History ComicBook / JackStaff

John Smith, salt-of-the-Earth builder and decorator of Castletown, Yorkshire, is really Jack Staff, Britain's greatest hero. Since WorldWarII, he's been defeating threats to the people of the islands, mostly by hitting them with a stick until they give up.

* BigBadFriend: [[spoiler: Sergeant Stripes]]

* DyingAsYourself: [[spoiler: Kapitan Krieg]]

* ImmortalLifeIsCheap: Helen Morgan. Not treated quite comically enough for TheyKilledKenny, but approaching it.

* UnroboticReveal: [[spoiler: Tom-Tom the Robot Man]]
** And later zig-zagged with a straight RoboticReveal when [[spoiler:a villain blows a hole through Tom-Tom and Jack mourns Patricia as dead, only to discover that she upgraded the robot to being fully remote-controlled rather than PowerArmour.]]

''Jack Staff'' is writer-artist Paul Grist's attempt to produce an authentically British superhero comic that ''works''.

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Morlan the Mystic is an affectionate caricature of Creator/AlanMoore, while horror novelist Iain M Angel is an anagrammatic ShoutOut to NeilGaiman. Lord Gilbert Pearce is a much less affectionate hybrid of Jeffrey Archer and Lord Lucan.

''Jack Staff'' is writer-artist Paul Grist's attempt to produce an authentically British superhero comic that works.

John Smith, salt-of-the-Earth builder and decorator of Castleford, Yorkshire, is really Jack Staff, Britain's greatest hero. Since WorldWarII, he's been defeating threats to the people of the islands, mostly by hitting them with a stick until they give up.

* PublicDomainCharacter: Grist introduced an aging and semi-retired version of 1960s British comic supervillain the Spider to the second arc, in the belief that either he was out of copyright or nobody would care. The copyright owners did notice, but fortunately they liked what Grist had done with the character and allowed him to carry on using the Spider, as long as he was identified in future only by the civilian name Grist had given him, "Alfred Chinard".[[note]]Incidentally, John Reppion and Leah Moore apparently liked this enough to also use it as his alias in ''Albion''.[[/note]]

* PublicDomainCharacter: Grist introduced an aging and semi-retired version of 1960s British comic supervillain the Spider to the second arc, in the belief that either he was out of copyright or nobody would care. The copyright owners did notice, but fortunately they liked what Grist had done with the character and allowed him to carry on using the Spider, as long as he was identified in future only by the civilian name Grist had given him, "Alfred Chinard".

Much of the popularity of the series comes, however, from the range of weirdos surrounding Jack, including '''BECKY BURDOCK, VAMPIRE REPORTER''', the government Weird Shit Investigator Agency known only as Q, Inspector Maveryk, and Tom-Tom the Robot Man.

* CaptainErsatz: After the Spider crisis, Grist turned to these instead of directly using older characters - General Tubbs is General Jumbo, Charles Raven is Janus Stark, Ben Kulmer is the Steel Claw (created by Ken Bulmer). The Eternal Warrior looks like Adam Eterno but is closer in concept to MichaelMoorcock's Eternal Champion. Lord Nod is Dream from ''[[ComicBook/TheSandman Sandman]]''. Jack himself began as a Captain Ersatz for MarvelComics' British character Union Jack.

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Morlan the Mystic is an affectionate caricature of AlanMoore, while horror novelist Iain M Angel is an anagrammatic ShoutOut to NeilGaiman. Lord Gilbert Pearce is a much less affectionate hybrid of Jeffrey Archer and Lord Lucan.

* CaptainErsatz: After the Spider crisis, Grist turned to these instead of directly using older characters - General Tubbs is General Jumbo, Charles Raven is Janus Stark, Ben Kulmer is the Steel Claw (created by Ken Bulmer). The Eternal Warrior looks like Adam Eterno but is closer in concept to MichaelMoorcock's Eternal Champion. Lord Nod is Dream from ''{{Sandman}}''. Jack himself began as a Captain Ersatz for MarvelComics' British character Union Jack.

* {{Expy}}: Bramble and Son, Vampire Hunters are Expies of [[{{SteptoeAndSon}} Steptoe and Son]].

* OlderThanTheyLook: John/Jack looks in his 30s at most, but has been fighting crime since the 1940s. (The strip can't begin earlier than 1991, given the registration plate on John's truck in the very first panel.)

* {{MIB}}: Q are the mostly-sympathetic version.

* MuggingTheMonster: The Claw in the jewellers' shop, with a twist (he ends up robbing the place himself and using the dumb robber as a patsy. Played straighter when a hoodie tries to mug the harmless old Mr. Chinard.

* PowerArmour: [[spoiler: Tom-Tom the Robot Man]] and less overtly Chinard's costume.

* Ghostapo

* Heroic

* EyeBeams: [[Kapitan Krieg when possessed.]]

* CaptainErsatz: After the Spider crisis, Grist turned to these instead of directly using older characters - General Tubbs is General Jumbo, Charles Raven is Janus Stark, Ben Kulmer is the Steel Claw (created by Ken Bulmer). Lord Nod is Dream from ''{{Sandman}}''. Jack himself began as a Captain Ersatz for MarvelComics' British character Union Jack.

* MisterBig: Brain Head or "hasslicher kleiner Mann".
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Morlan the Mystic is an affectionate caricature of AlanMoore, while horror novelist Iain M Angel is an anagrammatic ShoutOut to NeilGaiman.

* CaptainErsatz: After the Spider crisis, Grist turned to these instead of directly using older characters. Jack himself began as a Captain Ersatz for MarvelComics' British character Union Jack.

* ResignationsNotAccepted: Not even death, if you're in Q.

* {{Expy}}: Bramble and Son, Vampire Hunters are Expies of {{SteptoeAndSon}}.

* {{Expy}}: Bramble and Son, Vampire Hunters are Expies of [[SteptoeAndSon]].

* BelligerantSexualTension: Jack and Becky.

* CaptainErsatz: After the Spider crisis, Grist turned to these instead of directly using older characters. Jack himself began as a Captain Ersatz for Marvel's British character Union Jack.

* OlderThanTheyLook: John/Jack looks in his thirties at most, but has been superheroing since the 1940s. (The strip can't begin earlier than 1991, given the registration plate on John's truck in the very first panel.)

* PublicDomainCharacter: Grist introduced an ageing and semi-retired version of 1960s British comic supervillain the Spider to the second arc, in the belief that he was either out of copyright or that nobody would care. The copyright owners did notice, but fortunately they liked what Grist had done with the character and allowed him to carry on using the Spider, as long as he was only referred to in future by the civilian name Grist had given him, "Alfred Chinard".
* SignificantAnagram: "A Chinard"="Arachnid"