Odd enough that I e-mailed BOOM! Studios myself to see what the story was. Marketing Coordinator Emily McGuinness was quick to reply:

We hired a young, incredibly talented writer to do these, and that writer elected not to take credit. Why? Well, they saw it as a great opportunity to refine their craft but didn’t want to be associated as the ‘political comic book writer’ moving forward. They’ve got some cool projects coming up, and wanted the focus of their next stage of career development to be on that. It made sense to us and we were happy to be respectful of their decision (no pun intended).

That makes for an interesting parlor game in about five years: Which prominent comics writer was behind the Obama comic? I’d look for someone with a love of text boxes and footnotes; the comic consists mainly of juxtaposed pictures and text, and it reads more like an illustrated prose bio than a comic. It’s non-sequential, if that’s a word.

The writing isn’t bad, but if I were going to write a compelling comic (as opposed to a hagiography), I’d include the juicy details about Obama’s 2004 election to the U.S. Senate, in which his opponent self-destructed in a sex scandal and the Illinois Republican Party drafted Alan Keyes as a replacement. Heck, I could do an entire miniseries on that election alone, and it’s a shame the writer covered it in a single panel. Maybe they were too busy with that next project to give it much thought.

Miles Morales

Comics | In a post subtitled “Why the new biracial Spider-Man matters,” David Betancourt shares his reaction to the news that the new Ultimate Spider-Man is half-black, half-Latino: “The new Ultimate Spider-Man, who will have the almost impossible task of replacing the late Peter Parker (easily one of Marvel Comics most popular characters), took off his mask and revealed himself to be a young, half-black, half-Latino kid by the name of Miles Morales. When I read the news, I was beside myself, as if my brain couldn’t fully process the revelation. My friendly neighborhood Spider-Man was … just like me? This is a moment I never thought I’d see. But the moment has arrived, and I — the son of Puerto Rican man who passed his love of comics to me, and a black woman who once called me just to say she’d met Adam West — will never forget that day.”

The New Yorker, meanwhile, posts the opening on an essay from the year 2120 that looks back at the cultural significance of the new Spider-Man. [Comic Riffs, New Yorker]

Legal | Analysis of the Kirby estate/Marvel case continues, as both Modern Ideas and Copyhype look at the concept of “work for hire” in light of the ruling. [Modern Ideas, Copyhype]

Creators | Roger Langridge talks about his life as a comics creator and reader and his work on the Muppets comics, Thor: The Mighty Avenger, and his new creator-owned work Snarked! [Graphic Eye]

Comics | Responding to the USA Today article on Flashpoint #4, which features a brief appearance by President Obama, Bully looks back at several Obama “guest appearances” in comics from the past few years. [Comics Oughta Be Fun]

Howard the Duck

Creators | Former Marvel Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter continues his remembrances of writer Steve Gerber, recounting Gerber’s lawsuit against Marvel over ownership of Howard the Duck, and Disney’s legal threats over Howard’s appearance. Shooter shares model sheets of the character that were provided by Disney artists to accentuate the differences between Howard and Donald Duck. [Jim Shooter]

Creators | Ian Burns talks to King City creator Brandon Graham about his early life, his influences and much, much more. [The Comics Journal]

Publishing | Clan Apis creator Jay Hosler notes the book that started as “a floppy comic about bees” is now in its sixth printing. [Drawing Flies]

Publishing | NBM/Papercutz publisher Terry Nantier predicts that preorders for the upcoming Ninjago graphic novel, based on LEGO’s ninja-themed toy line of the same name, could surpass 100,000 copies, putting it into Twilight territory. [ICv2]

Publishing | Noah Berlatsky sees the demise of Borders as presaging a grim future for manga in the United States. [The Washington Times]

Awards | Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword by Barry Deutsch has been named an Oregon Spirit Book Award Middle Reader Honor Book by the Oregon Council of Teachers of English. [Abrams, via Comics Reporter]

Manga | Deb Aoki shares the best and worst manga as chosen by the participants on the Best and Worst Manga Panel at San Diego Comic-Con. [About.com]

Tr!ckster

Conventions | Chris Smits writes about his experience of Tr!ckster, the creator-owned comics alternative to SDCC: “So, throughout my time spent in San Diego for the con, Tr!ckster became my travel shampoo: I washed, rinsed, and then repeated. Justice can not be done to how incredible it was to have such a haven across the street from the convention center. Anytime I had an inkling of con fatigue or (more likely) a frustrating build up of rage, the realization that I could just walk over there was amazing.” [Creator-Owned Comics]

