Department Of Redundancy Department

by hilzoy

Via Crooked Timber and into your nightmares comes this:

That's the front cover of a forthcoming comic book based on the following premiss:

"It is 2021, tomorrow is the 20th anniversary of 9/11 It is up to an underground group of bio-mechanically enhanced conservatives led by Sean Hannity, G. Gordon Liddy and Oliver North to thwart Ambassador Usama Bin Laden's plans to nuke New York City ... And wake the world from an Orwellian nightmare of United Nations dominated ultra-liberalism. "

You can read the synopsis of the entire eight issue miniseries here. It's hysterical. Excerpts:

"On one dark day, in 2006, many conservative voices went forever silent at the hands of terrorist assassins. Those which survived joined forces and formed a powerful covert conservative organization called “The Freedom of Information League”, aka F.O.I.L. (...)

The New York City faction of F.O.I.L. is lead by Sean Hannity, G. Gordon Liddy and Oliver North, each uniquely endowed with special abilities devised by a bio mechanical engineer affectionately nicknamed “Oscar”. F.O.I.L. is soon to be joined by a young man named Reagan McGee.

Reagan was born on September 11th, 2001. He is the son of a NYC firefighter whose life was spared by attending his son’s birth. Reagan has grown to manhood in an ultra-liberal educational system: being told, not asked, what to think. With personal determination, which alienates him from his contemporaries, he has chosen the path less traveled…the path to the Right."

There's only one problem: making a comic book about Hannity, North, and Liddy is completely unnecessary, since they are already comic book figures. (Especially Liddy.) It's like making a plastic action figure of Sylvester Stallone or a stick figure drawing of Kate Moss: completely and totally pointless. When reality has rendered one's best efforts superfluous, the wisest course is to pass by in silence.

Comments

[felixrayman]

Didn't the Poor Man already do a series like this?

[Katherine]

NO! Not only is Osama bin Laden the U.N. amabassador, but they've renamed the Freedom Tower the Unity Tower!

This had better be a parody. It had just better be. But the planned 40 minute interview on the Gordon Liddy show makes me think it isn't. I mean, can you really fake this sort of emotion?

Liberality For All #1 will release in October. Some comic collectors (those bleedin' heart libs) will hate it! They will re-face their anti-war protest signs, to picket its sale at their local comic shops. And will stop hugging trees long enough to burn copies in the street then urinate on the smoldering ashes! While well-informed patriotic comic collectors nationwide, will gaze towards the heavens and cheer: FINALLY, A CONSERVATIVE COMIC BOOK!

I believe that guy on the right is supposed to be Sean Hannity.

Rush Limbaugh must be just heartbroken about being left out.

[M. Scott Eiland]

Rather silly--though no more so than the senile caricature of Ronald Reagan that showed up in the otherwise excellent graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns. Some temptations are just too hard to resist even for creators as gifted as Frank Miller, apparently. . .

[CMatt]

Note that this is but a single branch of the organization. The INternational Freedom Of Information League is a force, nay a movement, to be reckoned with.

[chdb]

"Finally, a conservative comic book"?

Does Chuck Dixon's entire body of work suddenly not exist or something?

[Catsy]

Apparently their insane notions about the kind of world they live in are no longer adequate; they have to make a comic book to supplement their persecution and hero fantasies.

Too. Funny. For. Words.

[Sebastian Holsclaw]

You don't believe for a second that is written by a conservative do you?

[Fledermaus]

You don't believe for a second that is written by a conservative do you?

A comment on CT provides some background. Not to mention the mentions on Hannity, although truth be told he is rather dumb. In the end it smells like yet another person trying to milk the conservitive cow (see e.g. Left Behind) I mean c'mon Hannity, Libby and North? All us demonic leftists would have a hard time picking conservatives worse than them.

[Jesurgislac]

though no more so than the senile caricature of Ronald Reagan

As Hilzoy says, "When reality has rendered one's best efforts superfluous"".

It was a little too realistic, evidently, for your taste.

[Slartibartfast]

You know, I don't think that a 91-year-old Liddy, even with the biomechanical upgrades, is going anywhere special on that motorcycle. The hips, you know. But if he's had the full skeletal replacement, I take it all back.

Of all the societal niches to install superheroes in, the author(s) come up with politics. Asstastic! Although, what I wouldn't give to see the political punditry simply duke it out in the ring, in exchange for them shutting the hell up. For just a few minutes. Please. For the children.

[Slartibartfast]

And another thing...fifteen years from now, these guys get enough free biomechanical garage work so that a doddering Liddy can horse around a large motorcycle...can't they get that other guy a new eye? Hell, I'd expect even a Zeiss-Ikon military surplus ocular (hey, the built-in sighting reticles and multispectral output might be useful, too) would do much better than that eyepatch.

[Phil]

Love him or hate him, Al Gore set the bar pretty high for the "politicians and comics" category with his appearances on Futurama.

This . . . not so much.

