John Hinderaker has a post on Karl Zinsmeister's new Iraq war comics. Hinderaker calls comics "a medium in which the liberals will have a hard time competing."
Hinderaker--who's a pretty cool guy--should take it as a badge of honor that he doesn't know about the inner-workings of the comic-book world. This little subculture is pretty much dominated by people with moderate to strong liberal leanings. (Not that there's anything wrong with it!) Comic book writers have been proponents of progressive politics dating back to the start of the Cold War and moving all the way through present day. For a good example of where comic book writers are at politically, see this piece on the comic book world's reaction to September 11.
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I've been reading some of the Marvel Essentials collections of the first few years of Marvel comics like Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Spider Man, The Avengers and the Hulk, and I have to say they are pretty conservative, or at least very reliably anti-communist. And this is clearly anti-communism, not xenophobia or racism; again and again Asians in Vietnam and Red China and individual people in Russia and other Eastern European states are portrayed as victims of the communists or heroic resistors against them, and several times communist agents and apparachiks are turned against Red tyranny by the example of Bruce Banner's or Tony Stark's magnanimity and human decency, and then fight side by side with our heros against the commies. I found this refreshing, as comics now (of which I have only a limited knowledge) seem pretty left wing and politically correct.
As a babyboomer raised on the Superman of the '50s and the beginning of the Stan Lee reign of Marvel, I was thoroughly steeped in the comics culture of the time. And it reflected each decade surrounding it.
It should be no surprise that the current output reflects both the coarsening culture AND the historical deficits of young authors. For example, The Punisher--a vigilante wreaking havoc on criminals for the death of his family--has evolved to 1) a psychotic Vietnam Veteran whose men committed atrocities e.g. scalping the dead; 2) lives in a world where political and business corruption is a given, not an anomaly; 3) puts to gruesome death a preacher who, of course, is fanatically anti-homosexual, while having no apparent qualms in dealing with a homosexual sheriff--in rural Texas; 4) battles an island horde consisting of former Delta Force, Seals, Green Berets, etc., which implies the military produces trained killers as opposed to honorable warriors (see #1).
This may be due to the author being from Ireland. Or perhaps the creators work in NYC. In any case, comics as a genre has changed drastically.
The fans are no picnic either.
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