Trump’s Space Force
Written by Chuck Dixon
Illustrated and Lettered by Timothy Lim
Colored by Brett R. Smith
Cover by Dave Dorman
“Winners don’t leave. That’s how they win.”
If that sounds like a parody of something Donald Trump might say, I can’t honestly verify your guess. As a line uttered by the character President Donald Trump in the comic Trump’s Space Force — which started life as the result of an Indiegogo campaign and is now kept alive by this Antarctic Press edition — it certainly seems like a parody. But writer Chuck Dixon is well-known conservative and the book itself has been portrayed as a Comicsgate work, so maybe this isn’t a parody of something Trump might say, maybe this is meant to reflect on some level of admiration?
I don’t know, but that conundrum hangs over the entire comic, a pretty silly science fiction and political parody that almost makes no sense as a work by people who admire or support the central figure in the comic.
The plot riffs off Trump’s space force suggestion last year and posits that there’s a real invasion about to happen and Trump’s lark is the one thing standing between us and the aliens, prompting the kind of thing anyone, left or right, would agree is a complete fantasy — prompt action by our government to prevent an actual threat. This means the speedy building of the Space Force with advanced technology and the portrayal of clowns like Newt Gingrich and Sebastian Gorka as crack agents of science and forward-thinking while Nancy Pelosi is comically concerned about the state of our infrastructure and the education of our children just prior to being revealed as one of the aliens hiding amongst us. Sure, okay.
Lots of pages are milked showing off the new tech and depicting space battles with the sort of glee that seems more appropriate to kids, which, honestly, reveals the general tone of the work, this is not a sophisticated parody, but somewhat south of a tepid Mad Magazine effort. If it’s aimed for kids, then maybe this qualifies as propaganda?
I guess you could argue that, but it seems more like a satire of propaganda aimed at children than an actual effort to shape minds. Real propaganda would take the effort, no matter how absurd, to cast Trump’s space patrol ramblings as a great idea, but Dixon is making up justifications by piling on old-timey science fiction cliches and recasting Trump as Captain Kirk, which seems like a great way for Dixon to have fun, but a poor choice if trying to recast Trump as a visionary. So while it seems obvious that Dixon is going for the former — I’m sure he had a blast writing this — I’m less clear who the result of his having fun is meant for.
What’s most surprising about this effort is how tame it is. There are little jabs that qualify as coded examples of Comicsgate talking points — using the word “xir” at one point or having Trump declare the Space Force is for “men and women” with special typographical emphasis — and it’s not lost on me that the aliens are meant to be liberals, which means the comic laughingly portrays the left as outsiders trying to destroy the American way of life for which the only solution is mass murder delivered with lots of bravado. But it’s all so facile in its presentation of these notions. And that’s okay since I suppose even fascists like to have silly fun.
My preference would be for this to be whittled down to six pages. I think it would work much better like that, and the breeziness of the story itself would be better represented by a page count that matched it with pacing. But that’s just nitpicking when weighed against the enormity of the struggle for a glorious American tomorrow. Trump’s Space Force is destined to be a curio regardless of anything. Whether it’s a curio in a world where Trump didn’t leave and heralded in the Great Trumpian Dynasty, kept afloat by sham elections and puppet presidents, or whether he shrivels into the great sweep of history that astonishingly lucky scumbags like him deserve, it’s still too early to tell.
One thing is for certain — everything Trump is portrayed as doing in this comic, while laughable, wouldn’t be as funny if it was about Putin instead. You ever seen that guy without a shirt? Man of action. Puts our pudgy, orange leader to shame. Putin’s Space Force? I’d have a lot more faith in that to save the universe than one conceived of and led by this American Caligula.
Hmm … American Caligula … anyone can feel free to use that for the next Trump comic book. As for Putin’s Space Force … that’s mine.
A few things:
1) So it’s basically Paul Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers–but we’re supposed to root for the fascists?
2) Ha, Nancy Pelosi focusing on infrastructure and education. That’s a genuinely funny joke… wait a sec, the chuds actually think that’s what Pelosi cares about? Tremendous.
