TVSquad

We've mentioned a couple of times that an actual comic book was being developed based on the fictional Tek Jansen character created by the fictional Stephen Colbert, played by the real-life Stephen Colbert.

Tek Jansen is the hero of Colbert's science fiction novel, Stephen Colbert's Alpha Squad 7: Lady Nocturne: A Tek Jansen Adventure. The comic series, created by Oni Press, will consist of five issues, with two stories in each issue (one of which is a continuing story stretching through all five issues). Entertainment Weekly has a look at the first "secondary" story, "Horn Like Me!" in which our hero disguises himself as a horn-headed Rombaron, a race of aliens who rule over the plain-headed Rombarons. The story, naturally, is a spoof of John Howard Griffin's book Black Like Me, though Jim Massey also points out the story owes a debt to The Sneetches, the Dr. Seuss story.

Massey does a great job of emulating the voice and tone of Colbert's alter-ego (though Colbert did have final say on the scripts). My favorite line is when Tek notices a sexy plain-head and muses: "for a moment, I considered making love to her to boost her self-esteem."

The first issue of Stephen Colbert's Tek Jansen will be available July 11. If none of the above has convinced you to check it out, might I also mention that Tek has a "radioactive robotic monkey sidekick." That pretty much sold me.