 | This article's lead section may be too short to adequately summarize the key points.(September 2017) |
Barack Obama has appeared as a character in comic books published by a number of publishing companies, sometimes appearing as a realistic fictionalized version of himself and sometimes as a spoof.
Obama made his first appearance as a comic book character in July 2007 in Licensable BearTM No. 4 by Nat Gertler and Lonny Chant, where he appeared as a U.S. Senator. The comic only had a print-run of 1,050 issues. A year later, in September 2008, Obama appeared in Erik Larsen’s Savage Dragon No. 137. [1] This issue featured a variant cover which showed Obama with the Savage Dragon, who proclaims that he is endorsing him for president. [2] The issue sold out four print runs. [1] A month later, the comic was followed up by Presidential Material: Barack Obama by Jeff Mariotte and in November 2008 with Obama: The Comic Book by Rod Espinosa.
In November 2008, two things led to an explosion in popularity of the Obama comic book character. 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 "Spider-Man and Conan the Barbarian." [3] Then later that month, on November 4, 2008, Obama became the first African-American to be elected President of the United States.
When Marvel Comics discovered the president-elect was an avid collector of Spider-Man comics, they decided to have Obama the comic book character be put on the cover of their The Amazing Spider-Man No. 583 (January 2009), for the story "Spidey Meets the President!" written by Zeb Wells. This particular release proved extremely popular and sold out in a matter of minutes. [4] A day after the release, the edition was sold for $300 on eBay. Prior to the Spider-Man story, the president-elect was featured in Secret Invasion #8; this is the first appearance of president-elect Barack Obama in a Marvel comic.
Obama the comic book character has been put on the cover and pages of many other comics including Savage Dragon No. 145 (February 2008) by Erik Larsen and Youngblood No. 8 (February 2008) by Rob Liefeld. The Savage Dragon No. 145 had a special edition variant only offered at the WonderCon 2009 in San Francisco in March 2009 (only 1,500 were produced). On the cover, Barack Obama can be seen holding an American flag and punching Osama Bin Laden in the face.
Barack Obama appears as a major character in the sixth volume of Bomb Queen by Jimmie Robinson, entitled Time Bomb: Countdown to Armageddon (later as Oh-BOMB-Ah! and Bomb Queen vs. Obama), [5] following his cameo in the epilogue of the previous miniseries Bombastic: The Divine Comedy , [6] seeing the supervillain come to odds with the President who "would not stand for a place like Bomb Queen's city"; [7] Robinson would not that "I personally support the President, I'm glad he's in office, I voted for him. However, I have to write for my character – and she hates Obama. Just like Stephen King or Clive Barker, who write horrific characters and do not identify with them, so do I, or any writer worth their salt. So this volume was another test for me as a writer to go outside of my personal beliefs and script a story from a villain's perspective," [8] "fighting him on the public front". [9]
Barack Obama is the subject of graphic novel "Barack Hussein Obama" by Steven Weissman. In this, President Obama and his cast of characters (Secretary Clinton, VP Joe Biden, his family) experience life in a parallel universe. [10]
Barack Obama has also appeared in Archie Comics Veronica #199, and Archie #616 and #617. [11] [12]
President Obama was in the Flashpoint Storyline of DC comics of 2011. He discusses the earth members of The Green Lantern Corp with Amanda Waller.
You look at [Barack] Obama and the guy is shaft of light in the darkness. Doesn't matter that he's still a politician, a lawyer, and talking rhetoric that can never be fulfilled – all the things people normally hate – but he represents a new direction and people respond to that. Even the criminals of society. Bomb Queen will have a rough time if her city decides to tilt away from supporting her. She is only as powerful as her reign and only considered a Queen / ruler' if the people allow it.
Peter Allen David, often abbreviated PAD, is an American writer of comic books, novels, television, films and video games. His notable comic book work includes an award-winning 12-year run on The Incredible Hulk, as well as runs on Aquaman, Young Justice, SpyBoy, Supergirl, Fallen Angel, Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2099, Captain Marvel and X-Factor.
Image Comics is an American comic book publisher and is the third largest direct market comic book and graphic novel publisher in the industry by market share.
Frank Cho, born Duk Hyun Cho, is a Korean-American comic strip and comic book writer and illustrator, known for his series Liberty Meadows, as well as for books such as Shanna the She-Devil, Mighty Avengers and Hulk for Marvel Comics, and Jungle Girl for Dynamite Entertainment. Cho is noted for his figure drawing, precise lines, and depictions of curvaceous women.
