Does he read them under the covers?
This 50 facts about Obama article has spurred considerable hopes that the incoming US president might, at last, be the one to truly represent a long-oppressed minority in the White House. Eight simple words that spell hope for the world:
He collects Spider-Man and Conan the Barbarian comics.
Note the use of the present tense. While it’s a well known fact that young Barack was an avid comic book reader, and certainly no stranger to superhero imagery on the campaign trail, this one verb would have us believe that he still keeps a long box, or perhaps some trendy graphic novels, in his reading pile. Something like, CONAN: BORN ON THE BATTLEFIELD by Kurt Busiek and Greg Ruth, maybe? Or maybe he’s more of a Bendis fan?
We’ll leave the parsing of this particular truth to others. What with administrative transitions, and global recession and nukes in Iran, he’s got a lot on his plate, and to expect him to weigh in on the Clone Saga is just a bit much. Frankly we found this factoid just as interesting.
He has read every Harry Potter book
Maybe the president-elect is just, you know, kind of a nerd.
Developing?
11/12/08 at 8:23 am
He has read every Harry Potter book
According to an interview with Mrs. Obama, he read them to his daughters.
11/12/08 at 9:02 am
The librarian/bookseller inside is jumping up and down and clapping his hands in joy! It is never too early to read to your child, toddler, or baby.
My inner fanboy? It’s cool. Clinton was a comicbook reader as well. Reagan was a fan of comic strips. Eisenhower hosted the National Cartoonist Society.
But if you see a gang of Klingons at San Diego wearing earpieces, and one is a bit skinny for a Klingon…
11/12/08 at 9:42 am
Is it too early to say BEST PRESIDENT EVER?
11/12/08 at 9:44 am
A bit?
11/12/08 at 9:57 am
Is it too much to ask that Obama repeals both the Patriot Act and “Brand New Day” in his first 100 days in office?
Fingers crossed.
11/12/08 at 10:31 am
“Maybe the president-elect is just, you know, kind of a nerd.”
From Newsweek’s recent multi-part “Secrets Of The 2008 Campaign” (
http://www.newsweek.com/id/167581):
“That’s an interesting belt buckle,” he said to Michelle, mischievously. She feigned offense and said, “I am interesting, next to you. Surprise, surprise, a blue suit, a white shirt and a tie.” Obama grinned and bent down until he was almost at eye level with her waist. He jabbed a playful finger toward her belt buckle, and let loose his inner nerd. “The lithium crystals! Beam me up, Scotty!” Obama squeaked, laughing at his own lame joke as Michelle rolled her eyes.
11/12/08 at 10:46 am
Looks like he’s a cartoonist too:
http://www.pioneerlocal.com/glenview/news/1273112,gv-doodle-111108-s1.article
11/12/08 at 10:49 am
oh, and check out the X-files connection in the article too
11/12/08 at 11:38 am
Yeah, in the half-hour infomercial, Michelle mentioned that Barack read all seven HP books to Malia… but that was still awesome because it was like “yeah we’re telling the whole country we read those satan witch evil demon books to our kids, and we’re still going to win.”
11/12/08 at 12:02 pm
As a former Spider-Man and Conan artist, my unbiased opinion is that he’s the bestest president- elect ever.
11/12/08 at 12:22 pm
I’ll trade some of my original Power of Shazam! art for a Barack sketch!
(I wonder if he’d go for that?)
11/12/08 at 12:55 pm
Well, I wouldn’t be surprised if he read Potter to be a good dad. It’s still fine, but it’s less compelling.
That said,
The thought of a long box of his own stuff in the White House bedroom, though… that’s just a little too badass. Wouldn’t it be great if Secret Service agents showed up at Big Planet - Georgetown every Wednesday?
@Charles Skaggs. The “repeal Brand New Day” joke was pretty sweet.
11/12/08 at 1:28 pm
Someone should call all the comic shops in Chicago and ask if he had a pull list there.
11/12/08 at 3:11 pm
He collects Spider-Man and Conan the Barbarian comics…. He has read every Harry Potter book.
?? ONE OF US! ONE OF US!! ONE OF US!!!
