Collective Action Comics

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 by the avaricious. Half a planet away, the ostensible beneficiaries of capitalist success, the US working class (including the writers and artists behind Superman), would find their rights and livelihoods under immediate and vicious attack as well, although you wouldn't know it by asking them. An ideology of righteous violence befits a class of owners who need the workers to fight their wars, and it limits the imagination of a class of workers who need each other if they ever hope to win their own freedom. What do heroes leave behind? More heroes. It's time to grasp what that means. ---------- Issues covered: The Legacy of Superman #1 ---------- Special thanks to our Lovable Sidekicks: Better Possible Futures, Kourtney Smith, Walt Lewellyn, Kafka, The Black Casebook's Very Own Nightwing, JD Lunt, Ambird, Mr. Pig from the Intervention, Travis Armstrong, Chris Marks, Wirecats, Sheeee-itttt, VoidTek, Mars Hottentot, Richard Bell, TakoTuesday, Joseph, and Knife Money ---------- Email: collectiveactioncomics@gmail.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/collectiveactioncomics Twitter: https://twitter.com/CAComixPod Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/cacomixpod.bsky.social Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/collectiveactioncomics

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 allow it to rise and fall like the characters in our funny mags? Like the souls in our bodies? Will it ever be enough? ---------- Issues covered: The Adventures of Superman 499 Action Comics 686 Superman: The Man of Steel 21 Superman 77 ---------- Special thanks to our Lovable Sidekicks: Better Possible Futures, Kourtney Smith, Walt Lewellyn, Kafka, The Black Casebook's Very Own Nightwing, JD Lunt, Ambird, Mr. Pig from the Intervention, Travis Armstrong, Chris Marks, Wirecats, Sheeee-itttt, VoidTek, Mars Hottentot, Richard Bell, and Takotuesday ---------- Email: collectiveactioncomics@gmail.com I nstagram: https://www.instagram.com/collectiveactioncomics Twitter: https://twitter.com/CAComixPod Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/cacomixpod.bsky.social Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/collectiveactioncomics

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 Futures, Kourtney Smith, Walt Lewellyn, Kafka, The Black Casebook's Very Own Nightwing, JD Lunt, Ambird, Mr. Pig from the Intervention, Travis Armstrong, Chris Marks, Wirecats, Sheeee-itttt, VoidTek, and Richard Bell ---------- Email: collectiveactioncomics@gmail.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/collectiveactioncomics Twitter: https://twitter.com/CAComixPod Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/cacomixpod.bsky.social Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/collectiveactioncomics

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 currents in oppression and the never ending battle to oppose them. ---------- Issues covered: Justice League America 70 The Adventures of Superman 498 Action Comics 685 Superman: The Man of Steel 20 Superman 76 ---------- Special thanks to our Lovable Sidekicks: Better Possible Futures, Kourtney Smith, Walt Lewellyn, Kafka, The Black Casebook's Very Own Nightwing, JD Lunt, Ambird, Mr. Pig from the Intervention, Travis Armstrong, Chris Marks, Wirecats, Sheeee-itttt, VoidTek, Mars Hottentot, and Richard Bell ---------- Email: collectiveactioncomics@gmail.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/collectiveactioncomics Twitter: https://twitter.com/CAComixPod Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/cacomixpod.bsky.social Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/collectiveactioncomics

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 chase, and many liberals in the US were relieved to be "represented" once again, despite all evidence to the contrary. Join us. Join us as the Man of Steel dies and with him, our tomorrows. We may yet see them reborn. Welcome to season three of Collective Action Comics. ---------- Email: collectiveactioncomics@gmail.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/collectiveactioncomics Twitter: https://twitter.com/CAComixPod Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/collectiveactioncomics