Manga | Shaenon Garrity pens an appreciation of her favorite CLAMP manga, Wish, “a breezy four-volume series that features all the things I love most about the team: simultaneously cute and elegant artwork, charming characters, tantalizingly chaste romance, a dash of homoeroticism, and a heaping helping of fangirl nerdiness.” [Anime News Network]

Analysis | In homage to Wally Wood’s “22 panels,” Daniel BT compiles a list of 22 manga panels that always work. [Sunday Comics Debt]

Comics | When Captain Israel met Foreskin Man. [Huffington Post]

from Flashpoint #4

Publishing | Popular comic-book guest star President Barack Obama will make a brief appearance in this week’s Flashpoint #4. DC Comics Executive Editor Eddie Berganza told USA Today that the inclusion of the actual President, rather than a fictional counterpart, signals that the danger is real — something that will get pushed as the publisher prepares for the September relaunch. [USA Today]

Publishing | Fantagraphics announced the lineup for the first volume of its EC archives series, which will collect Harvey Kurtzman’s war stories. [Fantagraphics blog]

Conventions | More than 31,000 anime and manga enthusiasts flocked to Baltimore over the weekend for Otakon, one of the biggest fan-oriented anime conventions. There were a few anime and manga licenses announced, but mainly it was a meet-and-greet for fans and publishers. [Anime News Network]

Creators | io9 chatted with Walt Simonson at the Comic-Con International about his legendary Thor run, from Frog Thor to designing Beta Ray Bill’s head: “Before I ever talked about Bill’s design, nobody ever said, ‘Bill’s a horse.’ Back in the day, nobody knew. I did this for two reasons. One, the monster quality –- in many cultures, skulls are an emblem of death. At the same time, Bill’s head is very roughly based on a horse’s skull. I was a geology student when I was younger, and I was familiar with skulls. Skulls have this quality of horror, but at the same time, horses are beautiful animals. The skull is the structure under the skin that gives the horse its look. In a way, the skull was representative of Bill’s true nature.” [io9]

Word War Hulk #1

Creators | Incredible Hulk writer Greg Pak reflects on his 10 favorite moments from his five-year run on the title. [MTV Geek]

Creators | The Apocalipstix writer Ray Fawkes discusses his latest Oni graphic novel One Soul. [The Star]

Creators | Creator Brian Ralph talks about the collected edition of Daybreak. [Giant Robot]

Creators | Chris Roberson talks about the upcoming Star Trek/Legion of Super-Heroes crossover he’s writing for IDW: “When I was nine years old, there was nothing that commanded my attention more than Star Trek and the LSH, and the years since haven’t dampened my enthusiasm. This project is SO much in my wheelhouse that, when Chris Ryall first approached me about it a few months ago, I simply assumed that it was a prank that one of my friends was playing on me. It wasn’t until I was in a meeting with IDW CEO Ted Adams about another project, and asked him point blank, ‘This Star Trek/Legion thing is a prank, right?’ that I was finally convinced that it was really happening.” [ComicsAlliance]

Creators | Blankets creator Craig Thompson shares some youthful scribblings from a 70-foot-long scroll comic he did as a kid. [Doot Doot Garden Blog]

from Obama Nation

Comic creators James Hudnall and Batton Lash have come under fire for a recent comic strip posted on the conservative website BigGovernment.com.

The duo regularly contributes a comic strip called “Obama Nation” — a play off of “abomination”– to the site, part of Andrew Breitbart’s online network. The Feb. 12th strip featured President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama eating dinner, with the president eating very small portions and the first lady eating a plate filled with hamburgers as they discuss her now one-year-old anti-obesity campaign. You can see the full strip for yourself after the jump.

MSNBC commentator Lawrence O’Donnell called it “a racist obscenity” on his program yesterday, while Mediamatters.org said, “It’s been a long time since I’ve expected anything approaching comity from the conservative media, but this is the sort of stuff most of us left at the grade school playground.” And on Technorati, Bill Schmalfeldt wrote, “… Brietbart’s hack comic drawers don’t understand satire. Instead, they show the First Lady as fat and scarfing down cheeseburgers, which she doesn’t do, they show Obama’s ears as impossibly large, the cartoon isn’t funny in the first place, and there’s no grain of truth on which to hang the satire.”

Hudnall, a former writer of Alpha Flight and Strikeforce Morituri, as well as creator of the ESPers and Harsh Realm, responded to the criticism: “There is nothing racist about the cartoon. The artist (Batton Lash) merely drew the first couple in caricature, which is what political cartoonists do. All we’ve done was to take a mild poke at the hypocrisy of the first lady. The press has already detailed the kind of foods served at white house dinners. It’s rarely diet friendly. Such as the menu at their super bowl party.”

