We are living in a time of intense political drama. The normal ebb and flow of government and power have turned into a tsunami of tweets, live streams, and doom scrolling. Art is not immune from this conflict. Many recent offerings in film, music, television, video games, and visual art are fundamentally political. Even awards shows for various art forms have become platforms for political positions.

Comics are also a breeding ground for political opinion. They always have been. From a fundamental standpoint, they can’t exist without taking some kind of political stance. This is a feature, not a bug. Despite calls to keep politics out of comics, a basic understanding of your comic’s political position can improve your marketing, your distribution, and ultimately, your sales.

What Does It Mean to Be Political?

Before we dive into a debate about whether or not all comics are political, it would help to establish a baseline definition. Politics, according to Mirriam-Webster, is defined as both “the total complex of interactions between people living in society” and “their opinions or sympathies about those relationships.”

So your position on, and your definition of, truth, justice, and the American Way is part of your political perspective, just like your position on crime, the economy, education, and almost anything else that impacts the public sphere. This might feel overbroad to anyone who only sees politics in terms of elections and votes, but politics are not simple. There are as many ways to be political as there are political positions.

How Are Comics Inherently Political? 

There are two ways to prove that all comics are inherently political. There’s the easy answer and the complex answer.

The easy answer can be expressed in a logical proof:  

• According to comics icon Will Einser, comics are sequential art.

• According to Nobel Prize author Toni Morrison, all art is political.

• Therefore, if all comics are art and all art is political, then all comics are political.

As succinct as that might be, the complicated answer might be more satisfying to those looking for more detail. Every story is comprised of distinct building blocks, including characters, conflict, setting, and theme. In every one of those elements, the creator makes choices that will define their story. Each one of those choices is, consciously or subconsciously, an opinion about the complex interactions about the relationship between people living in a society and will inevitably be political. Who you decide to make your comic about, what you decide to talk about, what you decide to leave out, and what you decide to say are all artistic political choices.

For example, compare Birth of a Nation to the Blood and Sacrifices story arc in Black Panther. While one is a film and the other is a comic, both stories have members of the Ku Klux Klan fighting against black progressives. Both stories leverage the imagery of white hoods and burning crosses. Both stories rely on violence to resolve interpersonal conflict. But the stories differ when they assign the role of the protagonist to one set of characters and the antagonist to the other. This simple political choice defines everything else in each story.

As an art form, comics have a long history of promoting or rejecting strong political positions. You only need to look at the imagery of Captain America or Uber, the anti-racist position Stan Lee fostered in the Soapbox, or Art Spiegelman focused on in Maus, the history of diverse comic book characters, or the recent backlash of Comicsgate, to see that all comics have a political position simply because each one has a specific perspective and a specific focus. That focus might be done well or poorly, but that is an issue of quality, it doesn’t alter the political perspective.

What Does This Mean for the Success of Your Comic?  

If all comics have a political element, then it makes no sense to shy away from that in your story or your business. The politics of your comic will define your ideal reader and your target market. It will determine your competition and inform your distribution choices. Understanding the politics of your comic can help you be more successful as a comic book creator.

It can also help you prepare for the pitfalls and backlash inherent in creating content today. In the current social media environment, any story can be seen as offensive to one group or another. Because your story will inevitably stand for something, it is likely to stand against something else. The people who support that "something else" can quickly undermine or overwhelm your marketing efforts.

While you can't predict every possible attack on your book, think about how things could go wrong in a public arena and try to anticipate and prepare for the potential backlash with professional poise. If you lash out, you can make a bad situation worse. You don’t want to get into issues of libel, slander, or defamation based on the heated public debate over your comic.

Art has the ability to shape and define political moments. The greater the moment, the stronger that impact can be. Your comic can be a part of that history, especially if you acknowledge and understand your political role as a comic book creator.

Have fun with your comic.

Gamal

If you have questions about the business or legal aspects of your comic book publishing and you'd like a free consultation, please contact me and we can set something up that fits in with your schedule.

PLEASE NOTE: THIS BLOG POST IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR LEGAL ADVICE. IF YOU HAVE AN ISSUE WITH YOUR COMIC PROPERTY, DISCUSS IT WITH A QUALIFIED CONTRACT ATTORNEY OR CONTACT C3 FOR A FREE CONSULTATION