The Roanoke Times | File

John Douglas Boyer, a geography instructor, drew the attention of the Virginia Tech administration with an allegedly offensive first edition of a textbook he authored and started using last year.

Then: John Boyer, a Virginia Tech instructor who uses a book he's written to teach a World Regions course, was the subject of a complaint by another faculty member in February. The book, "Plaid Avenger's World," features a central character who visits different areas of the world and explains world politics and foreign cultures using casual, and sometimes foul, language. The Plaid Avenger resembles Boyer in appearance, and the book includes various recipes for cocktails, cultural stereotypes and some sexually suggestive language.

The university administration took issue with the fact that Virginia Tech's name is on the cover page even though the school was not involved with the publishing. Boyer agreed to add a sticker to the page to cover up the school's name and warn readers of the book's explicit language.

Now: Boyer is working on a second edition of the book and preparing to teach two sections of the popular class next semester that will total more than 1,000 students. He's also written a comic-book-style graphic novel featuring the Plaid Avenger that he hopes will be available to the public next spring.

The second edition of the "Plaid Avenger's World," textbook will be updated and refined, but Boyer has no intention to tone down the language. He said he's received nothing but positive feedback from students and parents and has even been asked to autograph some copies. He's also been approached by high school teachers who would like to use a more tame version of it to teach their classes, which Boyer is considering.

For all the notoriety his unconventional teaching methods have brought him, Boyer said it's not his antics that keep students enrolling in his courses. A combination of world history and current events, his course gives students an idea of what's going on now with the historical context to make sense of it, he said.

"People say, 'This guy's nuts and he's crazy and he does all this crazy stuff, juggles chainsaws and fire," he said. "I basically teach people what's going on in the world ... and that's what keeps people coming back."

-- Greg Esposito

John Boyer

Then: Boyer, a Virginia Tech instructor who uses a book he's written to teach a World Regions course, was the subject of a complaint by another faculty member in February. The book, "Plaid Avenger's World," features a central character who visits different areas of the world and explains world politics and foreign cultures using casual, and sometimes foul, language. The Plaid Avenger resembles Boyer in appearance, and the book includes various recipes for cocktails, cultural stereotypes and some sexually suggestive language.

The university administration took issue with the fact that Virginia Tech's name is on the cover page even though the school was not involved with the publishing. Boyer agreed to add a sticker to the page to cover up the school's name and warn readers of the book's explicit language.

Now: Boyer is working on a second edition of the book and preparing to teach two sections of the popular class next semester that will total more than 1,000 students. He's also written a comic-book-style graphic novel featuring the Plaid Avenger that he hopes will be available to the public next spring.

The second edition of the "Plaid Avenger's World," textbook will be updated and refined, but Boyer has no intention to tone down the language. He said he's received nothing but positive feedback from students and parents and has even been asked to autograph some copies. He's also been approached by high school teachers who would like to use a more tame version of it to teach their classes, which Boyer is considering.

For all the notoriety his unconventional teaching methods have brought him, Boyer said it's not his antics that keep students enrolling in his courses. A combination of world history and current events, his course gives students an idea of what's going on now with the historical context to make sense of it, he said.

"People say, 'This guy's nuts and he's crazy and he does all this crazy stuff, juggles chainsaws and fire," he said. "I basically teach people what's going on in the world ... and that's what keeps people coming back."

-- Greg Esposito