“Stephen Colbert’s Tek Jansen Adventures” and the cameo that could have been

I was reading the free Washington Post Express paper while on my Metro commute this morning when I happened upon a familiar image: the John Cassaday cover art from the first issue of “Stephen Colbert’s Tek Jansen Adventures”. Yes, for whatever reason, Express covered the “Tek Jansen” release today. I’m actually kind of impressed that Express focused on it at all; it’s a very small paper, and there was no reason for them to feature it unless they’re all Stephen Colbert die-hards (like us!). Regardless of their reasoning, however, I was floored by a quote from “Tek Jansen” co-scribe Tom Peyer regarding a cameo he and John Layman briefly considered. The article has not appeared online, so far as I can tell, so I’ve transcribed the relevant portion of it here.

Based on a Fake Story
Scott Rosenberg
Express August 9, 2007

. . .

“I like writing humor,” [Peyer] said. “I wrote superheroes for several years, and this was a great release. It’s kind of cool doing these books because I don’t have to stop entertaining you to take part in a crossover or something like that.”
That’s not to say that Peyer and Layman didn’t consider a crossover for “Tek Jansen.”

“At one point, we were going to have a mystery villain called the Unlicensed One,” Peyer said. “It would be very clear that we meant it to be Jon Stewart, but then we thought about it for five minutes and decided it would be trouble.”

I can see why they ultimately decided not to go there, but how hilarious would that have been? Jon Stewart, “mystery villain” – I love it!