The Pops Gallery: Presidential Comic Book Covers!

Hey, I don't know if you guys heard, but there's a Presidential election in the United States next week. This will be the eighth time I get to pull the lever to cast my ballot for the so-called "leader of the free world," and it is far and away the most depressing election of my lifetime. Which is why I'm grateful for the distraction of COMIC BOOKS! Wheeee, comics! Where the bad guys are (usually) clearly defined and the good guys almost always win! Now there's some catharsis!

But let's take a gander at worlds colliding. What follows is a Pops Gallery of 50 comic book and strip images (mostly covers, but not all) of characters either interacting with real life Presidents (and Sarah-cough-Palin) or running for office, as well as a handful of comics where the Commander in Chief is the star.

Not surprisingly, Superman and Captain America are well represented (Superman mostly rescuing the President, as, not being born in the US, he couldn't legally run for office). For some books, I only scratch the surface of available material, such as Joe Simon's amazingly weird 1970s series, PREZ, the even weirder Reagan's Raiders, and, of course, MAD Magazine, which traffics regularly in political satire (and it seems as if Richie Rich is actually running for Presidenté of some South American country, but how could I omit an image of a spoiled bazillionaire running for office?).

As I post this, the election is still five days away, and depending on to whom you listen, it could go either way. Regardless of the outcome, it's gonna be messy. Almost makes one pine for a Zippy the Pinhead administration...