Cue the (Word) Balloon Drop: A Presidential Comix Cavalcade

Here they come to save the day: McCain, Palin and Obama get bio-comics. And there's a fourth — but it's not about the candidate you'd expect. IDW, Bluewater

 

by Glen Weldon

How do I love [preferred candidate]? Let me count the swag:

With lawn signs do I love him. With baby tees, and hoodies. And buttons. And with bumper stickers, desktop wallpapers, magnets (refrigerator/car), lapel pins, hats (baseball/ trucker), coffee mugs, water bottles and funnybooks.

Wait: funnybooks?

Funnybooks.

Four different candidates vying for national office are now the subjects of their own comic-book biographies. But they're not necessarily the four candidates you'd imagine — and you'll never guess which one got snubbed.

After the jump: Profiles in four-color courage, and the identity of the mystery snubbee ... REVEALED! ... (Yeah, okay, it's Biden.)

Earlier this month, publisher IDW released Presidential Material: John McCain, Presidential Material: Barack Obama.

(And, because all media must slavishly cater to the undecided, Presidential Material: The Flip Book, which packs the two bios into a single issue.)

Reviews have been generally good, noting that both books present straight-down-the-middle portraits of their subjects in a clear, accessible, kid-friendly style.

(Speaking of kid-friendly: Evidently today's young'uns can finagle a way to read the books by making use of some kind of galvanized electro-telephonic machine apparatus that they all seem to tote around in the watch pocket of their breeches nowadays. What hath God wrought!)

A word or two about those covers, though, and the oddness of the likenesses thereon:

Obama: Can't put my finger on it. A vaguely dyspeptic Fred MacMurray, maybe?

McCain: Just ate a baby. ("I hunger!")

Not long after the cover art for the IDW series was made public, another, smaller publisher called Bluewater announced it would soon be launching its own biographical series profiling important American women.

The series title: Female Force. (Eesh.)

The first issue: Hillary Clinton.

The cover art: dimly familiar....

No reviews yet, as Female Force: Hillary Clinton won't hit stands until right around Inauguration Day. Which, I gotta say, ouch. Just ouch.

And it's already undergone a makeover, ostensibly to correct the number of stripes on the original cover's flag. In the process, the comic book Clinton got a makeover herself — here's the before and after.

They butched her up a bit ("Hit the showers, gals!"), but at least they stuck with the pantsuit. It's still wayyyy too tight on her, but, you know — it's comics, she's a woman, and That's the Law.

On Monday, Bluewater announced the subject of the second book in its Female Force series.

Yeah, you guessed it. It won't come out until February, so Bluewater's prepping two different endings.

In terms of the cover art, it's arguably the best likeness of the four. I say arguably because, let's face it: That? Looks NOTHING like Tina Fey.

(Kristin Chenoweth, maybe? If you slapped a brunette up-do on her? Right?)

And is it just me, or does it look as if they haven't quite licked that pesky stripes-on-the-flag issue yet?

Still no funnybook love for the senator from Delaware, alas. He's like a longtime member of the Justice League who can't support a comic book series on his own.

Joe Biden, the Martian Manhunter.

PS: In case you're wondering -- there's no official word on sales of the respective Presidential Material funnybooks yet, but they're tracking the iPhone downloads, and as of this morning it's a pixellated landslide: 77 percent Obama, 23 percent McCain. Make of that what you will.