Candidates of 2012-Newt Gingrich

Many consider Newt the biggest brain in the GOP. Certainly, there is no surfeit of Republican intellectualism since the death of William F. Buckley, but Newt? He is a prolific author, having written 26 books to date but some believe he is only in the race to keep the Gingrich brand in the public eye, just an attempt to increase his book sales. He is a frequent reviewer at amazon.com as well, his specialty being military history. Politically, he has painted Democrats, particularly President Obama, as “left-wing radicals” who lead a “secular socialist machine”. He wrote that “The secular-socialist machine represents as great a threat to America as Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union once did.” Yikes!

Former Speaker of the House, his last act as an elected official was to resign over the shame of his party losing 6 seats in the 1998 election, the worst performance in 64 years for a party that didn't hold the presidency. Ah, simpler times. Newt has had a somewhat variable personal life; he has switched from Baptist to Catholic and from wife to wife. Currently there’s the issue of his high dollar account at Tiffany’s; this is hardly consistent with the frugal image Gingrich is trying to project.

A few weeks ago his campaign staff resigned en masse, following Newt’s inexplicably timed luxury Mediterranean Cruise. I took this opportunity to depict one possible view of Newt’s reaction. OK, so it’s an unlikely scenario, I’ve never let that stop me before. There were questions about the future of his presidential campaign less than a month after it was launched. I strongly suspect Gingrich won’t be the candidate for the GOP for 2012 or ever.  

Avengers Vs. JLA Part 1

Here’s something you don’t see every day, The Avengers versus the Justice League of America. In the early Silver Age, there was excitement about revamped modern versions of Golden Age heroes and all new heroes but readers had become bored by the early 60’s so DC Comics “leases” some characters to Marvel, for a percentage of the profits, in a desperate bid to build comic readership for both. This cover is a nod to the upcoming Independence Day, with the patriotic heroes, Wonder Woman and Captain America, front and center. In part at first, the partnership worked, book sales increased, but then there were third party lawsuits, creators, writers, and artists, that sued over use of likeness. The case went to the Supreme Court, “Avengers V. JLA” Their decision in Part 2 of Avengers Vs. JLA!

Candidates of 2012-Jon Huntsman

Jon Huntsman appeared at the Statue of Liberty this week to announce he was running for president. Who is Jon Huntsman though? He’s a former Utah governor, recent ambassador to China, and holder of last place in the latest Gallup poll…for now. So why would Obama fear him? Quite simply, Huntsman is considered the most moderate of the GOP candidates, and thus the most likely to beat Obama in 2012 in the general election. However, Huntsman has to face the grueling Republican primaries and therein lays several problems. For one, the GOP has been shifting to the right since the 1990’s; Ambassador Huntsman’s approval for civil unions, supporting climate change legislation, and being in favor of an individual mandate could kill his chances. Another factor is his religion. He’s a Mormon, just like current front-runner Mitt Romney. They could end up splitting Mormon support, to their mutual detriment. All indications are, he has been adverse to dirty tricks and name-calling, techniques that are almost de rigueur in modern primaries. “I don't think you need to run down anyone's reputation to run for president.” At this point he seems to be, at best, a long shot. Still, should he get the nomination, we can expect a clean race. As it is, it will be a tough decision in 2012. Do we vote for the Republicans that got us into this mess or the Democrats who can't seem to get us out of it? Only time will tell. 

Something Different-Green Lantern Vs. The Flash!

The long awaited Green Lantern movie opened last Friday to mixed reviews and was the number one film in U.S. and Canadian theaters, opening with $52.7 million in ticket sales. Not bad. There was a Green Lantern in the comic books in the 1940’s however the movie was based on the rebooted version, dating back to 1959. For the uninitiated, test pilot Hal Jordan is summoned to the side of a dying alien to receive a will power controlled ring; wielders of the ring, which can do mostly anything the wearer can conceive of, are members of a 3,600 person army that patrols the universe, bringing order to chaos. Of course, I saw the movie, and enjoyed it immensely although I have to wonder how well it would hold up for filmgoers not familiar with the comic book. Speaking of the comic book, I’ve depicted Green Lantern fighting his friend The Flash, because here at The Strangest Adventures, we love conflict!

Candidates of 2012-Tim Pawlenty

Who the heck is this boring guy anyway? Tim Pawlenty was Governor of Minnesota for two terms, with a modicum of success, but his critics say that he reduced the state’s debt through a series of bookkeeping tricks, including borrowing $1.9 billion from the public school system, most of which must be paid back. Not good at all.

