Presidents in Comic Books #1: George Washington

Happy President's Day to all you proud Americans out there, everybody from Toby Keith to Sam the Eagle. And that means us too: the guys (and gals) with blood that runs red...and white and blue. Whoa, something's wrong with your med chart there. Better have those tests taken over again. Don't look at the needle, and this won't hurt a bit...

I sure hope you've been able to exercise your American-given right to stay home today, enjoy not getting any mail and watching the Turner Classic Movie marathon of movies about presidents: George Washington Slept Here, Young Abe Lincoln, All the President's Men and Jet-Pack Franklin Pierce. Me, I've been reading and researching at my local library to learn more about the Presidents of the United States. Well, according to all my sources, they're a three-piece alt-rock band best known for the song "Cleveland Rocks," used as the second theme song of the popular 1990s sitcom The Drew Carey Show. Let's watch, shall we?



Exciting, exciting stuff, huh?

Well, I've just been handed a note by my brainy sister Marshall, who tells me I'm supposed to be talking about the actual Presidents of the United States, the guys (and gals) who have run our country through hard times, through war, through depression, and, occasionally, straight into the ground. And since I don't have any reference materials here with me, I'll have to rely on the basic text source for all my information: comic books.

All this week I'll be bringing you a selected history of Presidents in Comic Books. Now I'm not talking about those Presidents who only exist on comic book earths:



Not talkin' 'bout those. Not even this one, who would be the most awesome POTUS of all:



Nope! Cool as they are, let's stick to the Prezzies we already know and, with a few exceptions, love. And before you comment in that little commenty-thing down there...no, don't go there yet, finish reading the dang post first, people!...these posts are gonna be by no means completist. They're favored towards my collection in hand already (much more Marvel than DC), and we're not counting those edu-tational comic book biographies of Presidents or great statesmen or guys who killed themselves a b'ar when they were only three. (What? He wasn't elected President? Well, he shoulda been). And, of course, since every President didn't have a starring role in comic books, we'll be skipping quite a streak up them until we get around the twentieth century. Of course I just know there's someone out there who's been keeping a checklist of all the comic book appearances of Andrew Jackson on his blog Old Hickory Highlights, but hey! If he didn't meet Superman, Captain America, or Mickey Mouse, he don't count.

And taking it right from the beginning...I think you know where I'm going to start here...going way back in our history, let's take a look at our first President...Fred Flintstone George Washington!



Did you know: George Washington, along with Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, and a time-traveling housecat, was one of the members of the first Fantastic Four? Well, you shouldn't know that, coz it ain't true. What is true is that Reed Richards and Johnny Storm, sent back in time by the Watcher or maybe Al Calavicci, met the Father of our Country and palled around with him for a while. At long last, we can understand the cryptic references to George Washington's teeth burning down.


Panels from Giant-Size Fantastic Four #2 (August 1974), script by Gerry Conway, layouts by John Buscema, finishes and inks by Chic Stone, colors by Stan Goldberg, letters by Joe Rosen



George Washington met the FF? Haw, who's he gonna meet next, Jean-Luc Picard?.......oh, I was close.


Panels from Star Trek (Gold Key) #9 (February 1971), script by Len Wein, pencils by Alberto Giolitti, inks by Giovanni Ticci



Later, George Washington was heard to call: "Help me, Kirk! Help me!" Oh, wait, maybe I'm thinkin' of somebody else. What Washington actually said was:



Whoa, Space Washington! Makin' time with Helen of Troy! Who's to say this George Washington isn't the smarter one in any universe?



Now, this space right here? This is where I'd put a scan from The Incredible Hercules #124 which features the team-up of George Washington and the mythical Titan Atlas! Your eyes cannot prepare you for this spectacle, the likes of which you have never seen before! And that's mainly because I've momentarily replaced my copy of this and didn't find it in time to be scanned. But you can picture it, right? (I'll try and have it up for you tomorrow, folks!) Here, let me reserve the space right now:

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EDIT: Oh, hey, look, here it is!:


Page from Incredible Hercules (February 2009), script by Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente, pencils by Clayton Henry, inks by Salva Espin, colors by Raúl Trevino, Guru eFX, and Lee Roughridge, letters by Chris Eliopoulos

A Presidential pardon thank you to Marvelous Mark Hale for helping with the scan! Thanks, Mark! (Chris Sims helped too, but like he needs more publicity.)

Oh, all right.

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Now, you might haveta squint a little bit at this next one, but I'm pretty sure Washington's in there somewhere:


Panels from Action Comics Annual #6 (1994), script, pencils, inks, colors, lettering by John Byrne

Whoa, Johnny boy! We know ya love Superman, but having him lynch the entire group of Founding Fathers? Now that's just harsh. To be fair, that's not really Kal-El but his great-great-great-great-great-great-great-(inhale)-great-grandfather, and this is an Elseworlds story. You know those, right? As it says on the back of every DC Elseworlds volume, "heroes are taken from their usual settings and put into strange times and places—some that have existed, and others that can't, couldn't or shouldn't exist, and some a Kryptonian carts away the guys who were going to sign the Declaration of Independence and hangs 'em high. Also, Batman is a Mountie.".

And you know, if you wanna check off President #2, President #3, and President #4 from our list, I'm pretty sure John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison are danglin' up there, too. The plump one with spectacles? That'll be Ben Franklin.



Aside from that, I didn't find many appearances of our next batch of POTUSes...POTI?...in comic book. Captain "The Captain" America refers to John Adams in this scene from Cap #244...


Panel from Captain America #344 (August 1988), script by Mark Gruenwald, pencils by Kieron Dwyer, inks by Al Milgrom, colors by Bob Sharen, letters by Joe Rosen



And to close, never forget that George met this guy:


Cover of Herbie #1 (April-May 1964), art by Ogden Whitney


Join us tomorrow for another exciting installment of Presidents in Comic Books! And don't go choppin' down no cherry trees!