Greatest Political Comics For The Left and the Right

[Timothy Hunter]

I recently reread the American Gothic arc of Alan Moore's Swamp Thing and I realized how more effective it was as a political commentary than so many other "political" comics because the stories can be enjoyed on two levels,: they can be enjoyed as straight forward horror narratives or as allegories for issues such as the effects of slavery, gun violence, nuclear waste, and the patriarchy for which Moore makes his arguments in a very nuanced manner.

There are so many bad examples of comics with political themes, yet people tend to ignore the comics that do it right.

Today I read the Fantagraphics trade paperback of Peter Kuper's World War 3 anthology which I thought was very successful in the points it was attempting to get across to the reader.

Most artists by nature are left wing, so overtly "right wing" comics are far and few between, and frankly most of them are terrible. There are certainly conservative comic book writers such as Chuck Dixon and Mike Baron whose politics seep into their work, but not to the extent of someone like Dennis O'Neil on comics such as Green Lantern/Green Arrow. The only truly "great" right wing comic I can think of is Steve Ditko's Mr. A.

[ed2962]

I think the term "The Left" and "The Right" are grossly misused these days. Sure, there's lots of liberals in the entertainment industry but how many of them are actually left-wing? And just because someone believes in "family values" that doesn't make them right-wing nuts. Having said that....

The first 12 issues of American Flagg. Full of political satire and groundbreaking visuals, it's criminally overlooked these days.

[ed2962]

The Dark Knight Returns is full of political satire, but for whatever reason people mostly focus on Batman breaking people's ribs. It's set against the world of Reaganomics and the Cold War. Frank takes a couple of shots at conservatives, but his biggest targets seem to be baby boomer liberals.

[foxley]

I don't claim to be an expert on American politics, but surely the ultimate American right-wing political comic book is Liberality for All. Here is the official synopsis:

It is 2021, tomorrow is the 20th anniversary of 9/11. America is under oppression by ultra-liberal extremists who have surrendered governing authority to the United Nations. Hate speech legislation called the "Coulter Laws" have forced vocal conservatives underground. A group of bio-mechanically enhanced conservatives led by Sean Hannity, G. Gordon Liddy, Oliver North, and a young man born on September 11, 2001, set out to thwart Ambassador Usama bin Laden's plans to nuke New York City.

(I am making none of this up. This is a real comic that was published. It was cancelled after 4 of its planned 8 issues.)