With the fervor of the upcoming Presidential Election reaching a
fevered pitch, it’s no surprise that folks from within the comic book
industry are starting to use their voices more and more as the United
States closes in on Election Day on November, 4th. With creators like
Erik Larsen endorsing Barack Obama in Savage Dragon as well as
a number of biographical comics based on popular candidates hitting
shelves in the coming months, it’s no surprise that vocal comic book
creators have their own personal opinions as to who they’d like to have
as the next President of the United States.
Over the past few weeks, a distinct banner stating “Comics Industry for
Obama” has begun popping up on various social networking websites like
MySpace and Facebook—and this week, they’ve launched their own website,
www.comicsindustryforobama.com,
in an effort to raise money for the Obama campaign with an art auction
with art provided by a number of politically active comic book
creators, including Eisner Award winning creators like Eric Powell and
Mike Mignola.
Newsarama sat down with website moderator, Sarah Grace McCandless and The Goon’s Eric Powell to discuss their work with Comics Industry for Obama and the upcoming art auction.
Newsarama: Sarah Grace, how did the Comics Industry for Obama
movement get started? For the sake of readers who aren't familiar with
your background in the comic book industry--give us a little background
information on yourself.
Sarah Grace McCandless: The idea popped into my head about two weeks ago after attending the Brooklyn Book Fair. On the way home, I had picked up The New York Times,
primarily to read their piece about Sarah Palin – don’t even get me
started on how many different ways this woman continues to horrify and
offend me. I do have to say, I just love how McCain’s campaign cried
sexism when the press and the public tried to vet a person who –
shudder – could ultimately be second-in-command of our country, but
seemed to think it was perfectly fine to have McCain refer to her as
his “soul mate.” Call me crazy, but I seriously doubt he would have
chosen the same words had it been Romney or Lieberman on the Republican
ticket.
Anyway, I’d already donated a few times to Obama’s campaign directly
and MoveOn.org, but had an urge to try to do something a little more
widespread. I got inspired by some other artist-focused efforts, such
as the Artists for Obama and MoveOn.org’s Manifest Hope auction, I
thought, hmm, couldn’t we do a comics industry version of this?
Eric and I had been friends for years and I knew we were on the same
page with this, so I sent him a text message and asked him thought. He
got on board immediately and shortly after I reached out to Mike
Mignola about doing a sketch to auction. Once they both committed,
things developed as quickly as possible from there.
I first came into the comics industry in 1999 as the Marketing Manager
and eventually Marketing Director for Dark Horse Comics – at the time,
Michael Martens was my boss and we totally bonded thanks to our Midwest
roots among other things. I’d grown up around comics by proxy, courtesy
of my older brother Matt. He’d probably deny this today, but he would
make Wolverine hands out of my father’s golf gloves and tin foil, and
then terrorize me with them. Nice, huh?
I left Dark Horse in 2004 to focus more on my own writing career, but
as my pal Eric told me, “Comics is like the mafia – you never really
get out.” Indeed, and gratefully so – the industry really feels like
family to me and I’ve been fortunate enough to maintain my
relationships with retailers, editors, artists, writers, and of course
the awesome fans, too. In fact, Christine Norrie did the cover for both
of my novels, as well as the interior illustrations on my first book,
and the legend that is Diana Schutz invited me to contribute a story to
the Sexy Chix
anthology, which was an amazing experience. Joelle Jones did the art
for piece – I was blown away. Jamie S. Rich was very wise to scoop her
up as his primary partner in crime.
NRAMA: What is the primary goal of the Comics Industry for Obama website?
SGM: The goal is to offer a central meeting place where Obama
supporters across the comics industry can mobilize, with a focus first
and foremost on doing get out the vote push, followed by fundraising
efforts for the campaign.
NRAMA: Eric, how did you become involved with Comics Industry for Obama? How active are you politically?
Eric Powell: Well, Sarah will probably touch on this in her
answer, but we were talking about things we could do to help make a
change because we both felt compelled to do something. I tried to
organize something locally that didn't pan out. I live in Tennessee,
and there is little chance Obama will take this state, but you have to
try. Sarah had the idea of getting the comic industry together to do
something. I was all for it and told her I'd help in anyway I could.
I am not very politically active. I am very much to each his own kind
of person. But in this case I can't be that way anymore. We messed up.
The American people put the Bush administration in office, let them use
their fear tactics to push us into anything they wanted, and now we are
in domestic and international crisis. I'm worried about the future of
my children and I have to speak up even if I step on some toes. I can
in no way support someone who supported Bushes policies 90% of the time
and is known for being one of the biggest deregulators in Washington.
We are in this economic crisis because of those deregulations. And
don't even get me started on the gimmicky choice of his running mate.
NRAMA: Have your personal political beliefs been prevalent in your work in the comic book industry?
EP: I did one comic that was totally spawned from my frustration
over the extreme right wing agenda that seemed to be growing out of
control. People who follow my work will know which one it was. Other
than that, I try to keep my politics out of my comics. Like I said, to
each his own. Everyone is entitled to their point of view and if more
people considered that, we'd be a lot better off. However, when our
country is being run into the ground and my kids have to inherit this
crap that goes out the window. As citizens it's our responsibility to
take care of our country and it's time to get off our asses and make a
change.
NRAMA: Sarah Grace, let's talk about the art auction--who do you
have contributing so far? Where and how will people be able to bid on
artwork provided for the auction?
SGM: Initially, I thought it would be really cool to have
participating artists do their take on Obama with one-of-a-kind
sketches that could be as down-and-dirty or as detailed as they had
time to create – i.e., Obama a la Powell, or Obama a la Mignola. Some
people are doing that, while others are donating pages, signed books,
or merch featuring their work. It’s a little tricky, because we can’t
really accept any sketches or art for donation and auction that
features copyrighted characters, unless the artist making the donation
holds the copyright.
