Dusting off a list of grievances that includes the controversial Tea Party reference in Captain America #602, pro-Obama sympathies and an unnamed series “blaspheming God and Christianity,” Paul Hair writes on Andrew Breitbart’s Big Hollywood that it’s time for conservatives to counter with their own version of Occupy Comics.

“Leftists have made no secret about who they are, and I see no reason why we shouldn’t simply wipe the dust of their town from our feet and stop throwing pearls to them in worthless attempts to change them,” he writes, loading both barrels with biblical allusions. “Instead, I propose we fight back.”

Arguing that, “I no longer see a point in engaging leftists in argument or debate,” Hair suggests the right’s Occupy Comics initiative should “simply move forward and promote who we are” and real-world solutions to economic problems.

He puts out the call for other contributors to Breitbart’s online network to become involved, drawing responses in the comments from Mike Baron and James Hudnall, among others. “The OWS comic is an example of comics people boarding the train after it derailed,” Hudnall writes. “I’ve been quietly working on projects I plan to do which will explore different arguments about society and government than what many comics pros tend to do but we aren’t all left wing. I find there are a lot of conservative and libertarians in the community. They just aren’t as vocal as lefties.”

Jillian Tamaki (Skim, Indoor Voice) is between projects right now, with one project on the editor’s desk and another not quite under way. So when the New York Times asked her to illustrate a piece on political sex scandals, she was ready, willing, and more than able. Here’s the main illustration, and click through to her blog to see some other sketches. (Mildly NSFW—this is the Times, after all—but she includes one drawing that was apparently too hot for them.)

With so much being reported about Alan Moore’s connections to the Occupy movement — through his endorsement of its ideals, his contribution to Occupy Comics, and protesters’ co-opting of the David Lloyd-designed Guy Fawkes masks — U.K.’s Channel 4 News coaxed the V for Vendetta writer from his home in Northampton to London to meet some of the demonstrators for the first time.

“It’s a bit surprising when some of the characters you thought you made up suddenly seem to escape into ordinary reality,” Moore told some disguised protesters. “I mean, what is it about the mask — is it just useful, or what?”

The report also delves into Frank Miller’s criticism of the Occupy movement, Moore’s displeasure with film adaptations of his works and, yes, the irony that each Guy Fawkes mask that protesters buy puts more money into the coffers of Time Warner, one of the world’s largest media conglomerates.

Reggie and Me #26

“Mitt Romney is starting to get on my nerves. He reminds me of Reggie, the rich, handsome, athletic and effortlessly superficial character in the Archie comics. He does almost everything well, and he looks like a million bucks (leveraged for much more), but he rings hollow, like the class president who would bring glee to all of Riverdale High by slipping on a banana peel. I’d kill for that. [...] Jon Huntsman is on to something when he says Americans seek forthrightness in their politicians — leaders who take their convictions from their gut, not focus groups. Romney does not come across as that guy. Instead, he has the coldness of Reggie from the Archie comics — the guy who had everything except, notably, his name on the cover.”

– Washington Post opinion writer Richard Cohen, comparing Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney to a certain Reginald Mantle, but somehow overlooking that the latter starred in no fewer than five series, including the long-running Reggie and Me

Cartoon Movement has been knocking it out of the park lately with short comic about topical issues — it’s the home of the Occupy Sketchbooks and a number of other thought-provoking pieces of journalism done in the comics medium. Now Josh Neufeld has a new comic up there, Bahrain: Lines in Ink, Lines in the Sand, that tells the story of the recent unrest in Bahrain from the point of view of two cartoonists.

Neufeld starts out with his own visit to Bahrain, which struck him as a peaceful and progressive country. “I didn’t sense any underlying tensions,” he says, but the very next page shows how much he missed. What began as peaceful demonstrations against the government quickly turned ugly as long-buried resentments came to the surface. There had been rifts, chiefly between the Sunni and Shia, that Neufeld had not seen on his trip (which was sponsored by the U.S. Department of State).

Neufeld resists the temptation to boil this down to a simple tale. The two cartoonists he met on his trip have very different perspectives on the unrest, and he allows both to tell their stories, even including their cartoons in his comic. The result is a sad tale of how a country that seemed stable and peaceful could fracture along political and religious lines — and of the consequences that has for its people.

“It’s fair to say that Alan Moore and David Lloyd are unofficial godfathers of the current protest movement,”  Occupy Comics organizer Matt Pizzolo told Wired.com. “It’s really amazing to see two creatives whose work was inspiring to street protesters join a creative project that is inspired by the street protesters. It’s a pretty virtuous cycle.”

Moore will contribute a long-form prose piece, possibly with illustrations, exploring the movement’s principles, “corporate control of the comics industry and the superhero paradigm itself.”

The project, being funded through Kickstarter, is described as “a time capsule of the passions and emotions driving the movement.” It will begin as single-issue comics, followed by a hardcover collection; a making-of documentary is also being produced by Patrick Meaney, director of Grant Morrison: Talking With Gods and Warren Ellis: Captured Ghosts. With three days left in its fundraising campaign, Occupy Comics has raised $15,892, surpassing its $10,000 goal.

The famously left-wing Moore recently responded to Frank Miller’s scathing criticism of the Occupy movement, saying, “As far as I can see, the Occupy movement is just ordinary people reclaiming rights which should always have been theirs. I can’t think of any reason why as a population we should be expected to stand by and see a gross reduction in the living standards of ourselves and our kids, possibly for generations, when the people who have got us into this have been rewarded for it; they’ve certainly not been punished in any way because they’re too big to fail. I think that the Occupy movement is, in one sense, the public saying that they should be the ones to decide who’s too big to fail. It’s a completely justified howl of moral outrage and it seems to be handled in a very intelligent, non-violent way, which is probably another reason why Frank Miller would be less than pleased with it. I’m sure if it had been a bunch of young, sociopathic vigilantes with Batman make-up on their faces, he’d be more in favour of it. We would definitely have to agree to differ on that one.”

In addition to Moore and Lloyd, the Occupy Comics participants include Michael Allred, Darick Robertson, Douglas Rushkoff, Ben Templesmith, Si Spurrier, Dean Haspiel, Amanda Palmer, J.M. DeMatteis, Steve Niles, Dan Goldman, Charlie Adlard, Susie Cagle, Shannon Wheeler, Molly Crabapple, Ryan Ottley, Joshua Dysart, Joseph Michael Linsner, Joe Keatinge, B. Clay Moore and Joshua Hale Fialkov.

Alan Moore

Creators | Watchmen writer Alan Moore responds to recent comments made by The Dark Knight Returns creator Frank Miller: “I think that the Occupy movement is, in one sense, the public saying that they should be the ones to decide who’s too big to fail. It’s a completely justified howl of moral outrage and it seems to be handled in a very intelligent, non-violent way, which is probably another reason why Frank Miller would be less than pleased with it. I’m sure if it had been a bunch of young, sociopathic vigilantes with Batman make-up on their faces, he’d be more in favour of it. We would definitely have to agree to differ on that one.”  [Honest Publishing]

Conventions | Tom Spurgeon files a lengthy report from the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival, held Saturday in New York City. [The Comics Reporter]

Ashes

Creators | Uncanny X-Men writer Kieron Gillen comments on the use of sites like Kickstarter to fund comics projects through the lens of Alex de Campi and Jimmy Broxton’s Ashes: “I think that Kickstarter or – if you’re not a yank – Indie Go Go is the single biggest new thing to be considered by a working creative this year. And not just comic creatives. Digital is something people have been chewing over for years now – and I suspect it’s going to be next year when we see some more movement there – but this has surprised a lot of people, and lead to a cheerily wild-west vibe to it all. People running Kickstarters are still trying to work out how to do this thing, and balance all sorts of questions of personal moral integrity. And this is important to do, just because when you don’t, things go bad quickly and you’re risking tarring the very concept of kickstarter-esque funded projects.” [Kieron Gillen]

Creators | CNN profiles legendary MAD cartoonist Al Jaffee. [CNN]

Creators | Gerry Alanguilan talks about his graphic novel Elmer. [Philippine Daily Inquirer]

The Last Dragon

Creators | Rebecca Guay discusses her Dark Horse adaptation of Jane Yolen’s short story “The Last Dragon.” [Sequential Tart]

Creators | Box Brown discusses his career and approach to making comics, among other topics. [The Comics Reporter]

Comics | Deb Aoki previews some of the manga we can expect to see in the coming year. [About.com]

Marketing | Johanna Draper Carlson, always quick to call out bad marketing tactics, takes a Kickstarter creator to task for not responding well to criticism. The creator responds in the comments; you be the judge. [Comics Worth Reading]

Commentary | Chris Murphy looks back at “four incredible years” with Marvel’s Hercules. [ComicsAlliance]

Commentary | David Anderson looks at the first issue of John Byrne’s Cold War. [Spandexless]

From "The Dick Knight," by Richard Pace

Richard Pace sends up Batman: The Dark Knight Returns in his response to Frank Miller’s recent tirade against Occupy protestors, writing, “I’d prefer to remember Frank Miller as the sometimes brilliant, long-haired nerd glaring from his back-cover photo on The Dark Knight Returns trade rather than the fedora-wearing, incoherent lightweight hack he’s become.”

Read the full comic strip, titled “The Dick Knight,” on Pace’s blog.

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns

Frank Miller, whose tirade against the Occupy movement was met with a largely negative, and frequently heated, response, has found an unlikely defender: left-leaning writer Mark Millar.

In a post on his Millarworld forum, the writer of Kick-Ass and The Ultimates says, “It’s strange to watch your favourite writer getting strips torn off him for a couple of days.”

“Politically, I disagree with his analysis, but that’s besides the point,” Millar continues. “I wasn’t shocked by his comments because they’re no different from a lot of commentators I’ve seen discussing the subject. What shocked me was the vitriol against him, the big bucket of shit poured over the head by even fellow comic-book creators for saying what was on his mind.”