3) Why no commentary on the art? I guess it speaks for itself. As Trump would say, “Not good, very bad.”
4) Thank you for your service.
Sounds confused, opportunistic and lame.
In the grand tradition of Reagan’s Raiders:
https://www.comics.org/issue/272162/cover/4/
Looks like the Space Force artist has shaved 30 years off Trump’s age.
I prefer Tom Tomorrow’s “The Unbelievable Trump,” in “If This Be … Exoneration!”
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/5/13/1857080/-Cartoon-If-this-be-exoneration
Despite the obvious liberal bias of the article, this sounds awesome, regardless of the degree you want to read it at.
“Despite the obvious liberal bias of the article”
News at 11: Reviews of books contain opinions. Everyone runs for your lives.
Reminds me of of an issue of Mars Attacks, where Rush Limbaugh speaks out against the martians. It is however rare for a comic to have a non-left wing viewpoint. Even so I’d pass on this, or at the very least be scared to read it on the subway lest it have the same reaction as wearing a maga hat. Modern America is just too full of hate to tempt fate like that. I can just think if it as plain silly fun, like the episode of the Simpsons showed Clinton and Doll being abducted by Kang and Kolos.
Right now our space program can’t even get an astronaut of the ground, let alone fight an alien invasion. Space and the exploration of space is for countries that have a future and for leaders who really can put differences aside and see beyond the next news cycle or the next election. The US hasn’t had that for decades.
Wait, Dave Dorman did the cover? Dave Dorman? Will he really draw anything if you pay him enough?
“News at 11: Reviews of books contain opinions. Everyone runs for your lives.”
I’m amazed how often I see people online griping about OPINIONS in reviews and columns.
What they really object to, of course, is opinions that differ from their own.
“It is however rare for a comic to have a non-left wing viewpoint.”
True. Writing compelling characters requires the empathy to understand them and get into what they’re really feeling. This is not a common trait among the right.
Can’t image a comic book tribute to someone this smart today:
https://www.comics.org/issue/278124/
I grew up near enough to New York City to see Trump’s escapades in my media from his public beginings in the 70s. Couldn’t stand him then and have only grown to hate him more since. I think it is a disgrace to this country and our world that he is in the position he is in now. And I think he makes it worse every time he opens his mouth.
That being said, I think John Seven & The Beat should NOT have published this article. His “Indie View” series has made clear where he stand on politics/social issues. He and I are nearly on the same page there. Like many people on our end of the spectrum, he sees red when he thinks of this asswipe.
This review is a hit piece by an author who seems likely to be unable to review the comic in any other way. A fine thing to publish on his Facebook account, but not something a comic-focused website needs to be publishing.
I will never read this comic. I am displeased by it’s very existence. But I do think this website should have standards that prevent publishing angry diatribes presented as reviews. The company that published the comic seems to have a similar lack of standards, but that doesn’t justify this response, IMO.
“Skip says
06/01/2019 8:41 PM AT 8:41 PM
“It is however rare for a comic to have a non-left wing viewpoint.”
True. Writing compelling characters requires the empathy to understand them and get into what they’re really feeling. This is not a common trait among the right.
”
Good point, but not really what I said. If you look at any comic published in the last ten years or so, how many conservative viewpoints and characters have you seen displayed in a positive light? It’s like reading the Non-sequitor comic; you’ll never see the strip make fun of the left. It’s the same in the comics.
It’s not that things have never been political, in the Superman radio show a phony Batman was used to speak out against the Marshall Plan. There was once an issue of Spider-Man that read like an anti-gun add (this was back in the 1970s), but the tolerance has gone. I’m sure if there were an actual -non satirical- storyline featuring a conservative viewpoint or looking sympathetically at a conservative ideal or character that story would never make it past the editors. If the left has one guiding principle it is that the right is absolutely evil and must never be tolerated in any form and this view is especially enforced in most of the media.
That doesn’t mean that they aren’t good stories, it just means that in my opinion it’s like NPR, you know you’ll only get the left side of things so there’s no real use in holding it against them. For them the left is middle of the road.
