Decision 2012: Comic Book Straw Poll

It's your decision, America! Who will be the next president? You might think you need to wait until the primaries to cast a vote but you don't! You can cast your vote anytime before September 29th at your friendly, local comic book store! How? By placing an advanced order for one of the ten biographical comic books featuring the 2012 presidential candidates!

For this, I'm pro-choice!

As you can see, you have ten choices: Barack Obama, Michelle Bachmann, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, Jon Huntsman, Sarah Palin, Ron Paul, Rick Perry, Mitt Romney, and Rick Santorum. Interestingly, in this month's Previews solicitation for these issues, Rick Perry is not listed and Tim Pawlenty is. Pawlenty withdrew from the race and Perry entered, thus the switch. Still, it is hardly fair to Rick Perry that this happened! Of course, Palin hasn't officially joined the race but speculation continues to run wild and Boom! Studios would be foolish to pass on the opportunity to put her popular face on a comic book cover... she sells everything her image is on!

I personally think this is brilliant on several levels. First, it is a genius marketing ploy for a product that traditionally doesn't sell well: biographical comic books. Secondly, these comic books will serve a public good in informing the general public about the candidates. 

How accurate could this be? Well, I'm guessing fairly accurate in predicting the Republican nominee. After all, the candidate with the most popular Presidential Halloween mask for the last nine elections has won the election!

The one complaint I have is how they will report the "winner." They plan on announcing two winners - the overall winner and the Republican winner. I would be astounded if the Barack Obama comic didn't sell more copies than each of the individual Republican comic books. Why? Not because he's necessarily more popular but because the Republican "votes" will be spread across 9 candidates and all of the Democratic "votes" will go to one - Obama. If a Republican candidate sells more copies than Obama, you'll know who your next president will be. 

I, myself will be purchasing two of these comics - Sarah Palin and Ron Paul. I'm a fan of Palin's (but I'm betting she won't run) and I'm a nominal supporter of Paul's. The Paul comic will be a gift for a relative who is a huge Paul supporter.