As one commenter points out, it probably shouldn’t be shocking that Miller’s no-holds-barred screed, which characterizes Occupy protesters as “a pack of louts, thieves, and rapists” who “can do nothing but harm America,” was answered with a degree of vitriol. Or, in the commenter’s words, “if you throw the first bucket of shit [...] then you should be prepared for some splashback.” Perhaps if Miller’s commentary had been more reasoned and less inflammatory — “decorous,” as Miller himself would say — the reaction might’ve reflected that.

Instead, the writer of Daredevil: Born Again, Batman: Year One and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns delivered an unfocused, angry rant sprinkled with name-calling, weird putdowns — “Go back to your mommas’ basements and play with your Lords Of Warcraft“? — and an incongruous reference to al-Qaeda and “Islamicism” (it’s difficult not to be reminded of then-Sen. Biden’s criticism of Rudy Giuliani, that “there’s only three things he mentions in a sentence — a noun and a verb and 9/11″). There’s a strange, impotent fury to Miller’s words that makes him an inviting target for derision and dismissal as a paranoid crank, and leaves many readers wondering when precisely the disconnect occurred … and what he has against iPhones.

Millar (with an “a”), who faced criticism himself for comments made before the invasion of Iraq, bristles at what he sees as a “distasteful” “cyber-mob mentality” that’s rallied in response to Miller’s remarks.

“It’s not just that I like the guy, that his body of work is among the best the industry has ever seen,” Millar writes. “It’s the GLEE I’m seeing from some people and, worse, the calls I’ve seen to boycott his work because his perspective on a point differs from yours and mine. [...] Liberalism doesn’t mean throwing guys in jail who DISAGREE with your liberalism. It means accepting that society is richer when everybody has a voice. Starting economic sanctions against a writer until they shut up and agree with you is horrific.”

Although I’ve not seen the calls for boycotts, I’m sure they’re out there; the Internet is a greenhouse for boycotts and petitions. However, like so many other online protests, a movement against Miller’s body of work will fizzle, if it even gets off the ground. Readers outraged by the writer’s views about the Occupy movement likely weren’t ordering Holy Terror, tracking down 300 or counting the days until Xerxes. And few, if any, are going to stop reading or buying such seminal works as Batman: Year One or The Dark Knight Returns because, after a quarter-century, they conclude Miller is a crackpot whose views differ radically from their own. Odds are, both collections are already on their shelves anyway.

Chris Claremont

Creators | Longtime Uncanny X-Men writer Chris Claremont is donating his archives to Columbia University’s Rare Book and Manuscript Library. The collection includes materials for all of his major writing projects over the past 40 years, notebooks with story ideas, drafts of short stories, plays, novels and comic books, and materials from his early training in the theater and his career as an actor. “We hope this is the first of more comics papers to come to the University,” said Karen Green, Columbia University’s ancient/medieval studies librarian and graphic novel librarian. “We want it to be a magnet for these kinds of archives in New York City, where the comics medium was born.” [Publishers Weekly]

Awards | USA Network and DC Comics’ Burn Notice webcomic has won a Media Vanguard Award from Advertising Age. [Advertising Age]

Creators | Michael Cavna talks to two comics creators with very different takes on Occupy Wall Street, sequential journalist Susie Cagle, who was arrested as part of the Occupy Oakland protests, and conservative editorial cartoonist Nate Beeler, who walks past the Occupy D.C. site every day and regards it as “quaint,” smelly, and out of step with the rest of the country.” [Comic Riffs]

Bleach, Vol. 49

Publishing | Viz Media prepares for its digital relaunch of Shonen Jump, which will feature near-simultaneous releases of Naruto, Bleach and four other series with their Japanese counterparts, by speeding up its digital releases of Bleach — and skipping ahead to the next story arc. [About.com]

Creators | Eight veteran MAD Magazine creators, including Al Jaffee, Sergio Aragones and Jack Davis (whose work appeared in the very first issue) got together in Georgia recently to talk over old times. Jaffee and Aragones are still going strong, but Davis quit the magazine 20 years ago. He explained, “I like all the guys up there a lot, but I felt like it kind of got a little raunchy.” [The Associated Press]
Retailers | Ralph Gardner Jr., revisits St. Marks Comics after 20 years away and finds it still going strong. [The Wall Street Journal]

Habibi

Commentary | Jonathan Liu looks at Craig Thompson’s Habibi. [GeekDad]

Commentary | Just call them comics, says Dave Scheidt, who decries the blurring of the distinction between comics and graphic novels: “A graphic novel in the purest definition is a front to back story in which told in a single volume most usually self-contained, and not a collected edition of numerous single issues, even if they are apart of an ongoing story. If it were just released as volumes and never single issues, ding ding! Graphic novel.” [The Huffington Post]

No stranger to controversy with such works as 300 and, most recently, Holy Terror, Frank Miller has waded into the political fray with a tirade against the “Occupy” movement that blasts the protesters as “a pack of louts, thieves, and rapists” that “can do nothing but harm America.”

In a blog post that blew up over the weekend, garnering the attention of everyone from the comics community to Entertainment Weekly to the New York Daily News, the creator who nearly 25 years ago wrote the influential Batman: Year One — “You have eaten well. You’ve eaten Gotham’s wealth. Its spirit. Your feast is nearly over.” — unleashed on the “pond scum” engaged in nationwide protests aimed primarily at perceived economic and social inequality.

