A Look at Some of the Back History of the World of the Rambling Crazy Man

Part One: the Sub-Antarctic Continent, an overview.

Readers of the Rambling Crazy Man comic will note the frequent appearance of penguins, the icy blue backgrounds in the newer editions, and there were also those two that mentioned "surface ice". This is because the comic is set in Rambling Crazy Land, one of four countries hidden under the Antarctic ice. While the three civilized countries, Rambling Crazy Land, Mattland, and Evilania, have moderate climates similar to the southernmost portions of Canada (due in part to volcanic activity), the Wastelands, a vast, mostly unpopulated area seperating the other three countries, has a wildly fluctuating climate, sometimes resembling tropical zones, other times the harsh cold of the surface of Antarctica, or extreme heat and dryness like a desert. Rambling Crazy Land itself has an unusually high level of a special kind of radioactive mineral which emits a radiation that causes a high instance of mutation in the plant and animal life. The radiation has mutated a species of microorganism to the point that it now combines with inanimate objects, frequently creating new sentient species. The effect of the radiation also causes neurological damage, which is why most human or near-human creatures in Rambling Crazy Land suffer from varying degrees of insanity.

Much of the early history of the countries is questionable at best, but most researchers agree the three main countries were settled seperately by various Europeans who got lost on long sea voyages. Evidence of Viking, Greek, and Roman settlers has been found in all three countries. They developed civilizations mostly seperately; Mattland developing on its own into a feudal society with a loose constitutional monarchy; Rambling Crazy Land developing a strange sort of democratic government, founded by the earliest known ancestor of the Rambling Crazy Man, Remus T. Studge; and Happyland (the country which would later become Evilania) developing into a true communist society, led by a benevolent religious monarch known as The Doofus. They remained seperated by the area that would later be the Wastelands, until in the mid-1400's the first Rambling Crazy Landers were crazy enough to wander through the Wastelands and discovered Mattland. On their way back they got lost and found Happyland. Trade and political relations began at this point, with most travel across the Wastelands originally performed by Rambling Crazy Landers. A breakthrough came in 1530, when a survey team from Mattland, with the help of Rambling Crazy Lander guides, mapped relatively safe routes through the Wastelands. In 1600, the three nations formed a single confederation, calling itself the United World (still believing that the Sub-Antarctic continent was the only populated place in the entire world.)

The United World government stayed in power until the mid-1800's, when the latest king of Mattland, King Matt the Blood-Thirsty, sent troops into Happyland and slaughtered nearly one-third of their citizens. This was intended as a funny joke. The Happylanders were not amused, and soon after declared themselves seceded from the United World and began amassing a huge military force and developing military technology on a par with WWI-era Germany (Mattland's technology was late medieval). Happyland soon attacked and massacred the soldiers at several of the key military outposts in Mattland. Rambling Crazy Land finally took notice and pleaded with the two to stop the bloodshed, but after a rogue Mattland military commander attacked and annexed Bunghole, the capital of Fleegang, Rambling Crazy Land's cultural center, the Rambling Crazy Landers took the side of Happyland and began to attack Mattlander army outposts in the Wastelands and ambushed supply carriers. Finally, after nearly twenty years of active battle, the three powers decided to end the conflict and cut off contact with one another. The Wastelands, which were previously split into three sections claimed by each of the three countries, were redefined with their own borders and established as a Neutral Zone, not to be entered by official forces from any of the three countries. The conflict has been dubbed "The Wacky Wacky War".

Shortly after the end of the Wacky Wacky War, the economy of Happyland collapsed completely, having been entirely geared during the war to weapon and supply production. The government lost power and the country split into several factions which each claimed control of the entire country, plunging the land into bloody civil war which continued into the 1980's, when the recently created Evil Rambling Crazy Man established a new government, renaming his new country Evilania.

Relations between the three countries have remained cold throughout the 20th and into the 21st century. Despite this underground trains have been built across the Wastelands, allowing people to travel between the three countries, and many cargo trains run above the ground of the Wastelands, allowing for steady trade between the three countries.