Funk Rage

"Funk Rage", the third in the Sarva series, was featured in my small press comic, PLOGG #4 (November 2001).  In part, it was a parody of Marvel's Luke Cage character, who exploded on the scene early in 1972 in HERO FOR HIRE, during the height of the Blaxploitation genre.  Carl Lucas acquired bulletproof skin and super strength after participating in a scientific experiment gone haywire while in prison.  Taking advantage of these unexpected abilities, he smashes his way through a brick wall, and the escaped convict sets up his own business in New York City's Times Square district as a "Hero for Hire", under the assumed name of Luke Cage.  His office is above a repertory cinema, The Gem, operated by a young fella who went by the name "D.W.", after the famous director, D.W. Griffith.

For some reason the delirious powers that be gave the magazine a ridiculous new title, POWER MAN, with issue #17.  Why any person with a shred of dignity would walk around calling themselves "Power Man" is beyond me.  But one person really took umbrage at Cage's new moniker, a villain of the same name, who'd menaced the Avengers back in the '60s.  In POWER MAN #21, the villain challenges Cage over the right to the name.  Cage rearranges the poor fool's face -- destroying the Gem theatre for the umpteenth time in the process -- and on the last page of the story delivers a caution to his former namesake before he slips into unconsciousness:

"You can call yourself Spider-Man...you can call yourself the Invisible Girl...you can stick a flag in your navel and call yourself the Spirit of '76...but if you ever call yourself Power Man again...I will tattoo that name on your rib cage!"

The last page of "Funk Rage" was directly inspired by that little scene.

"Supermangle", a parody of a public service included in DC comics of the 1960s, appeared in PLOGG #3 (October 1998).

(See here for the 4th and last comic in the Sarva series, as well as a brief description of the character.)

Funk Rage page 1

 

Funk Rage page 2

Funk Rage page 3

Funk Rage page 4

Funk Rage page 5

Funk Rage page 6

Funk Rage page 7

Funk Rage page 8

Funk Rage page 9

Funk Rage page 10

Funk Rage page 11

Funk Rage page 12

Funk Rage page 13

Supermangle

May the Hyperborean (1994)

 

Cover of PLOGG #1 (1994)

 May the Hyperborean, a little barbarian girl from the north, was originally featured in a prose story, "Nightmare in Metal", in 1990.  In December of 1991 I decided to start my own small press, Plogg Press, and designed a logo inspired by Jim Steranko's cover for THE INCREDIBLE HULK SPECIAL #1 (1968), which always thrilled me.  (Hulk's face was redrawn by Marie Severin, who was the Hulk's regular artist, and who also drew that issue.)

THE INCREDIBLE HULK SPECIAL #1 (1968), cover by Jim Steranko (and Marie Severin)

The next month, January 1992, I started working on a May the Hyperborean comic.  For some reason I made her a teenager.  I think I had in mind Robert E. Howard's Conan, whose original stories in WEIRD TALES in the 1930s followed no chronological order, jumping around from the Cimmerian's teens to his 40s.  I've since kept May at about age 9, just as Little Orphan Annie never aged.  As long as Archie comics are around, there will always be enough teen comics in the world.

Unused rough pencils for first page

I hadn't drawn a full comic since 1984, so I was rusty -- very rusty.  To make matters worse, I was working longer hours than a Victorian child in a cotton mill, six days a week.  I just didn't have time.  I drew the first three pages in 1992, and the rest in 1994, all in pen and ink.  (As you can see, I used dirt cheap 3-hole sheets of paper.)  I didn't finish the 16-page comic till the summer of 1994, two and a half years later.  I painted a cover for it and "published" the first issue of PLOGG early in August of 1994 in an edition of 40 copies.  I'm guessing you don't own one of these babies.

May pg1

May pg2

May pg3

May pg4

May pg5

May pg6

May pg7

May pg8

May pg9

May pg10

May pg11

May pg12

May pg13

May pg14

May pg15

May pg16