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What if the 22nd amendment was repealed and Nixon was serving his fifth term as president? What if JFK left earth to lead an alien race who needed him more? What would Captain America say of George W. Bush’s “Patriot Act?” What if there were superheroes on earth when 9/11 happened? Could Howard the Duck beat Ford and Carter in an election? The comic book creator has almost limitless ways to purge his feelings of disappointment, frustration, fear, anxiety and discontent over the current political climate through comic book art. One of the newer trends, though, is IDW Publishing’s decision to publish political news biographies that are designed to be informative and true-to-life, rather than expressive and allegorical.

On October 8th, 2008, just before the November elections, John McCain and Barack Obama starred in their own comic books published by IDW Publishing, only it was nothing like you would think. Even though “Savage Dragon” publicly endorsed Barack Obama in a recent issue, the IDW publications were presented as objective, illustrated, political news biographies of the two nominees. It has been described as “heavy on the facts, light on opinion.”

The McCain book featured art by Stephen Thompson and writing by Andy Helfer (who also did “Road to Perdition” and “A History of Violence”) and the Obama book was illustrated by Tom Morgan and written by Jeff Mariotte (who has done Superman, Spider-Man and Star Trek comic book series). “We didn’t do anything that is sensational here,” said Scott Dunbier from IDW. “We’re stuck to the facts.” Dunbier added that graphic novels have proven extremely effective in reaching and educating people. “We’re not in the business of doing textbooks,” he clarified, “But I think comic books really do have the great potential to inform and teach and do more than just standard superhero comics.” Fans can pre-order the books through their website or visit www.uclick.com to view the comics over their cell phones.

Political news often parallels modern events in an allegorical manner. For instance, DC Comics released Frank Miller’s “Holy Terror, Batman!” The Dark Knight is pitted against an al-Qaida terrorist network, in much the same way as older issues pitted Superman or Captain America against Hitler during WWII. “Not to put too fine a point on it – it’s a piece of propaganda,” Miller said at this year’s comic book art convention. He went on to say, “I just think it’s silly to have Batman out chasing the Riddler when you’ve got al-Qaida out there…. that’s one of the things they are there for.” However, while covers have been released and two years of work have been put in, July 2008 saw reports that the DC comic book industry execs won’t allow Frank Miller to use Batman in his post-9/11 propaganda.

The latest political news in the comic book industry is that musician Neil Young has teamed up with Vertigo (a subsidiary of DC Comics) to put together an anti-war, pro-environmentalism graphic novel. Joshua Dysart has been chosen to write the story, which is set in fictional Greendale on the eve of the Iraq War. “It’s just sort of a smorgasbord of the political reality of that moment of 2003 when we went into Iraq,” Dysart said in an interview. It is two years in the making so far but is expected to be released soon.