What I don't get is, if conservativism has been vanquished and driven underground, and the terrorist-friendly quisling liberals are all in charge of the U.S., why would Ambassador Bin Laden have any desire to nuke New York?

Oh, right, right . . . the freedom-hating thing. Slipped my mind.

[KCinDC]

As with the Bush action figure and the Bush fish, it's hard to know whether more of these comics will be sold to conservatives for worship or liberals for ridicule, and the political motives, if any, of the supplier are unclear. Parody is dead.

[cleek]

i like the Apple product placement

[tom-e-lee]

Liddy and North as action heroes - yes.

Hannity - reminds me of an Ivy League wonk without the Ivy League brain.

Also notice, no Karl Rove, real conservatives couldn't swallow that!

[Karin]

First thing I thought of was the "Storm Saxon" adventure TV show that we get a glimpse of in Moore and Lloyd's "V for Vendetta".

[cleek]

i like how, 20 years later, conservatism is still stuck with Liddy and inHannity. guess Ben Shapiro didn't amount to much.

[Paul]

You don't believe for a second that is written by a conservative do you?

Obviously not. Every true conservative knows the great patriotic struggle against violent extremism cannot fail. Our Beloved & Respected Mr. President will not permit that to happen. Ergo, UN sycophantic liberal cosmopolites can't have taken over. Ergo, this can't have been written by a conservative. Q.E.D.

Larry Elmore. Wow. He's seen better days, hasn't he?

[moosk]

oh, wait! this is the orwellian nightmare where the supreme court actually presses for a recount in florida? the one where osama bin laden is captured because the president wasn't given an "iraq--make your own diversion" kit for christmas?? oh, yeah, that would be quite some nightmare...

[Sulla]

“the orwellian nightmare where the supreme court actually presses for a recount in florida?”

Heh, you still haven’t gotten over that dead horse?

[Dantheman]

Am I the only one who thinks that the choice of letters bearing the UN symbol is a not-so-subtle codeword for the Free Republic types of conservatives? (And, yes, I know it's not like any of the rest of the cover is subtle either, but...). When added to the link Fledermaus has of the writer's opinions, I think this really was written by and for conservatives.

[Paul]

you still haven’t gotten over that dead horse?

No, but he's taken the bull by the corns.

[SomeCallMeTim]

You don't believe for a second that is written by a conservative do you?

I think that Sebastian's right, and this is kitschy joke by a Dem. But I suspect my judgment in this area, because I've said, "Oh, that's got to be a joke," a lot of times about Administration policy over the years, and I don't think I've been correct once.

[Tim]

Katherine, i think that Rush Limbaugh in leather and spandex would burn out my optic nerves.

[moosk]

Heh, you still haven’t gotten over that dead horse?

um, that seems to be the whole premise of the comic... ("What if today's anti-war Liberals were in charge of the American government and had been since 9/11?")

what i'm really not over is ~25,000 dead iraqi civilians and ~1800 dead americans thanks to w's diversion techniques.

[Iron Lungfish]

you still haven’t gotten over that dead horse?

When will you silly liberals learn to get over something as little as democracy?

[Sulla]

“thanks to w's diversion techniques”- The new Iraqi constitution due out in a couple weeks proves what an evil bastard the President is.

“When will you silly liberals learn”- all the complications involved in the matter not withstanding, in my experience only the wild-eyed still carry this with them.

[cleek]

The new Iraqi constitution ...

tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians have died by our hands. and you're happy the survivors are going to get a theocracy aligned with Iran. yippy.

[Sulla]

Hundreds of thousands died by the hands of a government in which the Iraqis had no say so the situation now seems like a net plus to me.

[Gary Farber]

Since no one else has mentioned it, I'll note that if you look a little further down the page of the initial link, you'll see that another of their projects gives The True Story Of What Happened At Roswell.

I'm just amused. These guys wanted promo for their press release, and sure enough, they're getting it. They're probably right that they'll get a a certain amount of talk-radio attention, and they'll make some $.

It ain't any more absurd than any Mort Weisinger notion, such as Bat-Mite, or Jimmy Olsen becoming a Roman player of Beatles music.

[John Thullen]

How is it that the terrorist assassins missed Hannity, North, and Liddy?

[Fraser]

I'm reminded of an SNL skit in the eighties, "The Liberal," a FUGITIVE parody in which the last living liberal has to survive in a universally conservative America. But that was meant as a comedy.
So was REAGAN'S RAIDERS, a comic which had Ronnie and his cabinet turned into super-heroes (it wasn't very funny, but it tried).
This sounds like one more example of the endless we-are-oppressed whining some conservatives (a lot of conservatives) are prone too. And probably will be as long as there's anyone who doesn't agree with them.

[Anarch]

How is it that the terrorist assassins missed Hannity, North, and Liddy?

Nobody cared?

[Joe P.]

American Redundant Dept. of Redundancy Department Memo
TO: Ob. Wings

Commie Martyr High School Reunion is being planned this year by Joe Beets, Mudhead and his crazy hopped-up girl friend Bottles.
Mark your calendars.
Signed,
Principal Poop