Irregular Brain Movements

So I didn’t get my Amazing Spider-Man with Obama on the cover.  Boooo!  Diamond apparently screwed my local comics retailer out out of his copies.  He seemed pretty upset about it when I stopped by on Thursday.  I feel confident enough in my efforts to remain politically circumspect and “fair and balanced” in my approach to Chicago:1968 to disclose that I’m a far left Democrat and a supporter of Barack Obama’s since he hit the political scene here in Chicago earlier in the decade.  And though I’m passionate in my views, deep in the truest heart of my best self I believe there are few on either side of the political spectrum with bad intentions.  Only, perhaps, wrong-headed ideas.

Last weekend the Internet ether seemed to be bubbling with discussion over claims of a supposed “liberal bias” in comics.  It’s tough to measure cause and effect in the almost quantum realm of the zeitgeist, but the Christian Science Monitor “identified” this “phenomenon” in a column last friday.  And conservative comics writer Bill Willingham commented upon it on the far right Big Hollywood blog.

Is featuring a Democratic president on the cover of your comic evidence of political bias?  Ken Shepherd of the hardcore conservative News Busters site claims comics are “crawling with pro-Obama bias” and uses Marvel’s latest shortpacked alternate cover gimmick to build a case against comics’ political leanings going back to a Punisher story written by Garth Ennis in late 2001.

But then, where does veiled ideology end and simple capitalistic self-interest begin?  The Obama visage has been a short term solution to the long term problems of the withering publishing industry.  His historic presidential victory was a life ring tossed to paper-and-ink newspapers that still find excuses to put him on their front pages to boost sagging numbers.  And if the $75+ prices Amazing Spider-Man #583 is fetching on ebay leaves any doubt to the boon Obamania has been to the comics industry, look no further than the copycats already lining up for a piece of the action.

So, I don’t give Marvel credit for having the fortitude to publish its alleged political biases right on the cover of one of its flagship titles.  If anyone deserves the credit (or the blame) for unapologetically proclaiming his political allegiances from the comic shelves, it’s trendsetter Erik Larson with his endorsement of Obama on the cover of Savage Dragon #137 back in August, when the outcome of the election was far from certain.