“’Occupy’ is nothing short of a clumsy, poorly-expressed attempt at anarchy, to the extent that the ‘movement’ – HAH! Some ‘movement,’ except if the word ‘bowel’ is attached — is anything more than an ugly fashion statement by a bunch of iPhone, iPad wielding spoiled brats who should stop getting in the way of working people and find jobs for themselves,” Miller wrote. “[...] In the name of decency, go home to your parents, you losers. Go back to your mommas’ basements and play with your Lords Of Warcraft. Or better yet, enlist for the real thing. Maybe our military could whip some of you into shape.”

Yes, Lords of Warcraft. Miller’s rant somehow dovetails into a favorite subject of his, the War on Terror, with the 54-year-old artist advising the aforementioned “losers” to come to their senses and fight the real enemy.

“Wake up, pond scum. America is at war against a ruthless enemy,” he continued. “Maybe, between bouts of self-pity and all the other tasty tidbits of narcissism you’ve been served up in your sheltered, comfy little worlds, you’ve heard terms like al-Qaeda and Islamicism. And this enemy of mine — not of yours, apparently — must be getting a dark chuckle, if not an outright horselaugh — out of your vain, childish, self-destructive spectacle.”

Miller characterized the Occupy movement as “anything but an exercise of our blessed First Amendment.” However, in a belated response to io9.com’s survey asking Batman writers how the Dark Knight would respond to Occupy Wall Street, Miller, through a representative, wrote, “Batman would respect the First Amendment,” which was later amended to “Batman believes in the First Amendment and decorous behavior.”

Criminals are a cowardly and indecorous lot, it appears.

While his screed burned up Twitter over the weekend, it probably didn’t come as a big surprise to those who’ve followed his work, the most recent of which is Holy Terror, is long-gestating revenge fantasy created in response to 9/11. Still, his comments generated plenty of response from creators and readers alike.

“Frankmillerink.com is a great link if you like absolute bullshit,” said Batgirl writer Gail Simone.

“I just don’t expect that from a guy who wrote Year One, the best cape comic ever: a work of careful thought, psychological nuance, beauty,” novelist Joe Hill, writer of Locke & Key, tweeted.

“Dear @FrankMillerInk what those on Occupy Wall Street want is simple — for the rich to pay their fare share of taxes,” Image Comics co-founder Erik Larsen wrote. “Is that so wrong?”

“I think Frank Miller saw them filming the giant fight scene for Dark Knight Rises in NY & confused it for [Occupy Wall Street],” Shade artist Cully Hamner tweeted. “No wonder he was pissed…!”

“Instead of yet another Republican debate I would pay money to see Frank Miller, Steve Ditko and Harlan Ellison debate the issues of the day,” writer Christos Gage said.

However, Ty Templeton had the most elaborate response, breaking out a special “Frank Miller Funnies” edition of his Bun Toons webcomic. See the full strip on Templeton’s website.

By Ty Templeton

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.

Ziggy

Passings | Tom Wilson Sr., creator of the long-running comic strip Ziggy, passed away Sept. 16. According to a press release from Universal Uclick, Wilson, 80, had suffered from a long illness and died in his sleep. For more than 35 years, Wilson served as a creative director at American Greetings. Wilson first published Ziggy in the 1969 cartoon collection When You’re Not Around. The Ziggy comic panel, syndicated by Universal Uclick (formerly Universal Press Syndicate), launched in 15 newspapers in June 1971. It now appears in more than 500 daily and Sunday newspapers and has been featured in best-selling books, calendars and greeting cards. Wilson’s son, Tom Wilson Jr., took over the strip in 1987. [Universal Uclick]

Awards | The Chill by Jason Star and Mick Bertilorenzi won an Anthony Award this weekend at Bouchercon, the annual mystery convention. The Vertigo Crime selection won in the Best Graphic Novel category, while Birds of Prey writer Duane Swierczynski took the Best Original Paperback category with his novel Expiration Date. [Examiner]

Comic strips | Ken Paulson, president of the First Amendment Center, comments on last week’s choice by The Chicago Tribune and other papers to not run a series of Doonesbury strips that featured excerpts from author Joe McGinniss’ upcoming biography of Sarah Palin. “The First Amendment guarantees that a newspaper can decide what to publish — or not publish. The Tribune is entirely within its rights, but it’s certainly an uncomfortable position for any news organization that aspires to reflect the full marketplace of ideas.” [First Amendment Center]

MetaMaus

Creators | The Montreal Gazette profiles Maus creator Art Spiegelman, covering the upcoming MetaMaus, his stint at the New Yorker and the state of the comic book industry. [Montreal Gazette]

Creators | Terry Moore discusses his latest comic Rachel Rising. [Suicide Girls]

Creators | Box Brown talks about his new publishing venture Retrofit Comics. [The Morton Report]

History | E. L. Bell explores the sources for the giant typewriters, cash registers, and other huge props that used to pop up in Batman comics (particularly those written by Bill Finger). [Oz and Ends]

History | Letterer Todd Klein looks back at a 1950s Famous Artists College cartooning lesson, specifically the chapter on lettering. [Todd's Blog]

