The Four Color Media Monitor

KGOU-TV interviewed Joe Dorman, a Democrat politician in Oklahoma who's publishing yet another comic intended to encourage voting participation, but it's surely bound to be for the sake of his side of the spectrum:

Former state representative and gubernatorial candidate Joe Dorman has a new idea to encourage voting in Oklahoma - a comic book directed at young people to explain the importance of civic responsibility.

Of course it'd be aimed at the younger crowd. To leftists like him, they're a weakness to exploit. So to read about guys like him discussing "responsibility" is to wonder if he really believes in it as a general idea that's non-partisan.

Shawn Ashley: Joe, you are launching a new way to reach young people about the importance of voting through a comic book. How did you come up with that idea?

Joe Dorman: Well, I've collected comic books for years. My parents used comic books to help me learn to read. They would buy comic books for me at flea markets and garage sales, and I had a great interest in them. And superheroes, the colors, just the reading. Mom would sit and help me with that. And through the years, it turned into a hobby. And then working here at OICA, I had the idea to possibly try and come up with a story to promote the two little super kids that are the mascot for our annual banquet. We developed a partnership with Literati Press in Oklahoma City. We honored several comic book creators that are here as well this last year. And in the conversations, they said it would be great to illustrate this. And so, with Charles’s (Charles Martin) help, we sat down, did the story. They did the artwork. And we came up with “Mighty Mia & Dyna-Bit Save Democracy.”

Dick Pryor: And so, what is the theme in this comic book, as they save democracy?

Joe Dorman: So back story on me, and before I was a legislator, I was a staff member for the House of Representatives and helped with the educational component for the page program. And through that time, I always loved working with those young people, getting them interested. So that translated into this story. The pages at the Capitol get sent with the stomach flu, and these two superhero kids show up to fill in to (do) the work of 20 pages and help one young lady who didn't eat the gas station sushi. And the three of them spend the day at the Capitol learning the process and talking about the importance of voting.

Oh yeah, because such leftists really do believe in it, don't they? But the problem is that they're not clear whether they believe the youngsters they speak of and allude to in the comic should think for themselves and decide which party they want to vote for, and they didn't mention Dorman's a Democrat either.

Shawn Ashley: How will “Might Mia & Dyna-Bit” be distributed?

Joe Dorman: So, through our Kid Governor program, which is something that we elevated at OICA, this year, we partnered with the Connecticut Democracy Project to bring in their curriculum. That curriculum is distributed through fifth grade classes around the state of Oklahoma that wish to participate. And we had more than 1,000 5th graders participate in the Kid Governor program this year. OICA printed these comic books up and shipped them to every participating class so each kid could have a free comic book. One of the statistics that is out there is less than half of people 18 years old have ever read a comic book. And as a collector, I find that horrific. So, this is a way we can get a comic book in the hands of these kids, hopefully inspire them to read, show them the importance of civics and voting, and make it fun, and hopefully turn them into voters as they age up to 18 and older.

Dick Pryor: Civics education has been neglected in the U.S. for a long time. It certainly has been de-emphasized in schools over the last 20 years. Is this comic book a way to fill that instructional gap with young people?

Shawn Ashley: It absolutely is. We wanted to find a way to make civics and getting involved in the process fun. And this comic book will hopefully get these kids interested in learning about how the process works, maybe even turn them into young public servants, getting them involved in youth programs, run for student council, and then as they get older, certainly register to vote, but maybe even run for a school board, city council, or even governor someday.

What if it turns them more into leftist activists for the wrong reasons? If that's the goal, that's exactly why it's an embarrassment to have men like Dorman claim they're comics collectors. Plus, what if it turned out he only collected for the monetary value as a possible speculator? I've sometimes wondered whether that could be the case with these liberal ideologues, if they collect. He'd also do well to consider one of the reasons why younger folks aren't reading comics today is because of all the rampant misuse of the medium nowadays for political agendas, and also because simultaneously, the publishers don't really make any serious effort to encourage new readership, if at all. That's why pop culture today is such a joke. And then we have to read about yet more comics produced for political propaganda, and giving them away free can be reason for concern too, because that's how propaganda can be spread around more easily. So, who knows what these comics will really be like?

Labels: msm propaganda, politics