Collective Action Comics

"In a just world, Mark Waid is the bar, rather than a notable comics writer." ---------- The saying goes that he who is known as an early riser can get out of bed whenever he wants. Similarly, Action Comics #1094, "Our Superboy At War," pushes the limits of what "liberal" storytelling can depict before it crosses the line into conservative jingoism. Because ostensible progressive Mark Waid wrote i...

“But, at night to Mohammed, he confessed his doubts: It will not be as we dream, when those of us who survive finally get there. Corrupt politicians have already ensconced themselves. They are waiting for us—waiting for us not as brothers but as our masters. They will use us." – As told to John Berger, "Two Recumbent Male Figures Wrestling on a Sidewalk" "For a moment, he actually feels he can’t g...

"What the hell is water?" Art, music, literature, drama. When the frontiers of human potential slam against capitalist industry, a force that can't be stopped confronts an object that can't be moved. Capitalism twists and redirects culture and imagination into a revenue stream, limiting to its flow the ideas we're allowed have and drowning all the rest. At the nexus of pop culture and "Pop Culture...

Finally, the definitive Marxist take on Lex Luthor. Just what we've all been waiting for. The strange flavor of 90s foreign intervention, the eventual goal of capitalist policing, and why you should never trust a homeless shelter (it's not what you think) all tie together into the stories of two of the world's most famous mad scientists - one a product of capitalism, the other a perpetuator. It's...

Announcing a major new collaboration with the inimitable BLACK CASEBOOK podcast. This summer, get ready for a fall.

What do heroes leave behind? The answer should be obvious. The contest for control of the world economy entered a new age at the end of 1991. Socialist forces were in retreat as the then-second largest superpower, the USSR, crumbled under pressure from more than 70 years of capitalist onslaught. Its splintered masses would be powerless to defend themselves against instantaneous pillage and plunder...

Superhero comics are cycles of endless strife, dialectical tides pushing and pulling between too often oversimplified representations of "evil" and "good." As if on a journey from vulgar physical form to enlightened spiritual ascendence, superheroes die and are reborn over and over, with little consideration that this time might be the last. What happens when an economy does the same? How do we al...

Small town boy makes good? or big city media conglomeration makes believe? Absolute Superman is an ostensible return to the character's origin as a voice (and fist) for the masses, but can we trust DC Comics (a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery) to deliver such a hero? More importantly, does the book's intent even matter? ---------- Special thanks to our Lovable Sidekicks: Better Possible Futur...

How many of your neighbors have you met? When was the last time you helped the homeless? Do you, as a worker, have the power to affect government policy? Organizing takes many forms, some immediate and some sustained. While the abilities of Superman would certainly be helpful, they're by no means necessary to build a world that protects the vulnerable. Journey with us as we explore historical curr...

What does it mean to be "super?" What does it mean to have "power?" The Death and Return of Superman has us asking these questions in an era when it was less and less appropriate to do so. It was also a time of deep unrest, being the first sprout from the seeds of counterrevolution the previous decade. The ostensible leaders of resistance to such reaction were about to take us on quite the merry c...

IT'S A SAN DIEGO COMIC CON TAKEOVER, FOLKS! Many thanks to SDCC for hosting our panel "Revolutionary Comics: Revolutionaries in Our Comics!" Five wonderful creators, one amazing moderator, and some goofy schlub with a podcast came together to talk radical politics in comics we love, our visions for the future of comics, and how we engage with creative works socially. **Apologies for the panel audi...

Today in Bonus Feed Land, the irrepressible Neil Kapit takes the stand as a character witness for that plucky upstart Tony Stark! Neil asserts that, while Iron Man might not be the most beloved superhero on the left, the pathos and self-sacrifice of this demon-haunted Avenger speak to a far more interesting human being than the movies or Mark Millar would have us believe. Find the full episode on...