A number of other artists and writers have already reached out about
participating in the auction, from veterans to newcomers and rising
stars. I’m really thrilled by the response so far – interested artists
can email us at comicsindustryforobama@gmail.com to find out more about how to get involved.
NRAMA: Can you give readers a breakdown of how the contributions made via the art auction will be managed?
SGM: There are a bunch of rules and regulations when it comes to
donations to political campaigns and organizations, and of course we
also didn’t have the time to register as an official non-profit
organization. That said, basically, I have to follow the rules outlined
for an individual in terms of contribution limits (details of which are
posted on our main website), but once I reach that max for Obama’s
campaign, the DNC, and MoveOn.org, Eric can become the next
“individual” and so on. I’ve set up a Comics Industry for Obama account
on eBay to house all the auction items – they have the best safeguards
in place in terms of making sure bids are legit and payments are
handled appropriately. I will, of course, also make public all records
of final bid amounts and subsequent transactions to Obama’s campaign,
the DNC, and MoveOn.org.
The plan is to launch the auctions the week of September 29 – we’ll
probably do them on pretty short runs, no longer than five-day spans
per auction, so we can make sure to turn around the donation in time to
benefit the campaign. That said, we’ll also likely close the auction
component no later than October 24.
However, we’re also building and launching a Zazzle store with merch
featuring the Comics Industry for Obama logo that Eric created. The
profit from this is a lot, lot less – basically it’s 10% of the total
sale price, but all of those profits will also be donated to the
campaign as well.
And again, the donations and the auction and such as of course great
and helpful, but mostly I hope this encourages as many Obama supports
as possible to register to vote – and show up on Election Day to
actually do so!
NRAMA: How strongly do the two of you feel about Obama's pursuit
of the Presidency? Are you both active politically at the local and
State level as well?
EP: I feel strongly enough about this to put myself out there
and voice my opinion on the matter publicly. That's pretty strong for
me. We have to get this one right this time. Like I said, Tennessee is
a pretty red state, but I'm doing what I can to get friends active and
try to make it competitive here.
SGM: This is hands down the strongest I’ve ever felt about a
Presidential bid, or any campaign for that matter. Our country is in a
state of crisis. I actually feel a little sorry for Senator Obama,
because he’ll be inheriting this mess and with that comes an enormous
amount of pressure, but I fully believe in his ability to lead our
country and make better choices that will improve the state of affairs.
I don’t expect him to be perfect, and I don’t expect things to happen
overnight, but I am confident that he is by far the best man for the
job. I live just outside of New York on the Hudson in New Jersey, which
traditionally goes to the Democrats, but I will be doing whatever I can
to make sure that tradition doesn’t change – and yes, I am registered
to vote in my county!
NRAMA: How important is it for younger, objective readers who are of voting age to at least register to vote?
EP: Very! No matter who they vote for. We need more kids taking
notice of the world around them. We need more Barack Obamas and less
reality TV stars.
SGM: Critical – younger voters such as college students have the
ability to make a choice now that will greatly impact what the world
looks like and what opportunities are available for them once they
graduate and head into the work force. The first election I could vote
in was in 1992 – I was 18 years old, a freshman at Michigan State
University, which actually hosted one of the debates between Bush,
Clinton, and Perot (wow, remember his Powerpoint charts?). To be
honest, at the time I wasn’t thinking about how this would impact my
life at 22, or 25, but fortunately I voted for Clinton. I think younger
voters today are really powerful, especially with all the technology
now available to not only become informed, but spread the word. I
didn’t even have email until my very last year at MSU!
NRAMA: What types of resources does the website provide for
potential voters and folks interested becoming more aware during the
2008 election?
SGM: The main website, http://www.comicsindustryforobama.com,
is hosted via Ning, a newer service which allows anyone to create a
social network based on a shared interest. The website provides links
to super easy voter registration resources such as Vote for Change, and
also info on state deadlines – time is running out, so please check the
website to make sure you get your paperwork filed in time! The website
also features links to the Obama campaign headquarters, the Democratic
National Committee, MoveOn.org, political news updates, and more.
NRAMA: Eric, artists from other forms of entertainment have been
outspoken in their political beliefs before and, at times, they've been
met with criticism for using their notoriety to push an agenda; are you
worried that your allegiance with Comics Industry for Obama may sour
some of your more conservative fan-base?
EP: I spoke about this with a fellow comic creator who signed
up. We both acknowledged the fact that we could face a backlash from
some readers for being associated with this. We were both of the
opinion, "Oh, Well." It's time to grow a pair, people. I love my
readers and if your views don't mesh with mine, fine. If you don't like
Obama, work for McCain's campaign. That's your right. Just like it's my
right to support the candidate of my choice. That's what the process is
all about. Why does it have to be about getting pissed off and hating a
guy because he has a different point of view? I have never understood
that but some people just have assholes. Oh, well.
And as far as using my notoriety, uh, I make funny books. I doubt the
six o'clock news is going to scream, "POWELL ENDORSES OBAMA!" and it's
not about using some kind of notoriety. It's about organizing people in
the comic industry and comic readers who want to make a difference.
NRAMA: Comics Industry for Obama isn't just relegated to the
actual website--where else can readers find out more about your website
and potentially connect with the support?
SGM: We also have a MySpace page (http://www.myspace.com/comicsindustry4obama)
and a Comics Industry for Obama Facebook group. Joining the main site
as well as our other offshoots only takes a few minutes, and I strongly
encourage people to register with all three to show their support. The
response so far has been overwhelmingly positive – my only regret is we
didn’t launch the project sooner!
Links for references made within Q&A
Artists for Obama - http://store.barackobama.com/Artists...ama_s/1018.htm