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 audio, it's explained in the intro. Please feel free to write in making fun of me for being an absent minded doofus.** Find the slide deck here: https://tinyurl.com/revolutionaryslideshow ---------- Find everyone here: Alec Robbins: http://alec.land/ Iggy Craig: https://iggy.zone/ Mariah-Rose Marie: https://www.mariah-rose.com/ Julio Anta: https://www.julioanta.com/ Jacoby Salcedo: https://www.jacobysalcedoart.com/ Cartoonist Coop: https://cartoonist.coop/ That Distant Fire: https://www.thatdistantfire.com/ ---------- Email: collectiveactioncomics@gmail.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/collectiveactioncomics Twitter: https://twitter.com/CAComixPod Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/collectiveactioncomics

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 Patreon! https://x.com/WirecatsComic https://www.instagram.com/wirecatspresents/ https://globalcomix.com/a/wirecats-presents https://linktr.ee/neilkapit ---------- Email: collectiveactioncomics@gmail.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/collectiveactioncomics Twitter: https://twitter.com/CAComixPod Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/collectiveactioncomics

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: collectiveactioncomics@gmail.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/collectiveactioncomics Twitter: https://twitter.com/CAComixPod Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/collectiveactioncomics

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 APOLOGIES FOR THE AUDIO QUALITY. Nat was trying something new, and boy howdy did it not work. https://screenrant.com/author/shaun-corley/ https://www.instagram.com/corleyontheshore/ ---------- Email: collectiveactioncomics@gmail.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/collectiveactioncomics Twitter: https://twitter.com/CAComixPod Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/collectiveactioncomics

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/collectiveactioncomics Twitter: https://twitter.com/CAComixPod

From oil fields to poppy fields to killing fields, the United States lays claim upon the world. 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 can do better. We can do better. We will. (This season owes love and gratitude to Lawrence Ferlinghetti, without whom poetry would be incomplete.) ---------- Email: collectiveactioncomics@gmail.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/collectiveactioncomics Twitter: https://twitter.com/CAComixPod

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! https://pod.link/1618791941 ---------- Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/collectiveactioncomics Email: collectiveactioncomics@gmail.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/collectiveactioncomics Twitter: https://twitter.com/CAComixPod

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. Obviously, this isn't the truth. But, hey, you certainly wouldn't know it from this issue. And, yes. It's the one with Captain America doing that thing you've heard about. ---------- Email: collectiveactioncomics@gmail.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/collectiveactioncomics Twitter: https://twitter.com/CAComixPod

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://benmaxbecker.com/ Buy Paper Medicine! https://benmaxbecker.com/shop Volunteer with the Cartoonist Cooperative! https://cartoonist.coop/

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/collectiveactioncomics Twitter: https://twitter.com/CAComixPod

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/collectiveactioncomics Twitter: https://twitter.com/CAComixPod

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 - Elton John and a (not mentioned) John Wayne reference! ---------- Email: collectiveactioncomics@gmail.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/collectiveactioncomics Twitter: https://twitter.com/CAComixPod

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, 2020, not 2021 as was stated in the episode. I'm a doofus who likes to type dates wrong and then read them that way on the air. Thank you. ---------- Email: collectiveactioncomics@gmail.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/collectiveactioncomics/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/CAComixPod

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/CAComixPod Email: collectiveactioncomics@gmail.com

CW: Discussions of assault Between commodifying relationships and driving the need for imperial expansion, capitalism sure has done a number on this world. While all workers are victims of it, there are those upon whom the blows fall more heavily. Concurrently, there are those who, by the very nature of capitalist occlusion (and exclusion), are either bribed or hoodwinked into being foot soldiers for their own and others' oppression. We can be more. We can be just and loving. A better world starts with us. Specifically, with us not reading Mark Millar. ---------- https://www.instagram.com/collectiveactioncomics/ https://twitter.com/CAComixPod collectiveactioncomics@gmail.com

Found on 1/25/23 Is this a message? A warning? Who left this for us? If you have any information regarding the whereabouts of the subject of the recording, please email collectiveactioncomics@gmail.com. Solidarity.