Now he wants to be our next president and it trying to shake the deeply ingrained belief that he is uninteresting. He has an economic plan but the problem is, he assumes 5% economic growth for 10 years, a condition which has never occurred before. He proposes to create this miracle via the hoary old chestnut of politicians, massive tax cuts. The Center for American Progress, a left leaning think tank, projected Governor Pawlenty's tax plan would cost $7.8 billion over a decade.

In an attempt to tie in front runner Romney with Obama, Pawlenty called the health care reform bill “Obamney Care”. OK, that’s a bit bold, taking on the front-runner. However, when face-to-face with Romney on Monday at the GOP debate, Governor Pawlenty refused to directly confront Mitt, instead muttering out his prepared talking points. Yawn.

He certainly seems to lack charisma and is currently running around 6% in most polls. His lack of visibility and current status as bottom of the barrel candidate inspired today’s piece.  

Candidates of 2012-Mitt Romney

What can I say about Mitt Romney? No need for quotations, to say Romney changes his opinion is common knowledge. He seemed fairly popular when he served as governor of Massachusetts; his term was characterized by budget cuts and health care reform but that moderate governor of a liberal state was dead by the 2008 Republican primary. In his place was a candidate that had compromised most of his previous stances, not conservative enough for the GOP mainstream, you know. Romney is a Mormon (as is potential 2012 candidate Jon Huntsman). I don’t know if his religion will affect his candidacy; I hope we as a nation have moved beyond such attitudes. I’d say one of the more interesting things about Mitt was that he was the son of George Romney, former head of American Motors Corporation, who left AMC in 1962 to become governor of Michigan. Those Romneys were born with governing in their blood! Here I’ve depicted Mitt as a parody of Mister Fantastic, grey-templed, flexible-bodied leader of the Fantastic Four! 

Something Different—The Flash #123 Homage

This is a tribute to The Flash #123, Flash of Two Worlds, which in my opinion was the most important comic book of the 1960s. In it, Barry Allen, The Flash, travels to another reality, Earth-2, where he meets his counterpart, which, to Barry Allen, was a fictional character and was Barry’s super-hero inspiration! Please, no one remind me that they all are fictional characters! This issue paves the way for DC Comics to publish more stories of Earth-2, which covers all the heroes of the WW II Era, and later there were more stories about more Earths. But, on to this cover. I thought it would be interesting if Quicksilver, the fastest man in Marvel Comics, met his 1940’s counterpart, The Whizzer, in the pages of The Avengers. I always enjoy stories featuring super-speedsters. The Avengers, for those that don’t know, were Marvel’s response to DC Comic's The Justice League of America. In any case, here is the result.

Nominate Gabrielle Giffords for Woman of the Year

I made this in the wake of the Gabrielle Giffords shooting on January 8, 2011in Arizona because today they released new photos of her, the first since she was shot by a crazed gunman. "These photos reveal an upbeat image of Gabrielle Giffords," spokesman C.J. Karamargin tells People. "When you see the pictures you see that she has progressed in leaps and bounds. When they say that a picture is worth a thousand words, if ever that was true, it is true here."  Wouldn’t it be a great idea to nominate Gabrielle Giffords for Time Magazine Woman of the Year? Maybe this will help- the Woman of the Year 2011 Facebook page. I showed this cover to several people but have thus far received a lukewarm reception. If any of you like the idea leave a comment on how to proceed. I have fixed the comment section so anyone may comment now. 

Friend of the Blog-Ed Brayton

Ed Brayton is a friend of The Strangest Adventure that promoted us on June 10^th, 2011 with this story. “Republican Superheroes to the Rescue” Ed is a journalist and a wry commentator, and has appeared several times on the Rachel Maddows Show. In addition he is President of Michigan Citizens for Science. You can read the rest of his bio on his site,  Dispatches From The Culture Wars., where he will inform you about Science, Religion,  Law and Culture and their convergence.  He’s someone you CAN trust! Most of you came here because of his influence and so I can’t thank him enough. 

2012 Candidates-Ron Paul

Ron Paul  R-TX is an actual Medical Doctor, he’s known as Doctor No. He claims he will "never vote for legislation unless the proposed measure is expressly authorized by the US Constitution” so Paul often casts the solitary "no" vote against proposed legislation.

