Inspirations
The character of SweetTart began as an idea for a creative writing class in college.
Jonathan M. Sweet was a huge fan of the anime series
Sailor Moon and thought it would be fun to write a crossover fiction between that series and his own
Belch Dimension. He felt that Sailor Moon's natural bubbly personality would contrast sharply with his own hero's dark and brooding nature, creating an ideal conflict to build a story around. Though ecstatic about the idea, Sweet was defeated in all attempts to produce a logical explanation as to how Sailor Moon--a Japanese superheroine--could ever come to America, and the project was shelved.
Six months later, in February of 1997, Sweet was terminated from his post on the Arkansas State University Herald for plagiarism. A copy editor named Scott Mitchell claimed that a piece Sweet had submitted on TV ratings was stolen from a sketch on
Saturday Night Live, which Sweet continues to deny the existance of to this day.
This unfortunate experience later formed the basis for
SweetTart, and a draft of the script was completed in mid-1999. Elements of the early Sailor Moon idea--particularly a scene where the heroes are arguing in the street after fighting off several goons--filtered into the new story...only now she was "SweetTart", named after the candy (similar to how
Peanuts creator' Charles M. Schulz named Peppermint Patty after the contents of a dish of mints).
"Kathryn Tartakoff" was modeled after a fellow staffer from The Herald--a female cartoonist named Kathryn White, whose work Sweet admired. White drew a strip called "Sassafrass Roots" (later changed to "Mosquito Creek" for web distribution) that ran in the Herald (1996-97). White was actually intended to appear as herself in an untitled serial about the adventures of his stick-figure characters at a paper called "The Harbinger" (a synonymn for "herald", or one who announces or signals something coming). In a four-panel strip Jon compliments her artwork and tried to pick her up; she responds by dropping an anvil on his head, flattening him. A newly-fired Sweet called this serial his "comeback vehicle", but of course he was never rehired.
For his new story Sweet had to change White's last name to avoid legal problems. He wanted to call her alter-ego "SweetTart", so, looking for something that would logically shorten to "Tart", Sweet picked "Tartikoff", after
onetime NBC head Brandon Tartikoff; however, in the script the last name was mispelled as "Tart
akoff", an error that carried over to the completed sketches. He turned The Harbinger into a junior-high newspaper because he wanted his new superheroine to be a few years younger than Jon, and because he felt it was appropriate owing to what he felt was "childish" behavior on The Herald's part to fire him. All the major players in the drama are modeled after actual 1997 Herald staffers. Several panels from a "Sassafras Roots" cartoon appear in the story. Sweet e-mailed Kathryn White to ask permission to use them before drawing the story, but due to the nature of the charges against him, no one from The Herald is allowed to speak to him. When White refused to answer his e-mail, he had to use the scenes without permission. However, the original artist recieves due credit at the official SCP website.
Similar to her source inspiration, SweetTart wears a school uniform, only a cheerleader's top and skirt rather than a formal private school uniform. Her flowing hair--a wig--suggests Sailor Moon's long pigtails and famous odango balls. Her mask is also quite similar to that Tuxedo Mask wears, though a bit larger and hides more of her face. Since in her civilian identity she wears glasses, it's possible she is only moderately nearsighted, needing them mainly to read, and she can either see well enough without her glasses to manage, or she wears contacts while in costume. The use of a hairpiece also is reminiscent of Golden-Age Supergirl, who indeed wore a short, mousy brunette wig to hide her blonde hair when in her civilian identity, Lara Danvers (Kit reverses this, being naturally brown-haired and becoming a sexy blond when she transforms). Her leaps and kicks, as well as a gymnastic background, are similar to Batgirl's (Barbara Gordon).
Publication
The story spent the following eight years in rewrite limbo, with names changed and rechanged, dialogue written and rewritten, and scads of model sheets coming and going. Some scenes, such as Johnny Tewes talking to Kitty, and the conversation between Johnny and editor-in-chief Lucy Chaser, were word-for-word out of actual conversations Sweet had with fellow Herald staffers. Johnny was originally called "Jimmy Doulcette"; his changed name, "Tewes" is an anagram of "Sweet". Rhea Borstein was originally named "Bonnie Thrashart", and Tom Little was simply "Mitchell Scott Phillips", both very close to the names of the real-life faculty advisor and copy editor. Tom was drawn with a stylized Joker-like appearance and a similar gleeful attitude towards murdering and torturing his victims.
The scene where Johnny is killed outside his apartment building mirrors a real-life incident shortly after his firing. Sweet was performing his famous impersonation of comic Andrew Dice Clay for a couple of fans in a window across the way when he heard a lound banging noise. It turns out someone had dropped a trash can out a window at his dorm, which had landed a few feet behind Sweet as he stood there on the sidewalk. Sweet noticed that a fourth-story window was open; he later learned that Scott Mitchell lived on the fourth floor, which--because of the suspicious timing, only a month after his firing--lent what normally would be only an innocent, if dangerous, prank a very ominous tinge. In the story it is revealed that Tom Little, under Borstein's orders, dropped the can that struck Jimmy in the head, snapping his neck and instantly killing him.
The other characters' names and looks changed fairly little, though an
e was added to Turncoate's surname to make it feel more "name-like". The first three chapters finally were released in mid-April of 2007, stamped "SILVER ANNIVERSARY ISSUE!" on the cover.
Issues #26 and #27 released the fourth and fifth chapters, respectively, with B-stories ("Belch Dimension's Stupidest Home Videos" and "Stoopid!") , and a pinup of Sweet's most (in)famous Herald column, "Clinton Wins, America Loses", first published after the 1996 re-election of
President Clinton.
