Barack the Barbarian

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Barack the Barbarian
Barack barbarian cover.jpg
Cover of Barack the Barbarian 1 (June 2009 ), art by Tim Seeley and Rachelle Rosenberg
Publication information
Publisher Devil's Due Publishing
ScheduleIrregular
Format Limited series
Genre
Publication dateJune 2009 – present
No. of issues5
Main character(s) Barack Obama
Creative team
Written by Larry Hama
Artist(s) Christopher Schons
Letterer(s) Chris Crank
Colorist(s) Rachelle Rosenberg
Editor(s) Evan Sult
Collected editions
Volume 1 ISBN   1-934692-79-4

Barack the Barbarian is a comic book series published by Devil's Due Publishing beginning in June 2009. It was written by Larry Hama, [1] with art by Christopher Schons.

Contents

Barack the Barbarian originally appeared in a four-issue mini-series. The story features the 44th president of the United States, Barack Obama as a Conan the Barbarian-style figure. [2] It also features other politicians like Sarah Palin, George W. Bush, and Dick Cheney in fictional roles. [3] [4] [5]

The series was followed by a one-shot, The Fall of Red Sarah. [6]

Publication history

In November 2008, one of Obama's advisers gave an interview to journalist Jon Swaine of The Daily Telegraph titled, "Barack Obama: The 50 facts you might not know". In the interview, it emerged that Obama collects Conan the Barbarian. [7]

The idea for the series originated with Devil's Due publisher Josh Blaylock who explained that "We didn't want to be completely slapsticky. It is definitely partly a gimmick, but we wanted to do something clever with [the Obama comics trend]." [2] He contacted Larry Hama with his idea for a series called Obama the Barbarian, and Hama described how the idea developed during the course of the phonecall:

First off, you should change it to Barack the Barbarian, and second, I'm not interested in writing a Mad Magazine style parody and that it would have to be more in line with the more polemical stuff of Swift, Twain and Voltaire (not that I can pull off anything like they could,) and third, that my own leanings are towards Barack and that would be reflected in what I write – and Josh said 'fine'. [1]

The writer has said it is more than just a political satire: "I just think of it as sword and sorcery, only the characters look really familiar." [1]

Collected editions

The comic books are being collected into a trade paperback:

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 Arrant, Chris (May 12, 2009). "Barack the Barbarian? Behind the Latest Obama Comic". Newsarama . Retrieved November 26, 2009.
  2. 1 2 Goellner, Caleb (July 28, 2009). "CCI: Devil's Due Publishing". Comic Book Resources . Retrieved November 26, 2009. Next up was one of Devil's Due's most publicized titles, the political satire and Conan homage "Barack the Barbarian: Quest for the Treasure of Stimuli"
  3. Manker, Rob (April 4, 2009). "Barack Obama comic books: 'Barack the Barbarian' and 'Drafted: One Hundred Days". Chicago Tribune . Archived from the original on 2010-05-28. Retrieved August 7, 2009.
  4. Spillius, Alex (April 7, 2009). "Barack Obama and Sarah Palin appear in comic series". The Daily Telegraph . Archived from the original on April 11, 2009. Retrieved November 26, 2009.
  5. Flood, Alison (April 8, 2009). "Obama battles Red Sarah in comic clash". The Guardian . Retrieved November 26, 2009.
  6. "Barack the Barbarian: The Fall of Red Sarah (One-Shot) - comiXology". Archived from the original on 2011-10-20. Retrieved 2011-05-03.
  7. Swaine, Jon (November 7, 2008). "Barack Obama: The 50 facts you might not know". The Daily Telegraph . Archived from the original on December 1, 2008.

References