Here’s another POV. The Right, and/or the people that the Right appeal to and successfully sway, don’t read!
There’s plenty of thoughtful and deeply exploring writers and exemplars of work in comics that many readers find discomfort in. But the Right never latch or the work finds traction in a larger Right-wing audience because they don’t read!!
That’s why the Punisher only becomes problematic as an influencer of popular Right-wing when he is adapted beyond the satirical/exploratory medium of comics, and a version of him is adapted concretely onto the far-reaching Netflix platform in his own show. Before that, the Right adopted more as their comics/cartoon icon a stoned, dipshit frog. Why choose that? Because it’s an easily identifiable meme, communicable to an audience that doesn’t read!!
FOX exists because the Right, and those they successfully sway, don’t read! (an exception to the not reading rule is the more educated Right, who are generally more capable of at some level demonstrating awider compassion, that in some way comes to recognise a complex world in all its dimensions….
This doesn’t affect the validity of the Right. It’s just that they don’t read!!
“it’s like NPR, you know you’ll only get the left side of things”
Mark, you’ll hear more conservative opinions (treated respectfully) on NPR than you’ll hear liberal or even moderate opinions on the Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity or Tucker Carlson shows. Not to mention “Fox and Friends,” to which Trump often phones in.
Listen to NPR’s “Morning Edition” or “Here and Now” or “1A” or “All Things Considered,” and you might be amazed to find how fairly all sides in debates are treated.
George: I do listen and while I hear respect, I also hear the viewpoint rarely. In my area my local NPA station follows up Morning Edition with On Point from 9 to 11 and then Eagan and Braude from 11 to 2 pm. That five solid hours where you’ll almost never hear a conservative viewpoint that isn’t slanted toward disparagement. Often Callie Crossley does commentary on morning edition and she’s even more left than Jim and Margery. If there is a consistent conservative guest or host on NPR, then I’m sorry I’ve missed them. Again this doesn’t mean that they are bad people or that they don’t have solid and often correct points of view, but their overwhelming disdain for conservatives breaks through with almost each sentence. Jim once said of Conda Lisa Rice that he could admire her for the achievements that she made in her life, but that he could never forgive her for being a conservative. I can hear more negative things said about conservatives on these programs in one month then I can hear about terrorist in a year on those same programs.
I accept this, that the press is mostly biased, but I don’t hold it against them. Nor do I hold any political views of the people who did the comic or the review against them. But I have grown tired of the constant hatred.
Kaleb: how many conservative people do you actually know in person?
My point is this: for decades, writers (comics, TV, movies,…) have been able to tell good stories without any reference to gender or politics. In the last few years both subjects are everywhere and more often than not get in the way of telling a proper story. scenario has been replaced by rant, Plot has been replaced by shock and logic has been replaced by “feelings”. Why did it all go wrong? Can’t we go back to proper storytelling please?
What a strange, strange question!! Is it a tactic? Who knows; I notice you didn’t address my arguments though. Okay, I’ll bite. Uhm, too many to count?: Family; workmates; fellow classmates; employers; teachers; random vocal people whom you meet and you just don’t talk politics because you just don’t want to go further there (they are not rare); neighbours.
Deeply held conservatives and opinions are not rare to stumble across. Not uncommon in any strata. So, all my experience lends me to my conclusion that those associated with the Right do not read!!!!
Strange, strange question!! Further: I stand by everything I said, and I think I was quite fair. I find yourself quite close lipped, suspect and such a base, ordinary turn the tables question…
I further regard myself as more conservative than many around me. I regard Aristotle, Hegel, Edmund Burke, Shakespeare, Harold Bloom and the literary canon (inclusive of philosophy, Classical Economics, and an entire historiography) in some regard. I don’t know what you call that except conservative (I frequently get in trouble on this website for defending things others won’t, and have been very critical of the Far Left, and have defended the military and US hegemony). But, then… I read!!!!! Which is so different from all the people of the Right in my experience who dont read!!!!! (see my list)
Strange, strange question. Please, everyone, do the World a favour and read!!!! From as big a variety of sources as you can muster. A personal challenge
And, as I said in my original post (which you ignored): THE RIGHT IS ENTIRELY VALID (even though they don’t read!!!!!)