But I’d like to know what’s the President-Elect’s position on the ‘Squid/No Squid’ WATCHMEN imbroglio…
And if he prefers STAR TREK over STAR WARS…
And if he was cool in making “Starbucks” a girl…
And if he thought they should bring back Lex Luthor AGAIN as the bad guy for the next SUPERMAN film…
And does he read ANY Warren Ellis…
And which was his favorite DOCTOR…
And: EVERQUEST or WORLD OF WARCRAFT…
Etc. etc. etc.
11/12/08 at 5:13 pm
If I were President, I would have the Library of Congress deliver the various copyright deposits each week, along with selected items from the collection (which includes visual and sound recordings).
As President, he is able to screen movies before they are released, thanks to the Motion Picture Association of America. (Before he was head of the MPAA, Jack Valenti was a special assistant to LBJ.)
As for storing long boxes, the Third Floor residence has space. The Solarium (and outside Promenade) are nice places to relax with a book, with a fantastic view of the Washington Monument and the Jefferson Memorial.
If curious, whitehousemuseum dot org has lots of floor plans and photos of the entire complex. (Pretty nice digs… bowling alley, movie theater, basketball, tennis court, putting green…)
11/12/08 at 6:16 pm
…and thank god it’s C - and not a bunch of Image shit!
11/12/08 at 8:55 pm
>
Clinton was a comics reader as a kid, in a speach he made reference to having to sell his comics collection as a kid. I don’t think he was reading them while he was in office, at least I’ve never seen any reference to him doing so.
Reagan’s favorate comic strip was Spider-Man, believe it or not, he said in more then one interview that the first thing he did in the morning was read that days installment of Spidey, he even wrote Stan a fan letter, (how frigging cool is that), Stan mentioned it in an interview sometime in the 80’s. No word on wheter he ever read the comics.
FDR was also a fan of the comics, there are pictures of him reading comic strips to kids, and one picture of him holding a Superman comic with a big smile on his face. A famous story has FDR calling a newspaper to find out how Dick Tracy was going to escape from the bad guys latest and greatest deathtrap because he simply couldn’t wait till the next installment. (Talk about being a fanboy).
The president elect is just the latest in a line of comics reading presidents and yes that is freaking cool.
11/14/08 at 12:55 pm
It all finally comes together: Barack Obama ran for President so he could get access to the original art to AMAZING FANTASY #15 that is now in the possession of the Library of Congress.
Or maybe he was the “anonymous donor”???
11/14/08 at 2:19 pm
[…] Obama is a comic book collector. If you knew that before the election would you still have voted for him? I can’t help but think of the episode of 30 Rock where Jack is trying to become the CEO of NBC/GE and Steve Buscemi finds out about his cookie jar collection. This is bad Jack, very, very bad. […]
11/15/08 at 1:22 pm
i’d suggest adding “ex-machina” to his pull list…that title should resonate…
12/7/08 at 9:25 am
[…] Nerd is the new cool again. posted by buzzman at 1:23 PM on December 6 [1 favorite] dydecker writes "Uh, this post isn’t about about how cool he is. It’s about how much of a nerd he is." Sorry, to me, they’re synonyms. And to most of metafilter, too. posted by orthogonality at 1:40 PM on December 6 He collects Spider-Man comics. >>Obama: Bad for DC, Bad for America. He also collects Conan comics. I mean, collecting Spider-Man is kinda nerdy; collecting Conan is fucking awesome. At last, a president who knows what is best in life. posted by kittens for breakfast at 2:48 PM on December 6 [1 favorite] Really good news: Shinseki to be named VA secretary posted by EarBucket at 3:09 PM on December 6 Sorry, to me, they’re synonyms. And to most of metafilter, too. Yeah, I have noticed this. Actually a few years ago the site was much less this way, would you believe. posted by dydecker at 3:37 PM on December 6 Obama is too smart to be another Jimmy Carter. Nobody that is this wired in (and educated/educator) is going to crash the nation by slashing the military, nucular and coal, destructing the far right, and ramping up taxes on those that employ. How exactly would "destructing the far right" crash the nation? Seems like the far right has done a pretty good job of that. And by the way, the idea that we shouldn’t raise taxes on "those that employ" is ridiculous. Obama was going to raise income taxes (on those making more then $250k a year), not taxes on companies that employ. I realize that many republicans believe that giving more money to the wealthy creates jobs, but they are wrong. Just like they were wrong about Iraq, wrong