Appearance & Character
Being a character of audio drama, his physical appearance is not entirely clear, but he is depicted with blond hair in the CD cover art, and is now over 60 years old, having attended college in the late '60s. In Tropical Hot Dog Night (2007) his 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 a white suit and Panama hat. On at least two occasions he's obliged to wear a pith helmet and other adventurer's garb. On another, he promises to wear an ascot tie, which he presumably had with him.
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 frequently drinks beer but seldom wine or spirits (he does drink Port in one episode of The Fourth Tower of Inverness, and 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), and in Moon Over Morocco is able to provide a cigarette to a Moroccan possibly implying that he smoked then, but 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 (The 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.
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. As to why he chose this for his business card, he explains in Dreams of Sumatra, "I heard it. I liked it. I had it printed."
Read more about this topic: Jack Flanders
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