Mark, NPR is a news organization and doesn’t take conservative or liberal stands on issues. The hosts interview Democrats, Republicans and independents. On Fox and conservative talk radio, only conservative ideas are treated with respect. Liberals and moderates are ridiculed and kicked off the air.
Just because the NPR hosts aren’t cheerleaders for Donald Trump doesn’t mean they’re pushing a left-wing agenda. If you like the spectacle of a host kissing Trump’s ass, Hannity is your guy.
NPR does have a voice — a thoughtful voice that is lower volume. It is not “shout radio.”
BTW, I listen to NPR every day and I’ve never heard of “Jim and Margery.” Are they local hosts in your area?
“My point is this: for decades, writers (comics, TV, movies,…) have been able to tell good stories without any reference to gender or politics.”
If you really believe that, you’ve missed the last several decades of comics, movies and TV. You’re longing for an imaginary past that never existed.
The Onion got it right, about fans who say they don’t want politics in comics while overlooking that politics have always been in comics:
https://local.theonion.com/man-prefers-comic-books-that-don-t-insert-politics-into-1822632404
George when you say “The hosts interview Democrats, Republicans and independents”, you miss the point that the host all all liberals. Or if there is a conservative host of any program on NPR I’ve never heard him/her/them. The host sets the tone, decides who and when to interview and when that interview is cut off. During the height of the ACA debate I heard many question “What if I don’t pay” in relation to the individual mandate. In each case the question was blown off. An interview between an NPR host and a democrat is like a conversation between two people who agree on mostly everything. It’s basically 1: Cue talking point speech, 2: give the guest a chance to elaborate on talking point speech, 3: thank the guest for agreeing to be on and the guest is thankful for the chance to spout off with little or no challenge. Or to put it more simply, to most members of the media a democrat is innocent until proven guilty while a republican is guilty until proven innocent and then he’s guilty of something else anyway. When ever I listen to NPR, What ever program I listen to; I hear this philosophy. Since I don’t really have access to AM (car radio barely gets FM, it’s an old car) I don’t listen to the right wing radio you so vilify. Maybe it’s as bad as you say, but I know what I hear on NPR and what I hear is the voice of the left. Have you ever heard a day go by on NPR without hearing the DNC talking points?
Jim and Margery are on in the Boston area, they had a show on a commercial talk radio station but when that station failed they moved to NPR.
“Jim and Margery are on in the Boston area, they had a show on a commercial talk radio station but when that station failed they moved to NPR.”
They’re not carried on my NPR station in Nashville.
Mark, why should NPR have a conservative host? It doesn’t have a liberal host, either. It’s hosts are journalists with backgrounds in news and the arts. Maybe you don’t understand what journalism is. It’s not about presenting yourself as a conservative or a liberal.
“Have you ever heard a day go by on NPR without hearing the DNC talking points?”
Yes. And I’ve heard Democratic candidates (including Hillary Clinton) grilled by NPR hosts.
But all I hear on right-wing radio are RNC talking points. Those hosts only toss softball questions to Republican guests — and the only guests they have are fellow Republicans. It’s a back-slapping love fest. Fox News is the closest thing America has ever had to State TV, as exists in totalitarian dictatorships.
George: Jim and Margery are through and through liberals, as are the other ones I mentioned. Jim has proudly proclaimed himself a liberal. But if so only see bias on the right with Fox then I disagree.
Kaleb: This is why I asked. You’re statement “Here’s another POV. The Right, and/or the people that the Right appeal to and successfully sway, don’t read!” made me wonder how many of the right you actually knew, and if this was your opinion of them then how do you stand to be in the same room with any of them? Unless you consider there is a difference between ‘the right’ and conservatives.
At any rate this has already gone on too long. We each have our opinions, neither is comparable with the other. There is an X and an O on the sign and you are only looking at the X and I’m only looking at the O. We could talk back and forth for eternity and not accomplish anything. In the end that’s politics in America today and probably the main reason why the country has no future.
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