Election Day: Prez has clearly confused clocks with calendars

from Prez (1973 series) #1 (DC, August 1973), script by Joe Simon, pencils and inks by Jerry Grandenetti, letters by Joe Rosen
Why, the answer to that is simple, Prez...just ask Batgirl!

365 Days of Defiance, Day 112: Females are strong as hell / Unbreakable!

Hey, I'm only a little stuffed bull age 6 years and 9 months (which is a very good age and three-quarters to be), but even I know that access to birth control is an essential and important right for women (and hey, for men too) in America today. So to insists the Prez-ident of the United States, Beth Ross, the Commander-in-Chief you and me and everybody in America voted for in 2016. (sob)


Panels from the Prez story "Trigger Warnings" in Catwoman: Election Night one-shot (January 2017), script by Mark Russell, pencils by= Ben Caldwell, inks by Mark Morales, colors by Jeremy Lawson, letters by Travis Lanham
Just to prove that despite having a progressively minded teenage girl in the Oval Office in this wonderful fictional universe, birth control is under attack by the US Senate because we can't have nice things. Nice things like an easy-to-access and fun-to-eat minty birth-control called "Mintopause." Heck, I('m a boy, stuffed, and only six, and I'd eat 'em.


Because a capable Prez can handle more than just one issue on her plate at the same time and yet still only ask for one scoop of ice cream, Beth is also introducing anti-gun violence legislature. Since she can't stop the sales of guns due to modern people somehow needing to have a not actually-that-well-regulated militia, Prez introduces legislation to restrict sales of ammunition. Because it's not people with guns who kill people, it's people with guns + ammunition who kill people! Of course, her proposal is gonna get vetoed by Congress faster than Superman on laundry day. Wait, I forgot to include the word "folded."


But Prez (of course in this wonderful, sweet, fictional universe), has an ace up the sleeve of her sleeveless top. If the sale of and easy access to bullets or any accessory that can be used in the discharge of a firearm (important distinction there) are federally protected by the Constitution, then what shape would you make birth control in?


Later, Prez met the Pope and everybody smiled and had a good meeting.

365 Days of Defiance, Day 51: The Last Temptation of Prez Rickard

As William Howard Taft, one of our belovedest and roly-polyest Presidents would say: "Hey hey hey, It's Presidents' Day!" And it is*! You can't sneak much past President Taft, not even a bathtub.

That's why we're gathered here today to salute America's Greatest President (sit down, James K. Polk): Prez Rickard!


Panels from Sandman (1989 series) #54 (October 1993), script by Neil Gaiman, pencils and inks by Michael Allred, colors by Daniel Vozzo, letters by Todd Klein
The religious allegories are pretty obvious even in the DC Universe where Superman has been known to stretch out his arms when hovering and Mxyzptlk frequently turns lemonade into Grapefruit Kryptonite. Prez is brought out to the wasteland and tempted, not with the usual comic-book rewards of fame and power...oh, wait, I've made another one of my silly mistakes. He's tempted with exactly fame and power.


And in a dream...or maybe something more like true waking...he conversates with the Little President Who Thought He Could, Richard M. Nixon, trying to convince our pajamaless protagonist that the best creed you can folliow in the White House is every man for himself. (SHAMELESS CROSS-WEBSITE PROMOTIONAL PLUG: Don't forget to check out my article on 13th Dimension for a rundown of the 13 faces of Richard Nixon in Comics! Don't worry, we'll wipe the tapes after you've been there.)


But that's not the way Prez rolls. (Prez Rolls, available at your local supermarket on the specialty breads shelf, new from Staff Bread!) Mind you, it's not that hard to resist Slimy Temptation by Tricky Dick, but I think even you and I might be seduced by the mouthwatering promise of being that one guy who could go to China. No, Prez is in this game we call politics for exactly one thing: everybody else in the United States of America.


And yes, it's truly a better world, pretty close to ours but only a slight vibratory dimension and one good man away. Look, he even saved John Belushi! (Celebrity in a Comic Book, folks!)


And his reward for it all? Well, in the end he gets exactly what we all get: he gets a lifetime.


Wait! One last act of defiance against the expectations of a President. When he discovers his temptor Boss Smiley is in charge "upstairs," Prez (with a little help from that crazy candy-colored clown called the Sandman) chooses another place, another path. Or, to paraphrase General John Stark (no relation to Tony) of New Hampshire: Die free, and live.


'Coz all Prez ever wanted to do was fix things so they ran right.


May we all make the same choice. May our Presidents and Prime Ministers and Premiers and Kings and leaders around the world and throughout the future ever strive to fix things. For all of us. For the dream.

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* Offer not valid if you're reading this on not Presidents' Day, or indeed, if I forget to post it on President's Day.

365 Days of DC House Ads, Day 261: Our Nation's 34½th President

House ad for Prez #3 (December 1973-January 1974); printed in Forbidden Tales of Dark Mansion #14 (December 1973-January 1974)
Ad art taken from the cover:


Cover of Prez #3 (December 1973-January 1974); pencils and inks by Jerry Grandenetti