[Heads up for this one: The intro contains a real 911 call that some might find disturbing. I certainly did.] Do you have an adequate support structure in times of crisis? Beyond your family or your personal savings (if you've even got any)? Social safety nets are being taken from us every day. Some more rapidly and violently than others. This is deliberate and nefarious, but it can't begin to compare to the suffering caused when our leaders export these systems of exploitation. Here we see the Hulk doing George Bush Jr.'s work for him, and I'm sure SHIELD and the rest of the US military are happy to go along with it. ---------- Follow the show's instagram: https://www.instagram.com/collectiveactioncomics/ Follow the show's twitter: https://twitter.com/cacomixpod Support the show on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/collectiveactioncomics

In the corporate-funded presentation of politics, the actions of a "destined" few among the "everyday" many are highlighted and made to seem necessary and inevitable. This is reinforced by an entertainment industry that delivers these narratives in flashy and convincing ways. This trope of the "heroes" being removed from or above the masses serves only those currently benefitting from our belief in it. Further, any "hero" speaking truth to those in power can be undercut in so many ways, and can never properly represent us. *We* are the only ones who can save the world. (Ultimate Celebrity Sighting Count: 13) Follow the show here: https://twitter.com/cacomixpod https://www.instagram.com/collectiveactioncomics/

Things are being taken from us. Even many who have been systemically shielded from the violence of this decay are beginning to notice. What is there to do about this rot from the right? Who can save us from it? Don't go looking to the Ultimates for answers. (Ultimate Celebrity Sighting Count: 3) Follow the show here: https://twitter.com/cacomixpod https://www.instagram.com/collectiveactioncomics/

People deserve heroes. People deserve aspirational stories. People also deserve the truth. All time and forever. In this episode, we discuss the modern myth making of the Bush administration and its complicit media and how this may have manifested itself in the Ultimates - a cinematic trudge through the mud of nationalism and the lionization of the US response to terrorism. (Ultimate Celebrity Sighting Count: 2) Follow the show here: https://twitter.com/cacomixpod https://www.instagram.com/collectiveactioncomics/

Broke my dang microphone.

It's a brand new season here at Collective Action Comics! Last time, we cringed as Ronald Reagan molded the world for a capitalistic and mean-spirited Justice League to thrive in. Now, we must stare horrified into the storm of war. New York has been attacked. An oil-rich scapegoat has been chosen. All that's left is for George W. Bush to whip the country into a frenzy of bloodlust, and he knows just the costumed heroes for the job... ------------------------------------ Be sure to follow the show at https://www.instagram.com/collectiveactioncomics/ or https://twitter.com/cacomixpod

Setup: What do cannabis and kryptonite have in common? Punchline: Comics publishers and US Presidents have no idea what they actually do to people. Today we sit down with senior staff writer for ScreenRant Shaun Corley( https://twitter.com/CorleyonthShore )as he hits some key notes on the history of superhero comics and their often antagonistic relationship with illicit drugs and their subsequently cozy partnership with US law enforcement propaganda. You can find Shaun's interview with comics creator Zack Kaplan here: https://screenrant.com/metal-society-zack-kaplan-new-scifi-comic-robots/

As an idea, Superheroes are inherently right wing - at least in some regards and with only a cursory investigation. Foremost recipient of this criticism is Batman, and generally rightly so. But is there more to him than the surface-level misuse of capital? The Black Casebook is in the studio with CAC to present Batman as the shifting reflection of many philosophies and many, MANY personal masks.

In this bonus episode, we get to hear from J.R. Hughto and Curt Merlo, the creative team behind the fantastic dystopian sci-fi comic "That Distant Fire." We sit down to talk about comics, corporate crunch, and the crafting of a conscious narrative. I also have the pleasure and privilege of making a special announcement for the comic! As promised in the episode, here's a link to sign up for Black Eye Books' newsletter. https://www.blackeye.ca/ Go ahead and add your name there and follow them on Instagram!

