Politics and Webcomics

Since we just got done with an election here in the States, I guess I should talk about politics in webcomics.  Which is another way of saying I just randomly came up with this topic.

I have no problem with other people's politics (as long as you don't want to burn books, those people can die, in a fire, for irony).  But I really don't like comics based on them.  Which is odd since one of my favorite comics is The Pain, which is mostly a political comic.  Maybe I just don't like them based on politics I disagree with, but then I didn't much care for the political comics of Deep Fried.

So what's wrong with politics in a comic?  Well, it mostly restricts your audience.  Some people simply refuse to read comics that hold different political views then themselves.  I admit I have a similar bias, there's at least one newspaper comic (Mallard Fillmore) that I just can't stand to read.  At the same time, I do try to read various conservative websites and news because I don't want to blindly hate them, but I don't do that for fun.

The real problem, though, is how comics do it.  Even The Pain and Deep Fried, which are funny comics normally, have this annoying habit of bashing their message into the heads of their readers.  But if I think those comics beat the message in, and I line with them politically to a point, those on the other side of the political spectrum probably have it worse.  This comes from the first political webcomic I read, Small World.

Reading that comic was a chore near the end because it became VERY political, and running along lines opposite of what I normally support.  The pounding suddenly became concussive and it became hard to read or even enjoy, and in the end I didn't.  Now putting the politics into the background is something so hard I can't even think of a comic that has ever done it.

Basing your comic on politics is probably not a good idea because it is VERY hard, and even if you do it well, you'll have to be really into politics to pull it off.  Covering multiple angles might help, but I can't see anyone really giving each side a fair shake.  It's too hard.

So don't do politics, it's not worth the effort.  Until next time kiddies.