Conventions | Sean Kleefeld recounts his adventures at the Cincinnati Comic Expo, including meeting Jim Steranko and chatting with a retailer who is concerned that sales of DC’s new 52 comics will plunge in January, when the story arcs all slow down at the same time. [Kleefeld on Comics]

The Poynter Institute’s Jim Romenesko (always the go-to source for journalism news) reports that Newsday and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution have joined the Chicago Tribune in refusing to run this week’s Doonesbury strips, which include excerpts from Joe McGinniss’ book The Rogue, an unauthorized and extremely salacious biography of former Alaska governor and vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Shawn McIntosh, editor of the Journal-Constitution, has this response to readers who commented:

Mr. Trudeau has based this series of comic strips on an as-yet unpublished book by author Joe McGinnis about Sarah Palin. Since the book is not yet published, Ms. Palin has not had an opportunity to comment publicly on the content included in the book and picked up in the cartoons. Nor has the book yet been reviewed for accuracy. In essence, the cartoons would be reporting news, not commenting on news that is already public.

That raises an interesting question: Would the papers run the cartoons two weeks from now, after the book has been published? According to The Washington Post, McGinniss sent cartoonist Garry Trudeau an advance copy and later approached him about “an exclusive first-serial arrangement.” Honestly, this sounds as much like blatant product placement as an attempt to break news on the comics page.

Doonesbury is fiction, but Trudeau incorporates real people and events into the story, so it really straddles the boundary. Roland Hedley Jr., the character who is reading the Palin book, is a figment of Trudeau’s imagination. Fox News, the network for which he works, is real. The strip is skewering Fox’s tendency to rework the news to fit its conservative ideology; that part is over the top, but no one is complaining about that. Editors didn’t pull strips that depicted George W. Bush as a feather or Bill Clinton as a waffle. As Michael Cavna said in The Washington Post’s Comic Riffs blog, “Cartoonists who editorialize, of course, have the responsibility not to be fair.”

So what’s the problem with the Palin material? Is it that it’s a bit of purported truth embedded in a fictional story? Is it the nature of the material that the editors are objecting to? I wouldn’t be surprised if fear of a libel suit had something to do with this.

On the one hand, I want to defend Trudeau’s right to publish his strip (editors who sign up for Doonesbury know what they’re getting into from the beginning, after all) and readers’ right to read it. On the other hand, if I were an editor, I would be complaining to the syndicate. The strips are awful heavy-handed, even by Trudeau’s standards; he’s clearly eager to get the juicy bits out there before anyone else. I’m no Palin fan, but from the excerpts I have seen online, McGinniss’ book is mean-spirited and journalistically dodgy, relying heavily on anonymous sources and folks with axes to grind, and the Doonesbury strips just amplify that. They should have been sent back for a rewrite, but that’s the job of his syndicate editor, not comics-page editors at individual papers.

Iowa may have their straw poll, but BOOM! Studios is going nationwide with an opportunity to let comics readers make their own choices—by buying comics from BOOM! in their Decision 2012 promotion. It’s a neat little stunt—they have 10 bio-comics about different candidates available for pre-order, and whoever gets the most orders wins the straw poll! The fact that voters will be enriching the coffers of BOOM! Studios is, of course, a small price to pay for democracy.

Being the intrepid reporter that I am, I found the press release raised more questions than it answered, so I fired off some questions to BOOM! marketing director Chip Mosher. Here’s what I found out:

Robot 6: Where did these comics come from? Are they Boom originals or were they published elsewhere? Who are the creators?

Chip: BOOM!’s a pretty collaborative environment. With this, the blame is on me. I’m a big political junkie and have been since I was a kid. I don’t know, I guess it’s a sickness. But anyway, I was reading an article one night and saw all the candidates lined up shoulder-to-shoulder and the idea just popped into my head. I brought the idea to the team, they looked at me like I was joking, then I said, “no, seriously!” And we were off to the races! So yes, these are totally new and original comics! Right now all that we are showing off are the awesome covers Jeffrey Spokes, but we’ll show more stuff down the road.

Robot 6: Did you have a Tim Pawlenty comic that you had to quickly kill?

Chip: (Laughs!) Yes, we did. And if he would have waited a week, I am sure he would have reconsidered dropping out, given that a TIM PAWLENTY #1 comic book was in the offing!

Robot 6: Do you have other comics ready to go if new people jump into the race? Do you know something the rest of us don’t?

Chip: Sarah Palin hasn’t officially put her hat in the ring, but no straw poll is really complete without her. If some serious candidates join, we’re ready and willing to put some more candidates out there. With the Republicans, we limited this to those that made it into the last couple of debates. I would have loved to do other folks like Buddy Roemer, Fred Karger, Gary Johnson and cult favorite Jimmy McMillan — who are all running currently for the Republican nomination — but we had to draw the line somewhere.

Robot 6: Who is keeping track of all this? Did you hire an outside accounting firm?

Chip: (Laughs!) We’ll be keeping track of this internally. It’s all on the shoulders of Phil Barbaro, our Director of Finance!

Robot 6: Why did you decide to go head-to-head with Bluewater in the bio-comics space? How will your comics be different?