Lash, the creator of Supernatural Law, said: “What’s racist about it? Cartooning — specifically political cartooning– has always been about exaggeration, whether it was Nixon’s prominent jowls, Carter’s toothy smile, or Bush ll’s beady eyes. If our current president is exempt because of the color of his skin, I think that would be racist. By the way, I didn’t depict the First Lady as fat — just a hearty eater!”

– President Barack Obama at Wednesday’s White House press conference on the 111th Congress’ surprisingly productive lame-duck session and the transition to a GOP majority in the House of Representatives next year. Sounds like he won’t be crumpling his sensible suit and tie in the trash and saying “President No More!” anytime soon.

Axe Cop

Welcome once again to Food or Comics?, where every week we talk about what comics we’d buy based on certain spending limits — $15, $30 to spend and if we had extra money to spend on what we call the “Splurge” item. Check out Diamond’s release list for this week if you’d like to play along in our comments section.

Michael May

If I had $15:

I’d be all about the Axe Cop, Volume 1 ($14.99). Should be the best thing since Katie Mignola’s The Magician and the Snake.

If I had $30:

I’d add On the Case with Holmes and Watson, Volume 5: The Adventure of the Speckled Band ($6.95) and Robert E. Howard’s Savage Sword #1 ($7.99). Those On the Case books are cool and a Howard anthology of new and reprinted material sounds awesome. Especially when the creators involved include Paul Tobin, Marc Andreyko, Tim Bradstreet and Barry Windsor Smith.

Splurge:

There’s a lot to splurge on this week, starting with Tikitis ($29.95), a comic about a bunch of luchadores who fight mad scientists, voodoo zombies, jungle warriors, and mythological monsters on a tropical island. Still in the mood for jungle adventure, I’d also love to read Phantom: Generations ($19.99) finally, which tells the stories of the various Phantoms throughout history. Then there’s FX2: The Lost Land ($19.99), a fun, Hollow Earth adventure with superhero analogs and Dracula: The Dead Travel Fast ($9.99), which retells Stoker’s story in the 1930s with Nazis. And hey, Classic Marvel Figures Collectors Magazine has their Snowbird figure ($12) out this week.

Chris Mautner

20th Century Boys

If I had $15:

There’s a lot of good manga out this week, so my $15 smackeroos would probably end up going towards the 12th volume of 20th Century Boys ($12.99), the fourth volume of Children of the Sea ($14.99) or the second volume of I’ll Give it My All …. Tomorrow ($12.99).

If I had $30:

I’d save up my scratch for the most notable manga release of the week, A Single Match by Oji Suzuki ($24.95), part of D&Q’s ongoing plan to release as much classic gekiga manga in the U.S. as possible. This is a collection of short stories by the Garo veteran, about whom I know very little, but D&Q has had a stellar record with their manga releases thus far, so I’m confident it will be a worthy purchase.

Splurge:

December is apparently Moebius month as Wednesday sees the release of The Incal: Classic Collection, a $100 (ok, $99.95) deluxe, slipcased hardcover book collecting the original 1980s trippy sci-fi saga the Heavy Metal master did with Alejandro Jodorowsky. This I believe is a remastering of the original coloring, rather than that awful version DC released several years ago when they had that oh-so-brief publishing deal with Humanoids. This book has been calling out to me in my fevered nighttime dreams, taunting me with its exorbitant price tag and (no doubt) limited availability. But one day it shall be mine, oh yes.

Graeme McMillan

Green Lantern: Larfreeze Christmas Special

I’m continuing my one man War On Christmas Comics this week with my $15, going for DC’s Green Lantern: Larfreeze Christmas Special ($3.99), Jay Faerber’s Dynamo 5 Holiday Special 2010 ($3.99) and the most festive of all of them, Batman Inc. #2 ($3.99). Okay, it might not be specifically holiday-themed, but it’ll likely be jolly and I really liked the first issue. With the $3 I have left, I have to shamefully admit that the hype has worked, and I’ll likely check out the Obama/Palin issue of Archie (#616, $2.99). I know, I know.

If I had $30, I’d go with Michael and pick up Dark Horse’s Axe Cop Vol. 1 ($14.99), if only to catch up on it considering how rarely I remember to check the webcomic, even though I like it a lot. What can I say? I like paper a lot.

Splurging, it’s a pretty easy choice for me this week: IDW’s new hardcover collection of Reid Fleming, World’s Toughest Milkman ($29.99), a classic slice of misanthropic action to offset all the eggnog and good cheer I’ll be imbibing elsewhere. But, admittedly, it’s only that easy because I already have the hardcover of Bill Willingham’s Fables novel, Peter & Max, which comes out in paperback this week ($14.99); if you haven’t read that, then I’d highly recommend it as a stocking stuffer for yourself to relax with when the relatives finally go home.

