The Adventures of Captain Jack was a humorous Science Fiction Furry Comic by Mike Kazaleh and published by Fantagraphics Books in the 1980s about the misadventures of a conniving cat ex-Space Navy captain and his small crew as they travel around space looking for the next big Get-Rich-Quick Scheme.
The rest of his crew of his tiny spaceship, The Glass Onion, includes a tall, but high-strung canine android named Adam Fink, whom Jack won in a pinochle game and Herman Feldman, a naive hound dog who likes space food and serves as essentially a hanger-on.
Unknown to Captain Jack, Herman has a constant companion, Beelzebub, a seemingly magical and miniature copy of Herman except he's red and has a demonic pointy tail and usually causes endless trouble out of pure mischief. Among his powers is to cloud men's minds to keep from being seen, which means only the android Adam can see him outside of Herman, who has no reason to jeopardize his own job by confirming it.
The series has a delicate balance of slapstick comedy with Jack's wheeling and dealing when he is not pool or card sharking even while Adam and Herman have their own hi-jinks when they are not drawn into bittersweet romances. The latter draws in Janet into the crew, a racccon Farmer's Daughter with a fiery temper moderated by a tender compassionate side.
Unfortunately, the comic proved short-lived when Kazaleh went too far for many comics retailers in issue #5 which had a story that climaxes with a tenderly romantic but relatively graphic sex scene for its time. As such, the comic's circulation declined until Kazaleh had to cancel it in issue #12 with Captain Jack making a despicable bargaining choice with loan sharks in run-down Detroit that causes Herman to gain a new inner strength through the sacrifice of Beelzebub to take his leave with Janet from Jack forever.
The series has an epilogue in the anthology series, Critters where Herman and Janet manage to find jobs on their own and a separate special, A*K*Q*J which features the gang in a comedic period variant story with a happier ending.
The Adventures of Captain Jack provides examples of:
- The Captain: Captain Jack is essentially what Captain James T. Kirk would have been if he decided to resign his commission, figuring that the shameless hustler, Harry Mudd, had the right career idea after all.
- Drink-Based Characterization: Adam drinks 10-40w motor oil, Beelzebub drinks margaritas and Herman drinks ginger ale until Beelzebub talks him into trying an alien's Gargle Blaster and he binges on it.
- Great Gazoo: Beelzebub, a normally invisible demonic spirit who embodies Herman's dark side and phenomenal psionic power, both of which frightened Herman so much that he subconsciously created that separate being who later integrates with Herman at the end of the series.
- Pet the Dog: Jack has one moment when he sacrifices a major gig to help Janet escape her dominating father, but Jack eventually squanders what goodwill he earned from her at the end of the series.
- "Ray of Hope" Ending: After Jack puts Adam up as collateral for gangster loan-sharks, Herman and Janet leave Jack permanently in disgust, and since they cannot save Adam, they have to leave him behind utterly broken without hope. In the end, they are homeless, without jobs but Herman has regained incredible psionic power that should be a big help.
- Ridiculously Human Robot: Adam Fink is an android who only needs to be recharged with normal house current, but also has strong sexual appetites, which he is equipped to enjoy. In fact, the only time he is shown to be truly happy is when he is enjoying the afterglow of a tryst with a female android.
- Shout-Out: One story is a tribute to the late Jackie Gleason when Jack takes on a pool shark who looks like Minnesota Fats from The Hustler (1961), who has the temper of Ralph Kramden.
