All contents © 2005 Jim Cameron
Ginger 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / Toon1
Origins
The
name for the character actually came from my early teens when my pal &
me would
drop into WW2
English accents and bemoan, 'Oh no, Ginger's bought it', whenever anything
went
wrong. A few years later I remembered this when I was sitting at my drawing
board, and started to
draw a wee character, and called him 'Ginger Perkins', after the biscuit.
Ginger was a WW1 pilot and secret agent.
The idea
of basing the character names on initially biscuits, and later food stuffs
in general led to
Ginger's arch nemisis, the evil Dr. Abernethy, (for my sins, at the end of
the first wee story I wrote,
'Dr. Abernethy crumbles!')
Other
main characters now include Earl Grey, Ginger's Whitehall contact,
as well as world figures such as Benito Minestrone, the Romaine dictator (and
a bit of a drunk),
and Otto Frankfurter, the German Chancellor. The stories are a lightweight
reflection of the,
'stiff upper lip' mentality in a period similar to that between the Crimea
and WW1.
A Selection
of Characters from 'Ginger Perkins'.
As war rages in Europe it's effects are felt sharpely in
the colonies as the indigenous
populations see an opportunity to throw off the shackles of Empire. Unfortunately,
the
European superpowers don't quite share this egalitarian outlook and before
long with each
trying to undermine the others colonies, civil strive leads to various factions
fighting each other
while the europeans use religion as a means of distracting the revolutionaries
from
overthrowing their colonies governments.
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Aleister Crowley. As a counter balance to Baron Von Helmut there's a Crowley-style character, with his own cult and designs for the use of various ancient artifacts that both sides of the war seek to use against the enemy. |
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| Baron
Otto Von Helmut. The Baron hails from Germany, however, he is more of a dilettante or if you will an antequarian freebooter of sorts. Born of the aristocracy, he can afford to travel the world in search of ancient treasures and mystery. |
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Dr. Abernethy. The evil genius who's secret society seems to have chapters throughout the globe, though his true aim remains something of a mystery to the governments of the world. |
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Benito Minestrone. The corpulant Italian dictator, infamous for his debautched private life. He surrounds himself with sycophants who hide the true effects of his leadership on the country from him. |
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Tsar Alexander Stroganoff. The Tsar of All Kirghiz is a 'distant' man. The Empire of the Stroganoffs is an old family one, and he hopes his legacy will be one of increased borders. |
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The Kaiser. Germany is an empire that has run out of space. The Kaiser aims to right himself into the history books by expanding the empire closer to home as well as abroad. He is constantly looking for an opportunity to forge a pan-European empire. |
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'Chip' Cookie. A young US Cadet on secondment to the British Air Force to study their techniques and teaching methods. A chance encounter with Ginger, however, leads him into the world of international espionage. |
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Current World Events during the Period.
The world Ginger was
born into is going through a great deal of upheaval.
The empires of central Europe have expanded into the four corners of the world,
each seeking to gain strategic control of the resources so necessary to maintain
their
part in, 'The Great Game'. To do so they have used their technological
superiority to
conquer vast territories
through might of arms. Maintaining that control however, has
involved various means.
Early on the Europeans
realised that they could not sustain their control by military means
alone, and maintain their dominance through a variety of political and economic
mechanisms
put in place to divide the populations and undermine, but for a select few,
their financial
opportunities limited.