MISTER JANN

Real Name: Jann

Identity/Class: Terrestrial (Leprechaun) (Pre-Modern era)

Occupation: Storyteller

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Leprechaun children

Enemies: "Giants"

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Unrevealed; (temporarily) Leprechaun village

First Appearance: Amazing Adult Fantasy I#14/1 (July, 1962)

Powers/Abilities: Other than his tiny size (a common trait among his people), Mister Jann displayed no paranormal abilities (see comments).

Height: Unrevealed (1"; by approximation)
Weight: Unrevealed
Eyes: Blue
Hair: White; (when younger) brown

History:
(Amazing Adult Fantasy I#14/1 (fb)) - The past of Mister Jann is unrevealed, but when he was a boy "many, many years ago" (see comments), he left the village and got lost while walking in the vast forest.

   As night fell, young Jann was unable to find his way back home, so he sat at the base of a gnarled old tree and fell asleep. When dawn arrived, he was awakened by the sound of deafening thumps, like gigantic footsteps; then the boy was nearly tread upon by a monstrous foot. Young Jann fled for his life, but the "giant" saw him and attempted to grab him. Jann hid between some large rocks and managed to sneak away; but as he looked back, he saw a second "giant" join the first to continue the search for him--the boy could only wonder where the "giants" came from.

(Amazing Adult Fantasy I#14/1 (fb) - BTS) - Young Jann eluded capture and eventually found his way back home; he told the villagers about the "giants" he saw, but no one believed his fantastic tale.

   At some point, the adult Mister Jann moved away from the Leprechaun village and apparently lived by himself in the forest. He may have had further encounters with the "giants" over the years (see comments).

   Mister Jann would occasionally return to the village, where he would entertain the children with his stories -- the children particularly enjoyed his stories about the "giants".

(Amazing Adult Fantasy I#14/1) - One day, the elderly Mister Jann walked into the village, and the children were happy to see him because they loved to listen to his stories; they requested that he tell them about the "giants" -- Mister Jann figured they liked those tales because they were true. He told them about how he was nearly captured by the "giants" when he was just a boy.

   When he finished the harrowing tale from his boyhood, Mister Jann left the children with an ominous warning: "Whenever you stray too far from home, beware! BEWARE OF THE GIANTS!"

   As he walked away, Mister Jann overheard some of the adult villagers making disparaging remarks about him and his "silly fairy tales". But he knew the "giants" really existed... and although they had no word for them in their Leprechaun language, he had heard the "giants" refer to each other as "humans"...

Comments: Created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.

Of course, this 5-page story was done with a surprise ending -- the reader was led to believe that Mister Jann was just a normal man, and his true nature wasn't revealed until the final story panel (see Leprechaun village sub-profile).

When Mister Jann asked the children what story they'd like to hear, one requested a story about the "giants" and  another replied, "We love the stories [plural] about the giants!"-- that would seem to imply that Mister Jann had more than one encounter with humans, rather than just the one mentioned in the flashback.

Mister Jann never stated how old he was, nor how long ago he first encountered the "giants" -- for all we know, he could have an extremely long lifespan, and he could have first seen the "giants" centuries ago.

Although he displayed no unusual abilities, he might have had magical powers like some of the other Leprechauns of the Marvel Universe (see Clarifications).

And the cover mistakenly depicted young Mister Jann with a dog (see red circle), but no dog appeared in the flashback sequence, nor was any animal-life seen in the Leprechaun village.

Profile by Ron Fredricks.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Mister Jann has no known connections to:

The inhabitants of the Leprechaun village have no known connections to:

The "giants" have no known connections to:

Leprechaun village

An isolated Leprechaun community"somewhere in Europe," it was located deep in a vast forest near the base of a tree. Its tiny populace included at least five adults (2 men, 3 women) and five children (3 boys, 2 girls); they were unaware of the existence of the human race.

Whenever Mister Jann came to the village, the children were happy because the elderly Leprechaun would entertain them with his stories about the "giants" (humans) that he claimed he saw; however, the adults didn't believe his claims and thought that he was just amusing the children with his "foolish prattle".

--Amazing Adult Fantasy I#14/1

"giants"

They were actually just a pair of normal human men.

"Many, many years ago" (as per Mister Jann), they were walking through the forest when they spotted a Leprechaun: the young Mister Jann. They attempted to capture the tiny boy, but he eluded them.

Some time later, the elderly Mister Jann would tell the children of the Leprechaun village about his encounter with the "giants".

--Amazing Adult Fantasy I#14/1 (fb)

(Comment: The faces of these "giants" were not depicted, nor were they identified by names.)

images: (without ads)
Amazing Adult Fantasy I#14/1, p2, pan1 (main image - Mister Jann, surrounded by children of Leprechaun village)
Amazing Adult Fantasy I#14/1, p5, pan4 (headshot - Mister Jann)
Amazing Adult Fantasy I#14/1, p2, pan4 (Mister Jann)
Amazing Adult Fantasy I#14/1, p2, pan5 (Mister Jann begins his tale of encountering "giants" in his youth)
Amazing Adult Fantasy I#14/1, cover (young Mister Jann and dog [see red circle] by "giant's" foot)
Amazing Adult Fantasy I#14/1, p5, pan2 (two woman of Leprechaun village; Mr. Jann and village children [background])
Amazing Adult Fantasy I#14/1, p5, pan5 (Mister Jann walks away from Leprechaun village)
Amazing Adult Fantasy I#14/1, p3, pan4 (in flashback, "giant's" foot nearly steps on young Mister Jann)
Amazing Adult Fantasy I#14/1, p4, pan5 (in flashback, a pair of "giants" search for young Mister Jann [foreground])

Appearances:
Amazing Adult Fantasy I#14/1 (July, 1962) - Stan Lee (writer/editor), Steve Ditko (artist), Artie Simek (letters)

First posted: 03/17/2025
Last updated: 01/20/2025

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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