Chip: The Decision 2012 line hits a bunch of points of interest for us here at BOOM! Education. Civic duty. Getting new comic readers. We’ve always wanted to do more topical/current events/bio comics, and this just seemed like the right idea at the right time for us. Voting is important. Being educated on the issues and the candidates is important. Using comics as an educational tool is something that doesn’t happen enough. People really take voting in this country for granted. There is a ton of cynicism in this country about voting. You know, I went to Cuba in the mid-90s and I can’t tell you how much you appreciate what you have at home once you go somewhere where people don’t have the right to vote for their leaders, or the freedom to do and say what they want. That was a real eye-opener for me. So if this series gets one person involved in the political process and voting, or gets a child interested in civic discourse, that’s a win for us.

We also see this as a way to get new readers to visit their local comic shops. Now this is a multi-tiered approach, because quote unquote, “New readers don’t have any background in comics” — we’ve found generally “new readers” have absolutely no idea how periodical comics work. By that, I mean that they don’t know there is new product in the stores every week, they don’t understand that most comics serialize stories month-to-month, etc. So by doing the straw poll within the pre-order period, the by-product is that we are also educating customers that they can pre-order their comics. So hopefully some industrious retailers will take that opportunity to get these folks interested in comics in general and get them coming back for more. But that’s pretty insider baseball direct market-y sorta stuff …

We’re totally stoked about the straw poll. No one’s done anything like this. You know, no one company has a monopoly on bio comics. They’ve been around for decades! Every company riffs on each other in the space. IDW did well in 2008 with the Obama/McCain comics, and then Bluewater took that model and went to town. My hat is off to both companies! I think you’ll see with ours that they will have the same BOOM! quality that you get from all our other comics. The spin of doing comic book’s first straw poll makes this something pretty special.

A crude political comment that’s appeared for most of the day on the Twitter feed of The Hero Initiative has apparently gone unnoticed by most of the charitable organization’s more than 3,000 followers.

The tweet, “America! Stick your dick in the crazy!,” popped up early this morning as part of a tongue-in-cheek meme devoted to potential campaign slogans for Rep. Michele Bachmann, a Republican presidential candidate. Twitter memes aren’t at all uncommon — they appear daily without fail in the “Trends” column — but it’s unusual for an organization reliant on volunteers and donations to wade in with a remark so potentially, or patently, offensive.

Only two of The Hero Initiative’s Twitter followers responded to the comment: One wrote, “Love the cause, not so much the twitter feed,” while the other asked, “Can I get a refund on my 2011 membership?”

It seems likely the tweet wasn’t intended to be sent from The Hero Initiative feed, but instead from the personal account of an organization staff member. If that’s the case, it’s a matter of carelessness rather than poor judgment. However, it remains crude no matter what.

Hero Initiative President Jim McLauchlin didn’t respond to a request for comment by press time.

Updated (6:51 p.m. PT): McLauchlin responded in the comments below, explaining, “We had a spam problem over the weekend as well while I was on the road as well. Just saw this, and we have deleted the message. Passwords changed.”

Jack Kirby

Legal | Brent Staples pens an editorial for the New York Times on the legal battle between the Jack Kirby estate and Marvel: “The Marvel editor Stan Lee sometimes offered general ideas for characters, allowing the artists to run with them. Mr. Kirby plotted stories, fleshing out characters that he had dreamed up or that he had fashioned from Mr. Lee’s sometimes vague enunciations. Mr. Lee shaped the stories and supplied his wisecrack-laden dialogue. And in the end, both men could honestly think of themselves as ‘creators.’ But Mr. Kirby, who was known as the King of Comics, was the defining talent and the driving force at the Marvel shop. Mr. Lee’s biographers have noted that the company’s most important creations started out in Mr. Kirby’s hands before being passed on to others, who were then expected to emulate his artistic style.” [New York Times]

Awards | Writer Neil Gaiman (Sandman, The Graveyard Book) and artist Shaun Tan (The Arrival, Tales from Outer Suburbia) are among the winners of the 2011 Locus Awards. Gaiman’s “The Truth Is a Cave in the Black Mountains” won for best novelette, while “The Thing About Cassandra” won best short story. Tan won for best artist. [Locus Online]

Legal | Jeff Trexler reviews the legal battle between Warner Bros. and the heirs of creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster through the filter of the Neil Gaiman/Todd McFarlane decision, where a judge ruled Gaiman has copyright interest in Medieval Spawn, Angela and other Spawn characters. [The Beat]

Creators | Nicole Rudick has an in-depth interview with Jim Woodring about his odd visions and the inspiration for Weathercraft and Congress of the Animals. [The Comics Journal]

Retailing | The Boston Globe’s John Dyer talks to two local retailers, That’s Entertainment and Comicopia, about DC Comics’ move to day-and-date digital publishing. [Boston Globe]

Witch Doctor

Creators | Witch Doctor writer Brandon Seifert discusses his Image/Skybound series about a supernatural doctor: “…Morrow’s sort of character archetype — the occult doctor — is a very old idea in horror fiction, but I’ve never seen it played straight,” he says. “Characters like Van Helsing are generally treated as generic monster hunters, and I wanted to see a doctor who approached the supernatural the way a [real] doctor would. And then last in the concept was the idea that all the monsters needed to cause actual diseases from biology.” [io9]

