Earth Worm Jim

The Game

Earthworm Jim was originally a video game and was released on April 26, 1994, by Shiny Entertainment. It ran on several platforms, including Sega Genesis, Sony Playstation and Game Boy Advance.

The designer, credited with inventing the character, was Douglas TenNapel.

Three sequels were made, Earthworm Jim 2 (1995), Earthworm Jim 3D (1999) and Earthworm Jim Menace 2 the Galaxy (also 1999).

Earthworm Jim became a TV star on September 9, 1995, when the Warner Bros. Network began airing his adventures on Saturday mornings in the US.  The show was then shown on UK TV during the daily children's TV slot.

The series ran for two seasons, with a of total 23 episodes.

The TV Cartoon Series

The story revolves around the space bourne adventous of an ordinary earthworm:

Jim was minding his own business as a worm, as he slithered around on the ground, when an indestructible, ultra-high-tech, super-space, cyber suit (complete with arms and legs) happened to fall on him. Luckily for Jim, the suit fell neck first, covering him in such a way that he ended up inside it, almost wearing it. He was instantly transformed into a super worm, both physically and intellectually. Of course, being an intellectual giant amongst worms didn't necessarily mean he was very bright by vertebrate standards.

This mishap occurred due to a battle overhead, in space, between the evil Psy-Crow and a thief who was trying to get away with the suit. The suit had been built by Professor Monkey-for-a-head at the behest of Queen Bloated Festering Sweaty Pus-filled Malformed Slug-for-a-butt. The queen was hoping the suit would make her as beautiful as her sister, Princess What's-her-name.

The result of his encounter with the suit, meant that Jim became enmeshed in their affairs, as well as those of another of the villains of the piece, Evil the Cat (Dark Lord of the planet Heck), Bob the Killer Goldfish, and various other weird and wacky villains who also populated the game and TV series.

As is apparent by the names above the series was not meant to be taken seriously at all.

The Comic

There was an American comic based on the character and a British comic as well, although the two were unrelated.

Tim worked on the British version of the comic, published by Arcadia. Another Artist Jon Rushby also worked on the comic for the first three issues.

Originally the comic was split in two for the artists to work on half each, before Jon left the comic and Tim took over completely.

A total of five comics saw print , before cancellation. Tim, however pencilled a sixth one prior to the cancellation.

Although short lived the comic proved popular with Tim.

It was one of the few characters that any other comic creator has ever asked Tim to draw as a fan.

Like most of the licensed comics in the UK the life expectancy was not anticipated to be long. Tim was just starting to feel he had 'got the characters' when it folded. There was plenty of manic mayhem for him to draw and one really neat thing for him was the fact that a lot of his stories took place in outer space.

Tim provided the pencils and inks for the comic and the artwork was then computer coloured by third parties.

Below is a small selection of Tim's pages, scanned from the original artwork and also a couple of the unpublished pencilled pages:

 

   Earthworm Jim Issue 1 Page 1 art by Tim Perkins       Earthworm Jim Issue 1 Page 2 art by Tim Perkins

   Earthworm Jim Issue 6 Cover art by Tim Perkins      Earthworm Jim Issue 6 End Papers art by Tim Perkins

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