And now we wrap up that little cast with the other primarily political character, Jan, who, in the Early Period, sits in a strange relation with her fellows. For a start, Sam, Zed and Damon all have jobs in Mystery Business(TM)'s technical areas--even though it should be noted Damon's isn't ever named in strip, but still, that he is involved in that is made reasonably clear. Jan however, is in Marketing, something that she will yammer about in place of a personality trait well after Mystery Business(TM) is shuttered. This puts a clear line between her and the rest--they all do something tangible in... whatever it is Mystery Business(TM) does, while Jan... well, theoretically, she's supposed to be helping to sell it, though I'm not sure Muir gets that. But more importantly, she's doing something abstract that Muir clearly sees as meaningless busy work. Indeed, Jan's exact position in Mystery Business(TM) is somehow more nebulous than Damon's unnamed one--frequently, she's depicted as holding some level of authority over the others, to allow her to perform the beats a "boss" character would. This makes no sense, but so it goes. All of it ultimately this is ultimately about setting Jan up for her purpose in the political portion of the strip--being the lone "liberal" member of the cast.
Jan's general purpose at this point in the strip is to be a comic straight man, and a very specific sort of one. She's not an occasionally witty voice of sanity observing and commenting on the lunacy surrounding her. She's a stooge. Jan says stupid things and asks stupid questions so the others can riff of her. You don't laugh with this Jan, you laugh at her. Early Period Jan is a pill. At her best, she's sheltered and naive, the perfect gull who still confident she is so much smarter than you. At her worst, she is shallow and self-righteous, constantly demanding attention and validation. Hence the job that Muir largely paints as useless and also manipulative. Everything about Jan at this point is supposed to underline her status as someone who's the butt of the joke, and just wrong.
Now, Muir does not do a good job of this. A problem that has been with him from the start is that his own opinions are, well, shallow and ill-considered, so to a reader not predisposed to simply nod along, Jan doesn't come across an idiot arguing with sensible people, she comes across as an idiot arguing with worse idiots. Jan comes across not as some well-reasoned statement against liberalism, but as a caricature of and snarl against "Vaguely Leftish Coffee-house Types Who The Writer Resents", She is, to Muir, a Spoiled Well-to-Do White Girl, talking about things she doesn't understand.
Now this will change in the future. Indeed, this version of Jan will be largely discarded not only in future Eras, but over the course of the Late Mystery Business(TM) Period. But at this point, she tends to stay in her lane. Jan's job is to be zinged off of, and zinged off she is.
With very bad zingers.
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