Creators | Tom Field looks back at the life and career of the late Gene Colan. [The Comics Journal]

Comics | Paul Gravett picks the comics he’s most looking forward to from the June Previews. [Paul Gravett]

Comics | Sebastian Strangio looks at several comics — or “gruim-chaek” — produced by the North Korean government. He says the comics are “unabashedly propagandistic, serving up outlandish plots that help inculcate reverence for Great Leader Kim Il Sung and the regime’s perennial battles against imperialists of all stripes.” [Slate]

Retailing | After 16 years in business, Empyre Comics in Glen Burnie, Md. will close its doors on June 30. [The Capital]

Retailing | The American Press profiles Lake Charles, La. comic shop Paper Heroes. [American Press]

reMIND

Webcomics | Lauren Davis spotlights Jason Brubaker’s webcomic-turned-graphic novel, reMIND. “… there’s a lot to enjoy in this online version, from the beautiful, animation-inspired artwork to the epic backstory of love, betrayal, and neurosurgery. And that’s before we get to a mecha-enhanced Victuals fighting his way through a city of lizard men,” she writes. [io9]

Fandom | To help celebrate the birthday of Smurfs creator Peyo, more than 4,800 people dressed as smurfs gathered in Brussels, London, Athens, The Hague, Dublin, Mexico City, Panama City, Warsaw, Moscow, Johannesburg and New York Saturday to break the Guinness World Record for the “largest gathering of people dressed as smurfs within a 24-hour period in multiple venues.” That’s a lot of smurfs. [Metro]

Fandom | Matt Alt translates a 1983 essay from lolicon magazine Manga Burikko telling the otaku it’s time to drop their idealized notions of puberty and grow up. [Neojaponisme]

Vandalized monument to the Soviet Army in Sofia, Bulgaria

Far be it for us to condone graffiti, but if you were going to vandalize public property — say, a statue celebrating the Soviet Army and communist rule — this is the way you should do it: With gloriously nerdy style.

Courtesy of Gawker, the Daily Mail and other outlets comes word that police in Sofia, Bulgaria, are searching for the graffiti artist who over the weekend painted a monument erected to commemorate the 1944 “liberation” of Bulgaria, transforming Soviet soldiers into colorful comic-book and cartoon characters.

From right, that’s Wonder Woman, Robin, Captain America, Ronald McDonald, Superman, Santa Claus, Wolverine, The Joker and … I don’t know. I initially thought it was the Gorton’s Fisherman, but now I’m not so sure. (Any guesses?) On the base was painted the words “Moving with the times,” “In pace with the times” or “Abreast with the times,” depending on which  translation you prefer.

The monument has since been cleaned up, at a cost of about $720. Go here to see more shots of the monument, including the mysterious figure in yellow.

Alan Grayson

Although plenty of politicians have run for office on the Green Party ticket, Florida Democrat Alan Grayson may be the first to endorse the Green Lantern platform.

In an email sent today to supporters, the former Congressman attempts to draw a connection between the lukewarm reviews for Warner Bros.’ Green Lantern movie, the famous exchange between Hal Jordan and an African-American man from Green Lantern #76 and … the erosion of middle-class America.

Wait, there’s more: Grayson, who lost his 8th District seat last year to Republican Daniel Webster, recasts the classic scene so that he’s the African-American man, and “right-wing loons” are Hal Jordan.

Read the email after the break, and stick around for the Green Lantern oath.

Dear XXXX:

The movie Green Lantern opened on Friday, to mixed reviews.  Maybe the reviews would have been better if the movie had included this powerful exchange, from Green Lantern #76:

African-American Man: I’ve been readin’ about you . . . How you work for the blue skins . . . and how on a planet someplace you helped out the orange skins . . . and you done considerable for the purple skins! Only there’s skins you never bother with – the black skins!  I want to know . . . how come?!  Answer me that, Mr. Green Lantern!

Green Lantern: I  . . . can’t . . . .

I may never have the chance to talk to George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, or any of the other Masters of the Universe who led and misled our country for eight long years.  Nor may I ever have the chance to speak to Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, Rush Limbaugh, or any of the other savage right-wing loons who want to finish the job that Bush et al. started.  But if I could, I might say:

Me: I’ve been readin’ about you . . . How you work for multinational corporations like Big Oil. . . .  And how you say you built all those roads and schools and bridges in some country in Asia.   And in some other country in the Middle East someplace you got rid of some dictator.  Only there’s one country you never bother with – America!  I want to know . . . how come?!  Answer me that, Mr. Flag-Waiving Patriot!

Them: I  . . . can’t . . . .

Well, I can answer that.  For a generation now, we have seen the heartless, callous erosion and destruction of all the things that make you a member of the middle class in America:

A job.

A home.

A car.

The chance to see a doctor when you are sick.

A pension or retirement account.

Social Security and Medicare.

And we’ve seen them replaced by endless war, falling home values, no pensions, lower wages, and now what Karl Marx called a “reserve army of the unemployed” – to keep wages down forever.

