I was putting together an order for upcoming comics from comic book distributor Diamond Comics when I stumbled across a full page ad in their Previews magazine announcing that June is Obama Month!
And indeed it is! Largely based on the runaway success of Marvel’s The Amazing Spider-Man #583, which featured our president giving Spider-Man a thumbs-up, comic publishers are ready to adulate Obama, presumably in the quest for more cash from his adoring followers.
The Amazing Spider-Man #583 is currently in its fifth printing, with various covers, and copies of the first edition are currently priced at $80 a piece. For June, Marvel is releasing a special $30 deluxe hardcover edition so you can read it over and over and over without worrying about creasing the cover.
And if your Alex Ross Obama-as-Superman t-shirt is getting worn out from near-daily use, you can buy a new one, as well as a deluxe $35 matching poster:
Idea+Design Works is following up their hagiography from last year, Presidential Material, with an update called Road to the White House:
Even Michelle Obama is getting some attention, in Bluewater’s Female Force: Michelle Obama.
I don’t know what she’ll actually do in the comic, but the publisher’s Female Force line (which has also featured Hilliary Clinton and Sarah Palin) seems to be modern-day romance novel comics featuring women in politics, so I’m sure there will be a lot of hubby in the story, too.
Canadian comic book creator Dave Sim has a special cover for his Cerebus Archive #2 which a gargantuan red Big Brother-like Obama face hovering over a zombie Cerebrus the Aardvark, marked to celebrate the historic first visit to Canada by our historic president.
Poor Canadians! While they undoubtedly celebrated February 19, 2009 as a national holiday and gathered together as family to watch every moment of our president’s visit on the television (while Mum roasted the festive zombie aardvark dinner), down here in big bad America, we so didn’t care, we didn’t even know it happened.
And then, there’s Devil’s Due Publishing, which is going all-out on the Obama theme with Barack the Barbarian: Quest for the Treasure of the Stimuli #1:
From their own release: “the one known only as Barack 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 hilarious first issue!” What? What happened to Mac Kain, the grizzled old war-mongering gimp? Oh, maybe he’ll show up in the next issue, together with the rogueish Somali pirate and fatherly Saudi king who’ve already become beloved characters. The issue may even have a photo cover!
So celebrate Obama Month! Buy a comic book (or poster)! The publishers (and comic store retailers) will love you, rabid Obama fans.