Obama Wins

By John Freeman on November 5, 2008

Even before the US election was over comics fans had cast their vote, with sales of IDW’s Barack Obama biography comic beating those of the John McCain by a 59% to 41% margin, according to an IDW spokesperson.

icv2.com reports the numbers are based on sell-in to direct market comic retailers, which can serve as a close proxy for actual sales to consumers.

That margin appears to be wider than the popular vote percentages, which may reflect a different political composition for comic fans than for the American population, or just the desire of comic fans to collect the comic biography of the presumptive winner.

The comics were serious biographies of the candidates, and shared trade dress and cover design. The Obama comic also seems to have been the one most widely pirated…

• More info at: www.presidentialcomics.com

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.