How Liberalism Started The Comic Book Industry: A Rebuttal.

SOURCE: How Liberalism May Be Hurting Comic Book Sales

I was sent this article, written by a gentleman who believes that the reason the comic book industry is in such dire financial straits is because the writings of liberal writers are driving off conservative readers. Specifically, he cites the following stories.

1. Brightest Day #5, where Aquaman spoke about the dangers of deep-water drilling while combating an oil-spill.

2. Brightest Day #7, where Hawk smashes a jukebox because it is playing a Dixie Chicks song.

3. An issue of Birds of Prey, where Black Canary makes a comment on how unsafe SUVs are.

4. An issue of Alpha Flight, where a superheroine/cop dismisses complaints about her oppressing voters by ticketing him for parking in front of a fire hydrant while voting, saying “Please, sir. We’re Canadian.”

5. The Paradise Lost episode of Justice League, where Superman made disparaging remarks about Capitalism after Wonder Woman compared a shopping mall interior to an Amazon temple. (“Yes, for those who worship their credit cards.”)


To this, I would like to say the following:

1. It is silly to criticize Aquaman for being outspokenly against things that risk polluting the oceans for much the same reason it would be silly to criticize Batman for being outspokenly in favor of mandatory gun registration.

2. I've read the issue in question and Hank says nothing about precisely why the sound of Dixie Chicks music made him break a jukebox. Maybe he was offended because the Dixie Chicks are a group of outspoken liberal women, as Mr. Wagner suggests? Or maybe Hank is a man of taste who doesn't like modern music? Lord knows I've felt like destroying the radio every time I've heard Nickleback. In any case, there is a precedent in many other comics for Hawk losing control of his temper in high-stress situations, independent of his political beliefs. And seeing the woman that he's somewhat conflicted over (Hank and Dawn's relationship is complicated, to put it mildly) growing closer to Deadman while leaving him on his own probably qualifies as a high-stress situation.

3. While I don't know the safety statistics about SUVs compared to other vehicle types off-hand, I would dare say we can take Black Canary at her word. Nobody knows safety like a woman who routinely rides a motorcycle at highway speeds without a helmet or properly padded clothing.

4. I'm not an expert on either Canadian traffic regulations, but I do not believe the rule of law allows for exceptions. Not even in Canada. While one might be forgiven for speeding when taking a pregnant woman or a severely injured person to the hospital, voting is not an emergency situation. Impeding the ability of firemen to do their job, on the other hand, very well could be.

5. There is a world of difference between Capitalism and Consumerism and Superman is clearly decrying the later in this instance. Shopping malls, for the most part, are devoted toward the sale of non-essential goods. And while capitalism does cover the sale of all goods, I'm fairly sure that Pa Kent would have taught his son early on about the difference between the things we want and the things we need. In fact, I dare say that Superman's message here could be interpreted as a conservative one - decrying people buying things they can't afford and don't really need on credit.


All that being said, I still can't get behind the idea that a liberal bias is the sole cause of plummeting comic book sales. While I know a lot of people - myself included - who quit reading Spider-Man after The Powers That Be decided to destroy Peter Parker's marriage to Mary Jane Watson, I believe that decision had less to do with Marvel spitting upon the sanctity of marriage and more to do with the reasons behind breaking up the marriage being phenomenally stupid. But I digress. My point is that I can't believe a sudden outspoken liberal bias is responsible for driving away conservative readers... because the American comic book industry has always been dominated by outspoken liberals.

Mr. Wagner himself noted Superman's original roots as a socialist champion of the working class - roots he recently returned to in Grant Morrison's Action Comics. But it goes much deeper than that. Most of the founding fathers of American comics fought were fairly progressive fellows.

* Granting that he originally drew the character in an offensive Sambo-style, Will Eisner did create the sidekick character of Ebony White for The Spirit in order to depict a heroic African-American. Eisner also drew Sheena: Queen of the Jungle - the first comic book to headline a female superhero.

* Joe Simon and Jack Kirby depicted Captain America fighting Nazis well-before the USA got involved in World War II. In fact, the duo had to be given police protection due to repeated death-threats by Nazi sympathizers.

* William Moulton Marston was a prominent feminist philosopher, who was brought into the comic book industry after he wrote a column about the great educational potential of comic books while criticizing how male heroes dominated the superhero genre. Publisher Max Gaines took the column to heart and hired Marston to create a character. Wonder Woman was the result.

* Stan Lee depicted student-protesters in a positive-light during his run on Amazing Spider-Man. And we can't forget that The Man was almost singlehandedly responsible for destroying The Comics Code Authority by - ironically enough - publishing an anti-drug comic.

And that's just the ones I know off the top of my head. I'm sure many of you can think of other examples of how liberal the founding fathers of American Comic books were. Feel free to give some examples in the comments below.

Is Your Comic Collection Awesome?

So Chris Sims - that most distinguished of comics luminaries - recently composed a list of Twenty-Five Things Every Comics Collection Truly Needs To Be Awesome.

Do I measure up? Let us see...




1. The Mod Gorilla Boss/Any Ape Criminal Comics - Jay and Silent Bob #3, in which everyone's favorite stoners team up with a fugitive ape. (Yes, I know this got ripped off for Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back... this is more awesome. And more is the pity we had Will Ferrel instead of Tommy Lee Jones playing the cop.

2. A Collection Of Stories From The Golden Age - The Collected Jack Kirby's Green Arrow. Featuring Green Arrows of the World!

3. At Least One Comic By Kyle Baker - The Bakers #1.

4. A Prose Novel About Comics - Batman: Knightfall by Dennis O'Neil. Perhaps the best novelization of a comic book series ever.

5. Something That Will Allow You To Sound Smart In Public - Neil Gaiman's The Sandman: Season of Mists. If I had a dollar for every person I was able to persuade that comics had intellectual merit using this book and it's use of mythology, literary references and just plain trope-defying awesomeness... well, I might have enough to buy myself a big coffee at Starbucks. But that ain't nothing.

6. A Comic That, If It Came To It, Could Block Shuriken, Blowdarts, And Most Medium Caliber Handgun Rounds - Craig Thompson's Blankets. Suitable not only as a heart shield but also as a blackjack in dealing with household intruders, cockroaches and investment bankers.

7. One, and Only One, Issue of Pizzazz - ... Okay. I don't have that. But I have every issue of Comic Foundry.

8. A Comic Written by a Rapper - ... dammit.

9. Jack Staff - I keep meaning to pick up the trade but... no, not yet.

10. A Story That Deals With a Serious Issue - The Complete Dennis O'Neil Green Lantern/Green Arrow HC. The first to do it and - arguably - the best.

11. Something Romantic - Amazing Spider-Man #49 (#490). You want a nice rebuttal to every argument against Peter and MJ being married? Here it is in one issue.

12. Cover Girl, by Andrew Cosby, Kevin Church and Mateus Santolouco - No, but that's because I find Kevin Church's web-comic to be unfunny. Why would I pay money for his work?

13. Something That Is Totally Awesome But That You Totally Do Not Understand - Genshiken. A lot of the specific jokes about Tokyo and Manga-cons go past me, but I get enough of the fandom humor and the character humor to like the comic.

14. Something That You Can Give To Someone Who Doesn’t Get It - Fables: Legends in Exile TP. You want to drive home the point that comics are not for kids and that comics are awesome? That is it.

15. A Comic That Was Ten Years Ahead of Its Time - The Starman Compendium Vol. 1.

16. Porn - Savage Sword of Conan Vol. 1-4. Let's be honest. This is how most men would live, were it possible for us to strut around in nothing but boots and our boxers, solving our conflicts with cunning and steel, slaying unidentifiable monsters and bedding a different nameless wench every night.

17. Something For The Kids - Amelia Rules! Best comic for kids and kids-at-heart on the market.

18. Print Collection of a Webcomic - I have various volumes of Order of the Stick, Dork Tower, The Devil's Panties and Penny Arcade.

19. A Story That Hits All Three (i.e. it touches your head and make you think, your heart for an emotional connection (and) your gut for the fist-pumping “**** yeah!” moment) - Pretty much the entirety of The Sinestro Corps War. The head moment came with the revelations regarding the emotional spectrum which, corny as it is, makes as much sense as the science behind rings that focus thought into solid energy. The heart moment came when Hal Jordan ordered his hometown to evacuate because he wasn't sure he would save them all... and to a person, the entire city elects to stay and hang green lights up in their windows. And the "*** yeah?" Guy Gardner and John Stewart pull a planet out of orbit to hit a bad-guy with.

20. A Run You Had To Hunt For - Hellblazer. Nuff said.

21. Showcase Presents Sugar & Spike - Okay. I don't own this one. Because I deal with enough cutesy for the sake of cutesy kids material at work.

22. A Comic Where Somebody Punches Hitler - No, but I do have Adventures of the Light Brigade - a comic series in which the elite of Britain's commando corps steal Hitler's testicle. Which - while not as manly as punching Hitler - is a heck of a lot more humiliating to everyone's least favorite Veggie painter.

23. Something That You Absolutely Love, Except For One Little Thing - The Adventures of Red Sonja - Volume II. As fine a collection of sword & sorcery as you will find anywhere. The one problem? It ends on a cliff-hanger, in the middle of a storyline. You have to get Vol. III to see the end. It's a minor thing if you're a fan and you were planning to get the whole series anyway... but it is somewhat annoying as there was something of a gap between the 2nd and 3rd volumes coming out.

24. Something That Might Not Be Very Good But God Damn It, It Means The World To You - Green Lantern #90. Yes, it's a rather generic "alcoholism is bad" comic with Kyle Rayner trying to help one of his friends deal with his problem... but it's also the book that got me into comics as an adult at the age of 19.

25. Something That You Absolutely Hate - As much as I know I'm opening myself up to so much criticism for saying this.... Vol. 10 of Y: The Last Man... the book that killed the series for me and yet, I still have the whole thing to keep it complete.



Final Tally: 19 out of 25 with no wiggle room on Hitler humiliation = punch in the face.

Well, everyone ELSE is doing it...

Taken from Ye Olde Comick Booke Bloge

Said gentleman has provided an self-portrait image of Jack "The King" Kirby for people to write their own humorous sayings onto. His favorite will be used to make a t-shirt for wearing at ComicCon.

Here is my own entry.