JK Parkin

Fantastic Four #586

If I had $15, I’d start with Usagi Yojimbo #134 ($3.50), which sounds like a fun stand-alone story. Then I’d pick up Fantastic Four #586 ($2.99), the penultimate chapter of the “Three” storyline where someone who isn’t Ben Grimm, apparently, is supposed to die. Next I’d follow Graeme’s Christmas-y lead and pick up the Larfleeze Christmas Special #1 ($3.99), because the concept is just wonderful, and then I’d get Morning Glories #5 ($3.50) to round out this first tier.

If I had $30, I’d also grab a copy of The Sixth Gun #7 ($3.99), which kicks off a new storyline (which means that a trade paperback of the first six issues is on its way … yep, in January). I’d also grab Chew #16 ($2.99) and American Vampire #10 ($3.99) That leaves me with about five bucks, so maybe I’d take an advance from next week and pick up Royal Historian of Oz #3 and Skullkickers #4. That puts me over the limit, and hoping that Santa will bring me copies of Invincible Iron Man, Batman Inc. and everything else I wanted.

Splurge:

As Michael and Graeme have noted, you can’t go wrong with Axe Cop, and I really enjoyed the Fables novel Peter & Max that’s coming out tomorrow in paperback. But since I’ve read both, I’m going to go with something I haven’t seen before — Train Me Gamble ($17.99), a graphic novel about a monstrous bad ass who is tasked with defeating a militaristic sociopath. But because of his size and appearance, the monster has never really had to fight before, so he seeks training from the 10,000-year-old Gamble. It sounds like a lot of fun.

Archie #616

Only in Riverdale would President Barack Obama and former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin share a shake at the local soda shop. Above is the cover to December’s Archie #616, which guest stars both politicians in a story about student government campaigns that “spiral out of control at Riverdale High!” It’s Archie vs. Reggie throwing mud at each other in the political arena, as Obama and Palin are pulled into the fray.

The story continues in Archie #617, the cover for which can be found after the jump.

*****

Archie #617

ARCHIE #616
“Campaign Pain” Part 1.

President Barack Obama and famed politician Sarah Palin get involved as Student Government campaigns spiral out of control at Riverdale High! The race between Archie and Reggie gets hot as campaign chaos reaches to the top, forcing an impromptu visit from these big-name politicos, who get pulled into the fray!

SCRIPT: Alex Simmons
ART: Dan Parent, Jack Morelli, and Digikore Studios
COVER: Dan Parent and Tito Pena
Shipping Date: DEC 15, 2010
On Sale at Comic Shops: DEC 22, 2010
Newsstands: Week of JAN 4, 2011
Comic, 32 pgs, 40 lb glossy stock, Full-Color
$2.99 US

ARCHIE # 617

“Campaign Pains,” Part 2

When President Obama and famed politician Sarah Palin arrive, Riverdale becomes the center of a national crisis! Archie and Reggie have each claimed support from one of these political powerhouses, but they don’t! Now Riverdale is in chaos and when the Secret Service gets involved it only gets worse!

SCRIPT: Alex Simmons
ARTIST: Dan Parent, Jack Morelli and Digikore Studios
COVER: Dan Parent
Shipping Date: 1/19/11
On Sale at Comic Shops: 1/26/11
Newstands: Week of 2/8/11
Comic, 32 pgs, 40 lb. glossy stock, Full-Color

Tintin in the Congo

Legal | A Belgian court will rule next week whether Herge’s 1931 collection Tintin in the Congo will be banned because of its depictions of native Africans. The decision, originally expected today, following a nearly three-year-old effort by Bienvenu Mbutu Mondondo, a Congolese man living in Belgium, to have the book removed from the country’s bookstores, or at least sold with warning labels as it is in Britain. [Guardian, Mail Online]

Libraries | Robot 6 contributor Brigid Alverson reports on a C2E2 panel devoted to helping librarians deal with public challenges to graphic novels. On a related note, she also talks to Jeff Smith about a Minnesota mother’s attempt to have Bone removed from libraries in her school district. [Publishers Weekly]

San Diego Convention Center

Conventions | San Diego has sweetened the pot to keep Comic-Con International from leaving the city by offering $500,000 in hotel tax revenue over the next five years to help defray the cost of shuttling attendees to the event. The offer comes from the Tourism Marketing District, a nonprofit coalition of hotel operators, at the urging of Mayor Jerry Sanders and the San Diego Convention Center. Organizers are expected to decide within three weeks whether Comic-Con will remain in San Diego past 2012. [Union-Tribune]

