plogg: 2026

Cover of Plogg #2 (November 1997)

“The Insult That Made a Killer Out of Sarva” appeared in the second issue (November 1997) of my small press comic, Plogg. It was the first of four appearances for Sarva and I hadn’t hit my stride yet with the character, so I’m a bit ambivalent about the results. I was using a different style and approach, somewhat cartoonish, simpler and less detailed, as my previous issue featuring May the Hyperborean had been. Also, I had grown up on superhero comics (as well as science fiction, monsters and fantasy) -- a far cry from the Sarva stories, which parodied the blaxploitation movies of the 1970s, so I was out of my element depicting a particularly rough neighbourhood known as “Hell’s Bathroom”.

A few readers wondered if Sarva was a prostitute. She wasn’t, and I was baffled by the question, since I didn’t even hint at anything of the sort. Perhaps it was the way she dressed, or the fact that the villain of the story, Pluto, called her “ho” on page two, first panel. He was simply hurling insults, a bully with a crass and limited vocabulary.

Sarva’s various speech patterns are affected, employed only when dealing with some of the characters she runs into, communicating on their own level. Otherwise, she’s far more articulate than the denizens of Hell’s Bathroom.

Of course, the basic plot follows that of the familiar Charles Atlas bodybuilding ad, “The Insult That Made a Man Out of Mac”, although Sarva’s revenge on the bully is a little more final than Mac’s fist in the face.

The Sarva stories were preposterous, as they were meant to be. The situations are absurd and the characters are grossly exaggerated caricatures. The slapstick violence is straight out of a Warner Bros. cartoon, and reactions to any bloodshed are either comic or apathetic. It’s no less fantastic and unrealistic than any superhero comic.

Shortly after publishing Plogg #2, I sent photocopies of “The Insult That Made a Killer Out of Sarva” to Players (a magazine geared towards black men, often compared to Playboy) for their consideration. I had one-panel gag cartoons printed in their magazine on two prior occasions, and tried to convince them that they needed a comics section. Well, it worked, but only for two issues. They serialised the Sarva comic in three-page installments before cancelling it halfway through the story. (It appeared in the February and March 1998 issues of Players.) It’s too bad. It was beautifully printed on thick, glossy paper, and I had spoken to the editor-in-chief on the phone. He was enthusiastic and wanted me to continue the series (I was already working on the next Sarva tale), which he hoped I would do in colour.

What went wrong? I’m not sure. The issue containing the first installment of the story devoted most of the editorial to it, part of which read “the writer, designer, artist, and conceptualist’s name is Richard Beland. Now, Richard is a brother…”

The editor surmised I was black, and I felt it would be unfair and dishonest to let him continue harbouring that assumption, so I called him immediately to correct him. He was surprised to learn that I wasn’t black, but he seemed to think it was inconsequential. We had a long conversation, mostly about the future of the series. However, after the second installment, I was given a contributor’s copy -- as well as a pink slip! It was a form letter, not addressing me by name but as “Dear contributor”, wishing me “good luck in all my endeavors.” I called the editor for an explanation, but he had no time to talk and merely wished me rotsa ruck publishing the Sarva stories elsewhere.

Perhaps the publisher felt that the magazine should be devoted exclusively to black voices. Perhaps they felt that Sarva’s pugilistic, pugnacious personality, and certainly her sometimes lethal methods of dealing with criminals was too violent (and gory), and not in keeping with the magazine’s values. Then again, it could be that the crass parodies of Archie Andrews (“Alfred E. Andrews”) and Jughead Jones (“Crackhead Jones”) were a lawsuit waiting to happen, though it’s doubtful that the publisher of Archie Comics even noticed. Players folded in 2005.

If you’re curious about the name “Sarva”: While this story was a work in progress, I was having trouble coming up with a unique name; then one day I glanced at a record album leaning against the wall on the very desk I was working at -- a Sarah Vaughan record!

And now, without further ado (or adon’t), a comic that’s been mouldering for 29 years (as the crow flies)...