Even after only two years in office, as one out of 435 in the House, I can point to a lot of things that I did to preserve, protect and expand the middle class in America, and to help those of us who were falling through the cracks.

I look at our so-called leaders on the other side of the aisle, and I see nothing like that.  Only a perverse delight in eliminating programs that help my fellow Americans in need.  They’ll lead us, all right – they’ll lead us straight to ruin.

The next time you see one of them — at a town hall meeting, in their plush offices, or just on the street – ask them this:  “What have you done to help the people?  Answer me that!”

If they’re honest, they’ll say what Green Lantern said:  “I can’t.”

Courage,

Alan Grayson

In brightest day,
In blackest night,
No evil shall escape my sight.
Let those who worship evil’s might,
Beware my power: Green Lantern’s Light.

(hat tip, Russ Burlingame)

Kevin Keller #2

Publishing | We noted in late April that Archie Comics appeared to be embracing cultural and political commentary with its upcoming Kevin Keller miniseries, which features Riverdale’s first openly gay character and his father, a retired three-star general. But now the publisher, or at least the character, is going a step further, marching into the middle of the debate over gays and lesbians openly serving in the armed forces by revealing that Kevin aspires to be a journalist, but only after attending the U.S. Military Academy and becoming an Army officer. “Even though we don’t tackle the specific issue of Don’t Ask Don’ Tell, the goal was to show that patriotism knows no specific gender, race or sexual orientation,” cartoonist Dan Parent says. “While it sounds like heavy subject matter, I tried to show it simply that Kevin, like his dad, loves his country. Being gay doesn’t effect that in any way.” [The Associated Press]

Publishing | DC Comics’ line-wide reboot has received extensive coverage by mainstream media outlets, based largely on the original USA Today article or The Associated Press report. But my favorite piece is this one by George Gene Gustines that turns back the clock to 1985 and attempts to explain to The New York Times audience the effects, and problems, of Crisis on Infinite Earths, and the publisher’s subsequent attempts to streamline continuity: “… If the goal was to make the DC universe easier to understand, the end result was the opposite: to this day, fans frequently mention ‘pre-Crisis‘ and ‘post-Crisis‘ as a way to distinguish stories. Twenty years later, in the Infinite Crisis limited series, DC tried to clean continuity up again: Superman’s career as Superboy was back; Batman knew who murdered the Waynes; and Wonder Woman was a founder of the Justice League again.” [The New York Times]

Axel Alonso

Publishing | Marvel Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso talks about diversity, working with creators, cover prices, distribution and the pressures of his new job: “We always joke that working for Marvel is like working for the Yankees. Anything less than the championship isn’t acceptable. On the publishing side, we are the market leader, and it’s surprising when we have any competition in any way, shape, or form.” [Complex]

Legal | Suvendrini Kakuchi provides an overview of the issues surrounding the controversial Tokyo Metropolitan law that goes into effect next month further restricting the sale or rental to minors of manga and anime containing “extreme” depictions of sexual acts. “The Tokyo Metropolitan law has definitely dealt a blow to the comics industry,” says a spokesperson for Japanese publishers. “Many aspiring animation artists have stopped producing new works fearing they will become targets of the law.” [Inter Press Service]

Retailing | The Comic Vault in Chicago will close its five-year-old Montrose Avenue location at the end of the month because of “a personal family matter.” [The Comic Vault]

Book Expo America

Conventions | Calvin Reid and Heidi MacDonald round up the graphic novel news from Book Expo America, held last week in New York City, while Laurel Maury covers the “Hot Fall Graphic Novels for Libraries” panel. [Publishers Weekly]

Broadway | Jacob Bernstein reports that, less that two weeks away from the scheduled opening of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, producers of the $70-million musical are embroiled in a bitter pay dispute with former director Julie Taymor, who was fired in early March. It’s unclear precisely how much Taymor is owed, but the “best guess” from the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society is in the “$200,000 to $300,000 range,” plus royalties as an author of the show. [The Daily Beast]

Criminal: The Last of the Innocent #1

Creators | Ed Brubaker chats about the new volume of his and Sean Phillips’ acclaimed crime series Criminal, titled “The Last of the Innocent”: “… The idea for this story came to me when I was sitting at my father’s deathbed. I was suddenly finding myself wishing I could return to my childhood, and for me, that was about comics and cartoons and Rankin and Bass and the 60s and 70s… And I started thinking about Seduction of the Innocent and the ideas just collided a bit, I guess. But yes, while there are a lot of Easter Eggs and analogs – that’s part of the language of comics and its history – but the story itself is probably the most personal thing I’ve ever written. I also think we’re trying to take what we do to another level, by incorporating so many layers to this piece.” [MTV Geek]

Creators | Fred Van Lente and Dale Eaglesham talk about their new Alpha Flight series, and the timing of the Canadian federal election. [Macleans]

Creators | Collaborators Viktor Kalvachev, Kosta Yanev and Andrew Osborne discuss their pulpy Image Comics series Blue Estate. There’s also a preview of the third issue. [USA Today]

Creators | Eva Volin catches up with Jim Ottaviani at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival. [Good Comics for Kids]