Robert Liefeld is an American comic book creator. A prominent writer and artist in the 1990s, he is known for co-creating the character Cable with writer Louise Simonson and the character Deadpool with writer Fabian Nicieza. In the early 1990s, Liefeld gained popularity due to his work on Marvel Comics' The New Mutants and later X-Force. In 1992, he and several other popular Marvel illustrators left the company to found Image Comics, which started a wave of comic books owned by their creators rather than by publishers. The first book published by Image Comics was Liefeld's Youngblood #1.
Marvel Spotlight is a comic book anthology series published by Marvel Comics as a try-out book. It stood out from Marvel's other try-out books in that most of the featured characters made their first appearance in the series. The series originally ran for 33 issues from November 1971 to April 1977. A second volume ran for 11 issues from July 1979 to March 1981.
Jim Valentino is an American writer, penciler, editor and publisher of comic books, best known for his 1990–1992 work on Guardians of the Galaxy for Marvel Comics, and for co-founding Image Comics, a company publishing creator-owned comics.
Erik J. Larsen is an American comic book artist, writer, and publisher. He currently acts as the chief financial officer of Image Comics. He gained attention in the early 1990s with his art on Spider-Man series for Marvel Comics. In 1992 he was one of several artists who stopped working for Marvel to found Image Comics, where he launched his superhero series Savage Dragon – one of the longest running creator-owned superhero comics series – and served for several years as the company's publisher.
Shadowline, Inc., is an imprint of Image Comics established by Image co-founder Jim Valentino. The name is an homage to Valentino's character, ShadowHawk.
Bad girl art is a superheroine artwork style trend that emerged during the 1990s and 2000s.
Daredevil is a fictional superhero created by Jack Binder, who starred in comics from Lev Gleason Publications during the 1930s–1940s period historians and fans call the Golden Age of comic books before being retroactively established into the Image Universe by Image Comics in the 1990s as its first character. The character is unrelated to Marvel Comics' Daredevil, and recent renditions of the character have often renamed him Doubledare or The Death-Defying Devil to avoid confusion and potential lawsuits.
In comic books, a variant cover refers to an issue of a comic book printed with multiple covers, each with unique cover art. The first comic book marketed with a variant cover was the 1986 first issue of The Man of Steel, which featured two different covers by writer/artist John Byrne. Variant covers became more common during the "speculator boom" of the 1990s, when more collectors became interested in the storage and preservation of their comic books with the goal of future financial gain rather than reading the comics themselves.
Todd Nauck is an American comic book artist and writer. Nauck is most notable for his work on Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man,Young Justice and his own creation, Wildguard.
Leinil Francis Yu is a Filipino comic book artist, who began working for the American market through Wildstorm Productions.
Chris Eliopoulos is an American cartoonist and letterer of comic books.
Jimmie Robinson is an American comic book creator, known for writing and drawing the comic book series Bomb Queen, and for other works, including Amanda and Gunn, Avigon, Code Blue, Evil & Malice, Five Weapons, The Empty, and Power Lines, most of which have been published by Image Comics.
Hank Kanalz is an American comic book writer and editor. He was the Senior Vice President of Vertigo and Integrated Publishing at DC Comics, and was formerly General Manager of the WildStorm brand for DC Comics. He also serves as Head of Publishing for Immortal Studios, a content provider that specializes in comics and more in the wuxia genre.
Joe Keatinge is an American comic book writer and editor, best known for his writing work with Marvel Comics and Image Comics, and as the co-editor of Popgun with Mark Andrew Smith.
The Image Universe (IU) is a fictional universe in which some of the stories published by Image Comics take place. It was introduced in the early years of the publisher, shared by the various creators who formed the Image partnership. The independent, creator-owned nature of their work led to limited interaction between their characters, and little coordination of the Image Universe as a shared setting, with the primary versions populated by a number of superheroes/villains, including Supreme, Invincible, Omni-Man, Spawn, Angela, Atom Eve, the Dragon, Gert, Bomb Queen, and Witchblade, as well as incarnations of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Michel Fiffe is a Cuban–American comic book artist and writer. He is best known for his self-published series COPRA and the Ultimate Marvel series All-New Ultimates.
Time Bomb: Countdown to Armageddon is a satirical limited series graphic novel written and illustrated by Jimmie Robinson that was released in four parts from 2009 to 2011 by Shadowline and Image Comics as the sixth volume of the American comic book series Bomb Queen, set in the Image Universe. Part 1 was released on September 30, 2009, Part 2 was released on November 24, 2010, Part 3 was released on December 15, 2010, and Part 4, Final War, was released on January 26, 2011. An omnibus edition was released on June 15, 2011.
