Monthly Archives: August 2008

Barack Obama and John McCain were recently asked by Entertainment Weekly what super-hero they'd most like to be:

Sen. John McCain: "Batman. He does justice sometimes against insurmountable odds. And he doesn't make his good works known to a lot of people, so a lot of people think he's just a rich playboy."

Sen. Barack Obama: "I was always into the Spider-Man/Batman model. The guys who have too many powers, like Superman, that always made me think they weren't really earning their superhero status. It's a little too easy. Whereas Spider-Man and Batman, they have some inner turmoil. They get knocked around a little bit."

Sadly, the Pandering Mutant Gene is far too strong in any Presidential candidate to contemplate an answer to that question which is not Superman, Spider-Man, or Batman. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that those are the only three super-heroes either guy could name, and that's only because each character has had a major motion picture released in the last few years.

Is it too much to ask for one of them to want to be, say, "Rex the Wonder Dog" or "Pitt"? Think of how much good we could do with a muscle-bound, spittle-flicking gray-skinned President! It would at least make UN meetings much more entertaining:

The Iranian Ambassador: I would like to introduce UN Resolution 4534 which -- "
President Pitt: RRRRRAAAAARRRRRRGGGHHHHH!

With penetrating political insight like this, I eagerly await my invitation to join the op-ed pages of the Wall Street Journal. Or Time. National Enquirer? Throw me a bone here people!

(Hat-tip to Taegan Goddard's Political Wire.)

On the last page of "Rocket Raccoon" no. 1 (originally published in 1985) is an article from editor Carl Potts about the team who put the series together. The penciller of the series was a very young Mike Mignola, who of course is now famous as the creator of "Hellboy" and "BPRD" as well as the winner of numerous Eisner Awards. But 23 years ago he was just starting out in the industry; here's what Potts had to say about him in the back of "Rocket Raccoon":

On the lower left is Mike Mignola. Mike's been around the field for a few years as an inker. Relatively recently he took up pencilling as well. You might remember his full art job on the Sub Mariner story in the back of MARVEL FANFARE #10. Lots of letters crying "more" came in after that one so here you go! After Mike finishes drawing all four issues of Rocket's limited series, he'll be laying out a few issues of the HULK (starting with #311). Shortly thereafter Mr. Mignola will be taking over the pencil pushing chores of ALPHA FLIGHT!

And the rest is, as they say, history. To cap off the article, legendary artist Bill Sienkiewicz draw an illustration of the four leads on the Rocket Raccoon series, and here's his version of Mr. Mignola: