Leftists Create January 6th Propaganda
Originally posted to Thinkspot on January 20, 2024. The original article had excepts from the book posted throughout.
Art has had an association with social commentary almost as long as it has existed. The problem with modern artists, be they traditional artists, writers or comedians, is that they don’t know how to address issues with anything less than a sledge hammer.
You can express your political opinion through art, but the art must come first. If you base your joke, story or painting around your message, it’s like trying to shove a hexagonal peg in a square hole. It just doesn’t work.
If anything proves this, it is 1/ 6.
1/ 6 is a hyper-tribal comic book about the Capitol riots on January 6, 2021. Even the name of the book is awkward and off-putting.
I wasn’t aware of this comic until a friend showed me the copy that was sent to his store. It’s a crowdfunded comic book aiming to reinforce an already indoctrinated far Left audience, as well as to get them mobilized and take action. It literally says that in the comic book. (I’m obviously paraphrasing.)
This is the synopsis by the creators.
“Comic books have a long, proud history of tackling social issues head on, and finding imaginative ways to make complex issues easily accessible. As the nation awaits the final report from the January 6th Committee, a provocative new graphic novel by a unique team of creators asks and answers the question: What if the Insurrection had been successful? 1/6 is a graphic novel written by Alan Jenkins and Gan Golan, imagining an alternate history where the January 6th attack on the US Capitol achieved its goals and violently overturned the election.”
1/ 6 is almost a competent book. The art is solid. The story isn’t boring. But it’s all a waste, because the intention of the creative team is not to entertain you or anyone. They simply want to remind you, over and over and over and over that the people at the Capitol that day are blood thirsty Nazis trying to kill you.
The focus is never on storytelling.
Throughout this first issue, we are introduced to multiple characters. Who are they? I don’t remember. They aren’t characters, so much as cogs meant to move the book forward.
They live in a dystopia that is littered with white supremacist iconography. Their world is filled with fear, pain and most of all hate. Their world, we are assured, is just a few degrees to the Right of the one we live in. A world that could still come to pass!
You’re supposed to empathize with these poor, innocent people.
And yet I couldn’t. I have no idea who these characters are or what their lives are like.
The first couple of pages feature a black woman standing on the rooftop of a building, like she’s Batman. Who is she? Don’t know. We’re never told. She’s leaving a message for her children and it is implied that she is about to do something big and dangerous, but that she would be sacrificing herself for her children’s future. What was she going to do? Don’t know. We’re never told. And we don’t see her again until the end of the book. The only thing she does is destroy a drone that was pumping out Trump phrases like “bigly”.
Later we’re expected to identify with an elderly black man who owns the restaurant that houses the unnamed resistance fighters. But… he owns a restaurant which seems totally unaffected by the literal bands of white supremacist militias roaming the streets of Washington D.C. in tanks.
The writers don’t really bother with world-building. Your mind is supposed to fill in the blanks when you see the art. Swastikas, Q-anon symbols and MAGA hats, oh my! Clearly, this is just Nazi Germany. Well… except for all the black and minority characters that walk around freely and seem to own functional, uninterrupted businesses.
The cover by artist Jamal Igle even features a Confederate Battle Flag with the silhouette of an AR-15 pasted on top of it. Why? Because the Left only knows 3 things about people on the other side of the aisle. They’re Nazis, they wish the South had won and they really like AR-15s.
Perhaps the most offensive symbol is the logo for the book’s publisher, imaginatively titled ONESIX COMICS. Their logo is a silhouette of the Capitol with a noose hanging above it. I’d say it’s disgusting and inappropriate, but seeing as how it's a minor part of a book that accuses a large chunk of our fellow citizens of being dangerous neo-Nazis, I can’t say it really matters.
The book also alludes to real life figures, not just President Trump. Curiously, you don’t actually see Trump in this issue. But there is someone who looks vaguely like Tucker Carlson leading a militia to murder the journalists of what I assume was meant to be CNN. We’re treated to statues of Justice Clarence Thomas and the man referred to as the Qanon Shaman. There’s also a gentleman leading a public rally that looks kind of like Professor Jordan Peterson, but I supposed it could be a different bearded white man about whom the writers have an uninformed opinion.
I don’t know if this will be explained in the intended future issues, but they never actually explain how the Country got that way. I used the word militias repeatedly, because that is the word they used. Somehow in this world which is just a step away from our own, armed Right-wing militias took down the US military and replaced them.
I’m not being overly critical here. A crowdfunded book only has one shot at getting an audience and securing funding for future issues. You have to hook people. In most cases, that would be done through a compelling story, interesting characters or world-building. This book does none of that. Even the art, which I complimented earlier, is only average. The colorist’s bland palette didn’t do it any favors and the penciller was just decent. At the very least if the art and color were gorgeous that would be something to praise. It isn’t. The best part of this book is just okay. It’s like the creators are telling you they don’t care. The reason you’re supposed to buy and love this book is because they’re “fighting the Nazis.” Mind you, this book cost its backers a minimum of $25 plus shipping.
I tried to review this comic from a neutral place. I really tried. But it’s utterly impossible.
This isn’t a story. It's a soapbox from which a Law Professor and a NY Times writer can give an extremely graphic depiction of Trump Derangement Syndrome.
Almost every single thing they believe about January 6th, the people there and Trump supporters in general is purely echo-chamber driven nonsense. And even the premise of the book is ridiculous. It’s based entirely on indisputable factual inaccuracies and ignorance on how the United States Government works. You could even get away with that if the story was good. It isn’t.
As a matter of principle, I don’t hold independent comics to the same standard I would hold mainstream comics. When Ed Brubaker used a Captain America comic to compare the Tea Party to a violent militia, I stood against it, because Cap should never be used as a tool to attack innocent Americans. But if a writer wants to espouse their political beliefs through their creator-owned work, I generally don’t have a problem with that.
This is different. This is propaganda being used to enrage people. They have every right to publish it, but I hope people can see this for what it is. The insane ramblings of political and professional hacks.
The funny thing is, the book could have been good if the writers could stop tripping over themselves to reiterate their message for the thousandth time. And their message would have been far more compelling if the story weren’t so didactic.
#comics #culturewar #review #propaganda #leftist #marxist #college #january6th #trump #racism
