COMIC BOOK STRAW POLL

Boom Studios recently concluded the first ever comic book presidential “straw poll.” Concocted as a promotional stunt, Boom’s “Decision 2012" flogs its biographical comic book series, one title for each of nine Republican hopefuls — including Sarah the Palin — plus Obama. According to the announced scheme, the print runs for each title would be determined by orders placed in August. Any comic book ordered by fewer than 1,500 readers would not be published. If only we could apply a kindred rule to political candidacies throughout this heppy heppy land.

With so many cartoon characters running in the GOP race, it seems wonderfully appropriate that the outcome would be determined  by comic books and their fans.

On October 6, a press release announced that Barack Obama had won, beating the entire GOP line-up. Among the Republicans, Sarah Livingston Palin finished first, followed by Ron Paul and then Michele Bachman — cartoon characters all. None of the rest of the titles received the requisite 1,500 orders so books will not be published for (in the order of their finish in the poll) Mitt Romney, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, Jon Huntsman, Rick Santorum, and Rick Perry.

A wonderful irony hovers over the enterprise. Despite the emergence lately of graphic novels and big budget movies which give to comic books a certain cultural cachet, comic books still carry the stigma laminated on the medium by an earlier generation: anything deemed comic-booky is somehow juvenile and simple-minded. And that, I hasten to say, may be a perfect characterization of the American political system as it has been conducted the last several cycles: campaigns have devolved into name-calling and the propagation of outright falsehoods. Actual issues and policy matters are left twitching in their death throes alongside the campaign trail. Moreso with the current crop of GOP candidates than at any other previous time.