Are things really as bad as they seem? No. They're so much worse. In this season finale, we conclude our deep dive into power and influence. We see how the Reagan era truly marks the point of no return for the capitalist world. We'll learn just why we're made to believe that other countries are evil, despite the United States doing everything it accuses our "official" enemies of and far more. Our travels this season have taken us from New York (or possibly Gotham or Metropolis?) to the Middle East to Russia to a small Vermont town with one weirdly prominent cinema marquis and back again. Oh and also we're going to space in this one. They've also taken us through electoral politics, international warmongering, the militarization of the police, and ultimately the complete handover of power from the people to corporations. Not to mention the complicity of for-profit media in normalizing all this unspeakable horror. We've seen this all through the dirty, broken window into the era that is the Justice League of J.M. DeMatteis and Keith Giffen. We could not have asked for a better example of the toxic effect right-wing politics has on even the most "liberal" outlets of pop culture and, eventually, on the most fundamental aspects of our lives. Thank you for joining along the way. We couldn't have done it without you.

You filthy animals can get the rest if you subscribe to the Patreon!

What makes a country "free?" Is it the right to do whatever you want all the time? Some of the time? Within reason? The United States fails to meet any of these arbitrary qualitative plateaus. Is it the right to food? to housing? to basic dignity? The US is lightyears from approaching this definition. Is it the right to be physically subdued by a mind controlled child of unspeakable magical power? Because the US is a nation under the thrall of big business, that's the closest to the truth, unfortunately. ***LINKS TO ACTIVIST ORGS TO FIGHT LA MUNICIPAL CODE 41.18*** --- https://nolympicsla.com/ --- https://streetwatchla.com/ --- https://cangress.org/ (LA CAN) --- https://ktownforall.org/ --- https://dsa-la.org/ --- https://www.pslweb.org/

Y'ever get the feeling you're just screaming into the void? Have you ever felt like you can only ever express your dissatisfaction by breaking something? Or possibly by performing an ancient ritual to give you an all-seeing eye and the power to shape reality? Your feelings are valid! In this episode, we tackle the idea of the utility of rage and protest, and (importantly) we cover why anger isn't just useful but is also very often *necessary.* Also there's some magic and some punching and a child gets his feelings hurt. The Justice League, baby! Head's up - there's BIG content warning on this one for police violence. Check out the show's instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/collectiveactioncomicspodcast/ Our much less active Twitter account (we really should get on that) here: https://twitter.com/ColComix/ Send us comics you like or hate, and we'll find a way to relate them to radical politics somehow!

So you want to be a billionaire. That's gonna cost you. But not really. In fact, you'll make money just for having money! And then you'll make even more money by stealing from the labor of everyone who works for you. But where are you going to put this money? Who's going to keep an eye on it for you? What are you going to do to the people who try to take their lives back? Congratulations! You've just become a S U P E R V I L L A I N [This week, we're tackling issue #4 of our seven-issue Justice League miniseries. It's a trip.]

It's pretty convenient that all of the enemies of the United States happen to be very strong and also very weak at the same time, right? It's also pretty cool that they're definitely not normal people like we are, because they all like the same things and have no opinions, agency, or autonomy. Or is that...us? In this episode, your host discusses some primo examples of American media flailing between panic and patronizing "our" most hated enemy and how the Justice League of the 1980's and its readers were the trickle-down victims of that dissonance. There's also some sweet-ass missiles.

Long-term nuclear warnings substantially lose their sting when you consider that this Justice League series might be around for the rest of human history. Speaking of history...we do just that in this episode. We're trotting out the worst villains of all time - Saddam Hussein, the East India Company, and of course, the New York Times.

On this first episode of the pod, your host gibbers and howls about how neoliberal alienation resulted in a very bad superhero team and some even worse jokes.