I don’t usually review books that I worked on in one capacity or another but I’m making an exception as this one is important.
Voting is Your Super Power!is the latest collection of rare vintage comics from Craig Yoe and it comes at a time when its message has never been more needed in America. So many people become cynical and think that their vote doesn’t count but that has never been true. If every person in America who is legally eligible to vote were to actually do so, we wouldn’t be in the mess we’ve been in. The people that DON’T vote are the ones who cause much of this country’s problems, the ones who need to read this book NOW…and then vote!
The rare giveaway comic books collected here date from an earlier time, a simpler time, but their goal was the same in the 1950s and 1960s. As the back cover of the book so accurately sums it up, “The American civil rights movement and the Red Scare motivated civic organizations and publishers to create giveaway comic books about the dangers of political corruption and the importance of voting to stop it!”
On the cover and inside, you meet General Election, a brand-new super character specifically designed to promote and encourage voting. Then “Why I Vote,” a brief Introduction from everyone’s favorite Catwoman, Julie Newmar, is followed by Craig’s own background text on politics in comics in general and on the eight reprinted comics here in particular.
And what are those comics?
Your Vote is Vital-1952
The Man Who Stole Your Vote-1952
If Your Kids Could Vote-1952
An American Family Gets Out to Vote-1956
The Price You Pay for Graft-1952
The Street Where You Live-1960
Your Future Rests… In Your Hands-1964
The Adventures of…Voteman!-1968
The ones from then 1950s show variations on the classic “nuclear family,” and how voting or not voting impacts their lives. Most are straightforward but the first two above are a little more cartoony, if no less truthful. The last few appeal to the black voter of the 1960s, with one even being a little-known Marvel comic book, produced by Larry Lieber and looking for all the world like a Marvel superhero could show up in any panel at any moment.
But the whole point, if I may say it again, is that the only real-life superhero in your story, is YOU, the voter. Voting is your super power! Now is the time. It isn’t a comic-book-like exaggeration to say this is the most important election in history. In life, if you learn one thing, ever, it’s that you can never go back. You can only go forward. The past stays right where it belongs—in the past. It’s up to the voters to decide what the future will be. I trust you. Decide wisely.
PLEASE VOTE!
And for inspiration, order this book below: VOTING IS YOUR SUPER POWER!
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