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Monday, June 08, 2009 

Colorado Gazette fawns over "Obama comics sensation"

The Colorado Springs Gazette wrote up a puff piece about an "Obama sensation":
President Barack Obama has emerged as the newest superstar of comics.

He's appeared in Image Comics' "Savage Dragon" and an immensely popular issue of Marvel Comics' "Amazing Spider-Man," and is a gun-toting action hero in Image's "Youngblood." This month from Devil's Due Publishing, there's "Barack The Barbarian: Quest for the Treasure of Stimuli" and an alien-fighting Obama in the sci-fi title "Drafted: One Hundred Days." Later this summer, look for Dynamite Entertainment's "Army of Darkness: Ash Saves Obama."

Even the president's dog is getting in on the comic book action, with an appearance in an upcoming issue of Marvel's "Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers" and as the star of "Puppy Power: Bo Obama," coming in September from Bluewater Productions.
Oh for heaven's sake, that's just what we need, for even the premier pooch of the Inhumans to have his book serve as a platform for the pretentious president's dog! Big deal. Most of what's mentioned above sounds silly, and is unlikely to have much artistic value.
[Jeff] Mariotte said the trend also likely reflects a genuine excitement among comic book creators about the new president, who reportedly used to collect comics.

"He is the first post-boomer president," Mariotte said, "and the people who are making comics these days tend to be post-boomers" - though not Mariotte, a boomer in his 50s.
See, that's the problem. If the people working in comics today are these "post-modernists" who let their political positions take over for talent, no wonder comics are suffering from such a dearth of creativity.

And what this puffy article predictably ignores is whether it's really drawing anyone new into comics buying. Judging from the still declining sales, with prices going up to 4 dollars and most selling barely 100,000 copies, if at all, it doesn't look like it's getting anyone to board the bandwagon. And with the exception of the Amazing Spider-Man issue with the Obama feature, it doesn't look like anything else with Obama topped the charts. Even the sales from back in January for that pretentious issue were nothing to crow over.

This is one of the most tired newspaper puff pieces on comics I've ever stumbled across.

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  • I'm Avi Green
  • From Jerusalem, Israel
  • I was born in Pennsylvania in 1974, and moved to Israel in 1983. I also enjoyed reading a lot of comics when I was young, the first being Fantastic Four. I maintain a strong belief in the public's right to knowledge and accuracy in facts. I like to think of myself as a conservative-style version of Clark Kent. I don't expect to be perfect at the job, but I do my best.
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