Publishing | President Obama on Monday praised Kuwaiti Publisher Naif al-Mutawa for promoting international understanding of Islam with his comic series The 99: “His comic books have captured the imagination of so many young people with superheroes who embody the teachings and tolerance of Islam.” [CNN.com]

Retailing | Heidi MacDonald samples retailer opinion on digital distribution. “Our store is located under a music store, and we’ve already seen what can go wrong,” says Katie Merritt of Green Brain Comics in Dearborn, Michigan. “Fighting digital delivery didn’t do the music industry any good.” [Publishers Weekly]

Retailing | Citing high rent and increased competition from chain stores, owner Ethan Peacock will close Vancouver’s seven-year-old Elfsar Comics & Toys in Vancouver on May 23. [Straight.com]

Publishing | Fantagraphics Books and Rosebud Archives have partnered to sell prints, posters, framed art and other products related to vintage comics, advertising images and illustrations. [press release]

Icon

Publishing | Ryan K. Lindsay offers an overview of Marvel’s Icon imprint. [The Weekly Crisis]

Creators | Clifford Meth provides an update on the health of artist Gene Colan. [20th Century Danny Boy]

Creators | Daniel Clowes chats about his new graphic novel Wilson: “I liked the idea of Ice Haven as this little travel book or something. I wanted it to look like a postcard. Wilson — I just wanted everything about it to be sort of easy to read. I wanted it to just have the feel of a kid’s book, almost — sort of heavy, weighty. I wanted it to feel like it could take a bullet — like you could hold it in front of your chest, and it’s like, the bullet didn’t make it all the way through! It’s really the thickest board I’ve ever seen on a book. I told Chris Oliveros at Drawn & Quarterly, ‘I want the thickest board you can get me.’ I thought, there’s something so great and strong about it. I felt like in a world where everybody is downloading books, it was saying, ‘I’m a book, damn it — deal with me’.” [Time Out New York]

Doctor Solar

Creators | Christopher Irving profiles legendary — or perhaps infamous — industry figure Jim Shooter, focusing largely on Valiant Comics and Defiant. [Graphic NYC]

Creators | Jonathan Ross talks briefly about Turf, his Image Comics series with Tommy Lee Edwards. [FEARNet]

Creators | Actor Michael Chiklis discusses Pantheon, his new miniseries with Marc Andreyko and Stephen Molnar from IDW Publishing. [USA Today]

Creators | Writer Jim McCann is interviewed about his Marvel work and his creator-owned graphic novel Return of the Dapper Men. [Creative Loafing]

Creators | Artist Chrissie Zullo chats about her covers for Vertigo’s Cinderella: From Fabletown With Love. [Major Spoilers]

Comics | Owen Vaughan rattles off 55 facts you probably already know about superhero comics and movies. [News.com.au]

President Obama gains sight beyond sight

You know him best as the mastermind of Project Rooftop, but apparently cartoonist Dean Trippe has a sideline gig as Barack Obama’s presidential photographer. How else to explain the photo series “Barack Obama Looking at Awesome Things” Trippe is hosting on his tumblr, featuring our chief executive getting up close and personal with Lion-O’s Sword of Omens, Green Lantern’s Power Ring, Speed Racer’s Mach 5, Luke Skywalker’s Lightsaber, Batman’s batarangs, Captain America’s shield and many more objects of geekery? (Oh man, if you thought the debate over whether Red Hulk would be able to pick up Mjolnir was divisive….)

(via Ryan “Agent M” Penagos)

Obama

The latest member of Image’s big faux August team book, Guardians of the Globe, is none other than President Barack Obama. He joins Spawn, Invincible and Rick from Walking Dead on the roster.

He’ll be there to kick ass and push for health care reform, no doubt.

Disturbing thing, innit?

As you’ve no doubt already seen, the above Obama/Joker mash-up has been making the rounds lately; it’s been posted up on placards and utility poles in Los Angeles and gotten the attention of quite a few bloggers.

According to Politics Daily, it also got the attention of radio personality Rush Limbaugh, who found the comparison apt:

[The Joker] had a big damn chip on his shoulder about his childhood and about a bunch of other things. His goal was to undermine the whole system. . . . And to effect the change that the people of Gotham City didn’t want, the Joker created chaos upon chaos. The whole city was focused on him and what he was going to do next. He viewed crisis as an opportunity. So the Joker orchestrated crisis after crisis after crisis. And the Joker wore a mask. I mean whoever put this poster together is pretty smart because there are some similarities here to what the Joker did in that movie and what Obama is doing to this country.

