Disability Arts Online

Justin Sane is a detective in the Human Bureau in Rowfontine. The Rowfontine is the magnificent capital of a mildly decadent empire of the same name. Justin Sane does not exist on the prosaic streets of the city, but only in the comic book named in his honour and set amongst its streets.

He is an aesthete and a bon vivant and could be taken as a decadent except that like most people tagged with that label he has an awful lot of innate integrity. His wife, Justine Seine, is an insatiable force of nature. She is only half human with a primal drive for procreation and pops out babies during breakfast. These are nurtured for the briefest of times and carried in a reinforced pram until storks can be summoned to take them away.

One little mite is preserved. Cedric is Justine’s little green alien child whom Justin loves as his own. One day, when the city wakes and busily commutes, Cedric is awakened at nine am by Chubbles, the family butler. It is a red letter day, for Cedric is off to the office with his Dad. At breakfast Justine pops out an obligatory child, consumes a large brandy and flees to the garage, and is off in her turquoise convertible. Her progress is nearly interrupted by an old man in a cart and is temporarily so by a sailor strolling past the gates.

Meanwhile Justin and Cedric are off in a leisurely fashion to Kronprinz Humphrey Square where the Human Bureau is situated. Justin is soon called to the office of Sir Albemarle Wheat Hampstead, his immediate superior. Something rum is afoot in the Rowfontine. A coalition of the city’s worst bad people are up to no good. The city's detectives are ranged against a desperate crew of film noire villains.

Cedric, who has been banished to antechamber mis-hears the briefing and fears that his Father is in disgrace and that his career is on the line. Back in the office Cedric purloins the file and disappears on a quest of his own to solve the case. Leaving the building, he jumps aboard one of the city’s famous triple decker buses and is off to join his friends Thing-Thing and Jeremy in an adventure.