
- The Eye of Van Gogh (2003)
- The Fantastic Voyages of Captain Jack Flanders
- Orchids and Moonbeams (2005)
- The Ghost Islands (2006)
- Tropical Hot Dog Nights (2007)
- The White Castle (2008)
- Associated (have secondary characters in common)
- Little Frieda's Life Lessons (2001) [Little Frieda]
- The Case of the Disappearing Witch (2005) [Mojo Sam, Little Frieda]
- The Wee Weever - A Little Frieda Mystery (2007) [Mojo Sam, Little Frieda]
[edit] Characters
The following characters have prominent or recurring roles in the Jack Flanders series.
- Jack Flanders, the hero of the stories, Jack Flanders is an adventurer into the unexplored.
- Little Frieda, a Venusian who is a million and a half years old, Little Frieda looks like a little human girl with large pigtails and no pupils in her eyes. She smokes large Havana cigars, and can see thought forms. When in danger, her pigtails stand on end. She appears in Moon Over Morocco as "little Flosick, the child of magick", each of these words accented on the second syllable.
- Mojo Sam the Yoodoo Man, an expatriate American, Mojo Sam discovered his roots in Morocco where he studied a mixture of yoga and voodoo. He later returned to the US and accompanied Jack Flanders on many adventures.
- Dr. Marlin Mazoola, an alchemist of the first order, Dr. Mazoola is a classic mad scientist whose quest for alchemical knowledge often brings about great danger.