Well, actually that story about his childhood was probably a lie, but never mind. I bring this up, because, apparently Limbaugh found a similar caricature of Bush, done by Drew Friedman for Vanity Fair magazine to be not only sub-par, but an example of left-wing hypocrisy because it didn’t prompt any outrage when it ran last year.

Outrage or not, one thing is clear. That make-up doesn’t look good on anyone.

San Diego Convention Center

Conventions | San Diego and its convention center are fending off suitors for Comic-Con International, which generates some $16 million in direct spending for the city. Helen Kaiao Chang reports on some of the behind-the-scenes wrangling to keep the convention away from Los Angeles and Las Vegas, even as “the homegrown event … [busts] at the seams” of the San Diego venue.

“We’re working hard to keep them in San Diego,” says one convention center official. “The economic impact to San Diego is profound.” [San Diego News Network]

Publishing | After round after round of firings, Wizard has announced two promotions and a new hire. Longtime staff member Mike Cotton has been promoted from managing editor to editor while Andy Serwin has moved from assistant managing editor to features editor.

The magazine also has hired Casey Seijas as managing editor. Seijas previously worked at Wizard as a writer and editor before moving on to Vertigo, where he edited Hellblazer and assisted on numerous other titles. He left the DC Comics imprint in summer 2008 to co-edit MTV’s new Splash Page blog, but was let go a few months later in a round of Viacom layoffs. He stayed on as a free-lance writer. [Wizard]

Scary Go Round

Webcomics | Cartoonist John Allison has confirmed he’ll end his long-running webcomic Scary Go Round in September, in part to begin a new project that will provide a fresh entry point for readers, but also over concerns that the webcomics “game” has become “more fierce.”

“Four years ago, a webcomic with a readership in the tens of thousands, a couple of book collections and a few chippy tshirts would keep you in the hay most months of the year,” Allison writes on his blog. “But now the market is oversaturated with ‘product’ in, arguably, all three of those categories and I have to take a risk and raise my game. I’ve said it before but I don’t want to be knocking on 40 with only a long-in-the-tooth internet strip to keep my (as yet unborn) babies in school coats and shoes.”

The paranormal comedy launched in 2002 in the wake of Bobbins, Allison’s earlier comic that featured most of the same main characters. Seven print collections of Scary Go Round have been released since 2003. The upcoming eighth book will be the last. The Webcomic Overlook provides commentary. [John Allison's blog]

Naruto, Vol. 45

Sales charts | Final Crisis and Watchmen maintain the top spots in the hardcover and paperback categories of The New York Times Graphic Books Best Seller List, while the 45th volume of Naruto replaces Bleach, Vol. 27, as the No. 1 manga. [ArtsBeat]

Publishing | The Weekly Standard‘s Jonathan V. Last examines, with some disdain, how Obamamania has gripped the comics industry. He notes that while other presidents have appeared in comic books, none has received the Obama-style treatment: “What’s different about Mr. Obama’s triumphant march through comics is (1) the sheer volume of his appearances, month after month; and (2) the worshipful attitude toward him. The main characters gape and stutter in his presence, overwhelmed by his magnificence. He’s even drawn iconically. Where other presidents have been penciled either realistically or satirically, Mr. Obama mostly gets the superhero treatment with bulging muscles and jutting jaw line.” [The Wall Street Journal]

Events | Trevor Hunnicut previews Saturday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony for the newly restored Cleveland home where a teen-aged Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created Superman. [Cleveland Plain Dealer]

Awards | The Joe Madureira-created video game Darksiders is the title sponsor of the 2009 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, which will be presented July 24 during Comic-Con International. [press release]

Creators | Writer David Gallaher chats briefly about his Zuda Comics Western High Moon: “The theme of ‘an unchanging man in a changing time’ sort of stuck with me, and the story came out of that. With few exceptions, I hate Westerns … and with this project, I was able to write a Western that I enjoyed creating and enjoyed reading.” [The Oklahoman]

Greatest American Hero(es)

Yesterday Arcana Comics released the third issue of their Greatest American Hero mini-series, which featured the above variant cover. The book joins a never-ending list of books that have featured President Barack Obama on their cover, from Amazing Spider-Man and Savage Dragon to Barack the Barbarian: Quest for the Treasure of Stimuli and My Neighbor Taro-kun.

If I was a bit faster on the uptake, I would have thought about doing a CBS News-style list of all the comic and pop culture-related news surrounding Obama when we reached his 100th day in office. But then I would have missed this:

Puppy Power!