Dr. Paul once wrote “The notion of a rigid separation between church and state has no basis in either the text of the Constitution or the writings of our Founding Fathers. On the contrary, our Founders' political views were strongly informed by their religious beliefs.”

How interesting and contradictory, then, that he is also a devotee of Ayn Rand; her philosophy of Objectivism had atheism as a defining core value. Contrary to popular belief he did not name his son Rand, who is a US Senator, in her honor. Many consider him, with his belief in smaller government, to be a prototype for the Tea Party. Others deem him to be outlandish, and far from the political mainstream; perhaps both views are correct. This is his third attempt at the presidency and he is not expected to do well this time either.

Something Completely Different-The X-Men!

Hey, I’ve made more than political covers. This is a good example. This early Silver Age grouping is the basis (somewhat) for the current X-Men: First Class movie. I thought it would be interesting to depict them battling the Incredible Hulk; in the original version they battled The Blob, a forgettable villain with a poorly conceived name. I’ve always preferred this early version to the relaunched version for the 1970s. One of the best aspects of this cover is both the X-Men and the Hulk were drawn by Jack Kirby, a staple of the comic book industry since the Golden Age. As with most of these projects, this was created with Adobe Photoshop, in this case working from low-resolution originals. They don’t make them like this anymore; actually, they never published this particular comic. But they should have. 

Weiner-Mania!

Anthony Weiner, a New York Democrat, is currently embroiled in a controversy involving sending pictures of his crotch to women on Twitter. At first he vehemently denied the accusation, claiming his account was hacked. “It certainly doesn't look familiar to me, but I don't want to say with certitude to you something that I don't know to be the certain truth," Weiner told Wolf Blitzer in a CNN interview. Huh? You don’t know what your own crotch looks like. He lied for ten days, ten days of “hiding the sausage”. Eventually, Weiner, of course, had to fess up when he realized that more photos were about to reach the public eye. Talk about pulling a boner! Now that he’s put everything out there for everyone to see, mostly everyone is urging him to resign, but he’s hanging tough for now. A sad story perhaps, but a source of hilarity for many, including me. So here is my depiction of Anthony Weiner’s lewd picture. 

2012 Candidates-Rick Santorum

First in a series-Rick Santorum is Fecalman-A frothy candidate who will prove to be all stink and goo. No one wants sloppy seconds from this guy! Wildly unpopular in his home state of Pennsylvania, he is not expected to do much better than 6th place, but he’ll always be Number Two in the minds of voters. If you’re not getting any of this, Google his name.

Paul Revere's Ride, Revised!

Everyone must know by now of Sarah Palin's infamous retelling of the story of Paul Revere's Ride. It was a hot day, maybe she got confused; OK, I'm being kind. I mean come on, every school child knows what happened. I am utterly floored that anyone with such a distorted view of history should be in the public eye. The worst part is, later, when asked by Fox News Sunday anchor Chris Wallace, "you realize you messed up about Paul Revere, don't you?" , she replied "Part of his ride was to warn the British that were already there. That, hey, you're not going to succeed. You're not going to take American arms. You are not going to beat our own well-armed persons, individual, private militia that we have," she added. "He did warn the British."Sad. I almost feel remorse for poking fun at her. Almost. 

Palinpalooza!

Ah, Sarah Palin, the gift that keeps on giving. She really tickles my funny bone more than any other politician on the scene today. She was recently on a bus trip to see America, and she really got my attention when she said “This Statute of Liberty was gifted to us by foreign leaders, really as a warning to us, it was a warning to us to stay unique and to stay exceptional from other countries. Certainly not to go down the path of other countries that adopted socialist policies”.  Really? Who writes this stuff? So, I was inspired to do this piece, based on the cover to Strange Adventures, #153. Feel free to share this with friends

The Strangest Adventures Begin!

Welcome to my blog; set back and get comfortable. I have myriad interests but my current source of bemusement is the political scene. I've been creating graphics for years, including my own comic book covers and have the notion to apply this treatment to the politicians of the day. I derive particular bemusement from those that would challenge President Obama for his position; not that he's perfect–no president is. However I find that almost everyone that is running, or may run have a marvelously humorous tendency to open mouth, insert foot. Plus most of them have characteristics which I find to be hilarious.And if you think I'm too partisan, well, at some point, everyone will be subject for ridicule.
Enjoy!