about regulating wallstreet, and just wrong about a lot of things. posted by delmoi at 4:01 PM on December 6 [1 favorite] MetaFilter: If this doesn’t impress you, chances are you also think puppies are "poo machines" and rainbows are cloud vomit or something. Letting Lieberman off the hook and appointing Hillary to State suggests compromise with the business-as-usual crowd… Hillary had to agree to a laundry list of items to be *allowed* to work at State, including keeping Bill on a short leash. We don’t know what Lieberman had to agree to, but we do know Lieberman and Obama met prior to his retaining his chair. That suggests Obama is keeping his political capital dry for something that really affects the American people, rather than payback. (I would desperately have loved to see Lieberman demoted to Senate Page too, but let’s face it–it isn’t the top priority.) posted by DU at 5:01 PM on December 6 Orthogonality, I’m with you in spirit, but Obama’s facing the Realpolitik constraint of too many ticking time bombs. He needs the people who’ve got power and connections now, he doesn’t have time to build an effective political machine solely from outsiders and the marginalized. If he tried that he’d turn into Carter: Well meaning, well-liked, smart as hell, and ultimately ineffective and cast by history in the role of a failure even if it’s not altogether deserved. Obama is in a position to get the people who currently control a lot of political machinery invested in his success rather than hoping for him to falter, and he’s got assloads of political capital to whip them into doing it. If they’re on his team, they’re doing what he tells them. If he left them outside, they’d be fucking with him, trying to redistribute the wealth of that capital so some of it falls on themselves. They’d be watching him for the slightest slip and then trying to turn him into a failure. Maybe not today or in the first six months of his Presidency when he’s still too strong to mess with, but they’d be working on it and they wouldn’t miss a trick. It’s the bit about camels and tents, really. posted by George_Spiggott at 5:58 PM on December 6 [1 favorite] Marisa Stole the Precious Thing: "If this doesn’t impress you, chances are you also think puppies are "poo machines" and rainbows are cloud vomit or something." Well, there’s optimism versus realism there, ne? I just fostered a litter of 6 puppies. They were cute as hell, but OH MY FUCKING GOD!!! THE POO!!! They literally* painted the floor of their 20 foot square space daily. I think there’s room for both "Hey these politicians seem to be doing things right", and "These politicians are poo machines". *literally literally, not figuratively literally. posted by team lowkey at 6:24 PM on December 6 [2 favorites] this hero-worship circle jerk is just tired That seems a little extreme. I can celebrate a positive change without being a hero-worshiping circle jerker. posted by diogenes at 6:50 PM on December 6 A 1970 prophecy? posted by arzakh at 8:58 PM on December 6 I need to dig up the Sarah Vowell essay (I think it’s in Partly Cloudy Patriot, but could be wrong) that somehow correlates Buffy with the Gore presidential campaign, and examines the position and social cachet (or lack thereof) of nerdiness. She says what I’m thinking better than I ever could, as usual. There is a lot of pop culture giddiness about Obama, running in hopeful, gleeful counterpoint to the nerve-wracking slog of work he, and whoever he appoints, will have to do to get the country working properly. Universal health care would be nice. posted by SaharaRose at 10:14 PM on December 6 [1 favorite] Not so fast — I hear he’s a Zune user. posted by mattholomew at 4:04 AM on December 7 Obama is too smart to be another Jimmy Carter. But I want to see solar panels on the White House roof. And go metric system! posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 5:32 AM on December 7 Obama is too smart to be another Jimmy Carter. Jimmy Carter was seemingly too smart to be Jimmy Carter as well. posted by mattholomew at 5:56 AM on December 7 […]
01/5/09 at 4:35 pm
[…] Interessante Tatsache: Das ist irgendwie ja sogar typisch amerikanisch (zumindest wenn man Hollywood oder Marvel und DC glauben darf), das Gesetz selbst in die Hand zu nehmen, wenn es die Regierung nicht auf die Reihe bekommt. Eine feine Ironie, die bei der Bush-Regierung nie angekommen ist. Aber vielleicht erkennt das ja der neue Geek-Präsident und kann daraus rechtzeitig die notwendigen Schlüsse ziehen. Wenn es in Gotham eine ordentliche Polizei gegeben hätte, gäbe es keinen Batman. Und wenn Obama den Israelis mal ordentlich auf die Finger klopft, gibt es gleich weniger Terroristen. Wäre mal eine Überlegung wert. […]