Okla. Politician Mails Harsh Comic to Voters

Van Jensen

Van Jensen is a former crime reporter turned comic book writer. In addition to ComicMix, he contributes to Publishers Weekly and Comic Book Resources. He lives in Atlanta, and his blog can be found at graphicfiction.wordpress.com.

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3 Responses

    • Russ Rogers says:

      Rock on Van's new best buddy Jack Chic!Wow, that Brent Rinehart is sure scared of them homosexuals! Let's hope Mr. Reinhart is a better commissioner than a comics publisher. Shane Suiter gets credit for the art. He signed his name to it!

  1. Anonymous says:

    The comic book is hilarious, and I myself have had several hours of chortling over it.But I am also from Oklahoma City – and I can tell you that this does NOT represent the worldview of the vast majority of Oklahomans or Republicans – as evidenced by the many quotes from Oklahoma public officials (many Republicans) and academics who rightly condemn Rinehart. The Oklahoman, OKC's flagship newspaper, condemned the comic book in a scathing editorial this week.Rinehart is a mentally-disturbed narcissist with a penchant for pencil mustaches and corruption, and his (few) supporters are very unbalanced people. He is not indicative of Oklahoma City – any more than the nutty Dallas County Commissioner in Texas who accused a person who used the term "black hole" of being racist is indicative of Texas.Oklahoma City is a thriving metroplex of more than a million people (named by Forbes as among the top 10 recession proof cities, while a suburb, Norman, was named the 6th best small city in America by Money Magazine last week).I also hope that those with an axe to grind against Christianity will not somehow take this comic book as indicative of a Christian worldview. Frankly, that’s like shooting fish in a barrel. This is a theologically-bankrupt work, if I may put it bluntly. Christians do not believe in a little midget-man Satan with a pitch fork, nor in malnourished angels with magic wands – any more than we believe heaven is filled with angels playing harps (see C.S. Lewis for a better explication of this). That’s a caricature of a caricature of a caricature. Nor do the vast majority of Christians spend their lives looking for a "homosexual conspiracy" everywhere. If you’re an atheist, and wish to dispute Christianity, I would not use this comic book for the foundation of your arguments. It is not at all a representation of Christian beliefs – but is instead the product of a diseased mind.One aspect of this “comic book” requires a little background – the references to “liberal good ol’ boys”: You should know that the Oklahoma was controlled by a one-party corrupt Democratic machine for its first century (the state just celebrated the centennial). This only has recently changed, but Rinehart is playing on old superstitions about corrupt Democrats who ran the state for so long – and literally almost ran the state into the ground because of THEIR culture of corruption.