Barack the Barbarian

We’ve all heard countless times that President Barack Obama is a fan of Spider-Man and Conan the Barbarian, and we saw where his affinity for the wall crawler led a few months ago. Now the other sword has dropped.

On Sunday, Comic Continuum posted Devil’s Due Publishing’s solicitations for June, and they include a comic titled Barack the Barbarian: Quest for the Treasure of Stimuli #1, written by Larry Hama. There’s also a poster offered of the cover to the first issue by Tim Seeley (pictured above). Here’s the full solicitation text:

BARACK THE BARBARIAN: QUEST FOR THE TREASURE OF STIMULI #1

Written by Larry Hama, art by various, covers by Tim Seeley and Rachelle Rosenberg.

From a far away land rises a mighty hero. The son of peasants from two different realms, the one known only as Barak protects the people of Hope Kingdom at all costs. Watch as he takes on the likes of Boosh the Dim, Red Sarah, and Cha-nee the Grim in this first issue!

But wait, there’s more!

Obama will appear in not one, but two comics from Devil’s Due, the other being Drafted: One Hundred Days:

DRAFTED: ONE HUNDRED DAYS

Written by Mark Powers, art and cover by Chris Lie.

Humanity has repulsed the first wave of alien invaders — but the battle has left much of America in shambles. As the coldest winter in a century assaults the starving, shell-shocked populace, it falls to a former U.S. Senator to rally a small construction unit in the frozen, haunted remains of Chicago. A man whose own destiny has been changed by the war: Barack Hussein Obama.

Also of note, Devil’s Due has also solicited Olympus by Geoff Johns and Butch Guice, which was originally published by Humanoids in Europe and then DC in the United States, when they had the license. Although it doesn’t star Obama, it is worth checking out.

Obama and friends, from “My Neighbor Taro-kun”

Savage Dragon and Barack Obama? Old news. Spider-Man and the president? Pfft. Kids’ stuff.

Japan pushes past the Spandex and slugfests — and, apparently, boundaries — with Tonari no Taro-kun (“My Neighbor Taro-kun”), an erotic manga starring Prime Minister Taro Aso. Hence the title.

But the February issue of My Neighbor Taro-kun features a very special guest: a dead ringer for U.S. President Obama. If I’m not mistaken, er-Obama is flanked in the panel at the right by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and possibly Sen. John McCain. Or Ron Howard; it could go either way.

According to Gia Manry, the gist of the issue is that Taro-kun gets “a black neighbor who calls for change.” Judging from these scans from Sankaku Complex — not safe for work, but probably not as bad as you imagine — he wants a little more than change.

Manry also points out the artist draws er-Obama with a dot (or Urna) on his forehead, a symbol of enlightment or wisdom often seen in depictions of Buddha. Cue another round of those “Chosen One” comments … now.

From Final Crisis #7

If you thought superhero comics were finished with President Obama, you’d be wrong. The covers of Savage Dragon and The Amazing Spider-Man, and a shadowy cameo in Thunderbolts were only the beginning.

Readers of this week’s Final Crisis #7 were introduced to an alternate Earth with a black U.S. president … who’s also that universe’s Superman. It’s writer Grant Morrison’s nod to then-candidate Obama’s October speech at the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner.

“I wanted to do something special for the last part of this huge comic book series,” Morrison told Scotland’s Daily Record. “As I was writing it, I heard Obama making a joke about being born on the planet Krypton and being sent to Earth by his father Jor-El to save the world. I thought it would be a fitting end to all the darkness in America recently. All the comics have been dealing with darkness recently and, having defeated evil, it’s now time to celebrate.”

Morrison says he would like to do more with “the Obama character” next year. I presume he means President Superman, not the actual president.

That should please FOXNews.com to no end. No, really.

Writing apparently from sometime in the 1960s, the website asks whether it’s now time for a black comic-book superhero (while noting there already have been black superheroes, just none that can be considered top-tier).

So, what accounts for the dearth of black superheroes in pop culture?

“I think part of that is that there hasn’t been a breakout character that transcends race the way actors Will Smith and Eddie Murphy have, or the Cosby Show did, or, frankly, Barack Obama has,” Savage Dragon creator Erik Larsen tells FOXNews. “The characters in comics are often too ethnic for a white audience and too embarrassing for a black one.”

At io9.com, Graeme McMillan turns to blogger David Brothers for his views on the efforts by DC and Marvel to address ethnic diversity.

“The problem with both companies,” Brothers writes, “and one which DC will fix if they can stick the landing of the Milestone relaunch, is that 99% of their black characters fit into a certain character type. There’s not really a range of black characters.”