Thank you all for a wonderful three years of Collective Action Comics! Please find attached the answers to all your burning questions. I tried my best to answer each one with the appropriate proportion of sass and humility. Here's to the future! Very proud to be fighting for it alongside all of you. (Please don't X-communicate me for having once liked Joss Whedon's X-Men) ---------- Email: collect...

Today in Bonus Feed Land, friend of the show Shaun Corley takes Nat on a historical jaunt through a catalog of Marvel's earliest anticommunist stories and characters all the way up to some of their more recent racist depictions of dastardly foreigners. Find the full episode on the Patreon! (A contribution to MECA has been made in Shaun's name in appreciation for his appearance on the show.) BIG AP...

Today in Bonus Feed Land, we laugh! We cry! The great critic and writer Elizabeth Sandifer walks Nat through Mark Millar from his earliest work (it might surprise you) to his most recent corporate gambit (it won't)! https://www.eruditorumpress.com/last-war-in-albion https://www.patreon.com/elizabethsandifer ---------- Email: collectiveactioncomics@gmail.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/col...

From oil fields to poppy fields to killing fields, the United States lays claim upon the Earth. Overwhelming force in service of the export of capital requires constant presence and insistent justification. There is no excuse too craven nor apologia too callow for the media that abets these crimes. No matter how you costume it, the violence is beyond vindication and even beyond satire. Our heroes...

You asked, we delivered! We're finally doing it, folks! We're tackling the movies! In this sweeping interview, Walt from the Black Casebook breaks down what works and what doesn't about Whedon's two Avengers movies and how they compare politically and narratively to Millar's The Ultimates. Subscribe on Patreon to hear the whole thing! Listen to the Black Casebook anywhere fine podcasts are sold! h...

Sometimes, you have to break a few omelettes to get to the eggs inside. "Conventional wisdom" is a curious thing, and, in the United States, it's been deliberately constructed, shaped, and molded over the last 70+ years. Patriotic imagery and severely lacking history curricula have joined forces to warp the perception of the US, leaving its citizens believing it to be a historical force for good....

Message delivered. The end of the mission draws near.

In this special bonus interview for season two, we get to hear from writer/artist Ben Becker on the first issue of his new anthology series "Paper Medicine" and follow him on the journey that led him to write about some very comradely goldfish piloting a mechanical man. Join us as we talk comics, cooperatives, and the aquatic liberation that only communism can bring. ---------- Follow Ben! https:/...

Good news: There's very little of The Ultimates in this episode. Bad news: That means we have to fill air time talking about ways in which the US government infiltrates and shuts down left wing movements, how the working class needs to learn to come together, and how other countries are good, actually. Hooray. ---------- Email: collectiveactioncomics@gmail.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/...

Tony Stark knows you better than you know yourself. In this age of sensors, cameras, and speculative markets, everything we do is catalogued and sold to the highest bidder. Unlike the Earth in this issue, our privacy isn't being invaded. We're giving it up willingly. (Ultimate Celebrity Sighting Count: 23) ---------- Email: collectiveactioncomics@gmail.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coll...

Old jokes and old terrors. New jokes and new meanings. Does the United States of America care about you? Of course not. As a project at large, the United States is a vehicle for consumption and destruction, and even its most ardent defenders get thrown into the fuel tank. We explore that here. Also, Hank Pym's anatomy. I'm a Doofus Update: I missed TWO Ultimate Celebrity Sightings in this one - El...

Why does the United States of America keep children at its southern border? Why did Ronald Reagan give millions of dollars a day to fascists in El Salvador? Why does the Black Widow want a fake ID? It's all for Tony Stark. For the current count of children held at the US border: https://healthdata.gov/widgets/ehpz-xc9n Erratum: The Trump administration assassinated Qasem Soleimani on Jan. 3rd, 202...

CW: Violence and anti-Muslim racism You are not you. You are you plus others. You are you plus others plus your environment. When this you is split, the consequences are almost beyond imagining. Almost. Through the Ultimates' manipulation of the media and the narrative, we imagine them here. ---------- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/collectiveactioncomics/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/CAComi...