Hope

Blogger Sean Kleefeld collects comic strips with an Inauguration Day theme … which I’m posting just as Barack Obama is sworn in as the 44th president of the United States.

Related: Dan Clowes and other Bay Area authors on Barack Obama

Yes We Will

In anticipation of Barack Obama’s inauguration tomorrow, Shooting War creator Dan Goldman created a short webcomic for Tor.com that plays off of the end of Barack’s first term and the end of the ancient Mayan calendar — Dec. 21, 2012 — or, as X-Files fans might remember, the day before the aliens come. Throw in a little bit of Jack Kirby’s Fourth World for good measure, and you have to wonder when we’ll see the first Motherbox in the White House …

Amazing Spider-Man #583 (Obama variant cover)

Earlier this week I blogged about Erik Larsen’s comments on Amazing Spider-Man #583 and Savage Dragon #137 that appeared on the ComiCon.com message boards. If you haven’t seen those comments, go read them first before you read this post, as it’ll make more sense that way.

Everybody up to speed? Good. Here’s Spider-Man editor Steve Wacker, who sent us an email responding to Larsen:

I’ve been watching for a couple days as a guy I’ve never met swings away at perceived phantoms, accusing myself and his fellow creators or ridiculous “betrayals” due to our story in ASM #583. I’d say this was a grasping at straws, but that assumes there are some straws around. So here’s some info:

I don’t know Erik Larsen from Adam (admittedly I stole that turn of phrase!) and I don’t follow the news surrounding Savage Dragon at all. However, I know this isn’t the first time he’s insulted writers that work for me under the guise of criticizing Marvel. I’m also aware he and many people around him aren’t happy with Spider-Man comics and that he’s written long and hard on the topic, but that doesn’t excuse him from blatantly accusing anyone of plagiarism… particularly based on such flimsy “evidence.”

Reading Erik’s statement, he wisely (if you want to cut off all logical arguments) proclaims that the actual truth of the matter — that Marvel has a history of showing presidents in our books — is a “false argument,” but I’m going to ignore him and make the point anyway because, well, ignoring that fact is as silly as his pretend outrage.

Marvel DOES regularly show politicians and we have for years. That’s the whole point. In fact, Marvel has spent the past year putting a fake presidential candidate in most of our books. The idea that we’d follow that up by putting a Spidey-fan-made-good on our cover can’t really come as a huge surprise to anyone smart enough to be a publisher.

The Spidey Obama short was just a goofy story to celebrate something interesting happening and no one is trying to claim it was anything else. Eric’s proposal that we only did this to get attention on Spidey is practically message board-ian it’s insightfulness. As a young Steve Wacker would say, “DUH!” or even “DOY!”

I’ve never in my life read Savage Dragon (which isn’t meant as a knock since people obviously enjoy it) and certainly no plot or cover ideas were stolen from it, unless Erik created the idea of the imposter/doppelganger story which made me laugh just to type it.

Hell, the whole idea of someone posing as a public figure idea is a clichéd trope at this point (Sorry, Zeb), but it fit exactly what we were trying to do with the quick 5-pager with a one week turnaround. No one involved thought we had discovered a never-before-climbed branch of the story tree (which apparently Erik thinks he may have done a couple years back when he apparently had the president replaced in his book.)

And Eric’s notion we stole the idea of the fist bump from him is also absurd. We actually stole it from reality. Like he did. Duh!

Onto another accusation of Erik’s, the decision to put the president on the cover was made because:

#1 – As I mentioned, we recently had some success putting another public figure — who was running for President in the Marvel U — on a variant cover. So I didn’t have to travel too far to think of this one.

And #2 – (and don’t miss this one because it’s an important point, so don’t start typing yet): The president actually used to read Spider-Man! He even quoted Spider-Man in the letter to his daughters released earlier in the week. Believe me, if McCain had declared himself a Spidey fan, I’d have been all over it. (You know that well-known Batman fan Sen. Patrick Leahy was in the newest Batman movie, right? I hope Leahy wasn’t featured in Savage Dragon first! Yikes.)

The idea that this was off-limits because the President-Elect had appeared on another comic cover (or that we wouldn’t have had this idea without Erik Larsen) is beyond preposterous. I suspect this is more of an overall “Marvel would be better if I were in charge!” bone to pick that Erik seems to carry around — which, if you get me on the right day, I completely share. But that bone doesn’t mean that anyone at Marvel’s “betraying” him as Erik dramatically puts it.

I’m a company stooge, so I don’t expect Erik’s going to care too much about what I think, but at the very least the writers and artists who are busy not stealing from him don’t deserve his mewling accusations.

-Wacker
Congrats for the controversy, Robot 6!