Have a look for yourselves:
http://www.maggin.com/maggin/ca24/manifesto.htmHere's what I think is interesting: Maggin is actually USING his reputation as a person that set the "values and fantasies of untold kids" through comics. He's wrapping himself up in the fact he's a writer and a visionary, and his motto is pretty much "Truth Justice and the American Way."
Those of us who have worked in the fantasy and speculative fields tend, maybe for our own protection, to draw a very sure line between fantasy and reality. We don't often think of ourselves as a community, as a group who have certain beliefs in common, but we do. We all believe in imagination. We all value intellectual curiosity. In a time when the absence of such virtues has propelled us to disaster upon disaster, it is up to us to bring the American character back to America.
And
I've always said -- I've always told all of us, every chance I got -- that the best way to get any ball rolling in America is through word-of-mouth among the biggest flapping mouths you can find, and that the place to find them is among pop culture fans. We were the people, after all, who first believed that a man could fly and that with great power comes great responsibility.
All politics aside, I think this is fascinating stuff just from a postmodernist point of view, especially in America where politics is all about woofing and posturing in cowboy boots, and where the Terminator can become Governator because voters remember him from the movies as a big strong man that can decisively solve our problems.
OF COURSE comic book writers would run for Congress! In fact, I feel like kicking myself for not predicting it.
When politics is so enmeshed with Hollywood fantasy and unreality, it makes sense that a visionary and a creator of unreality are the same person.
You know the funny part? If I lived in California, I'd probably vote for him. Why not? Elliot S! Maggin wrote "Who Took the Super out of Superman" and a JLA/JSA Team-Up. What the hell have YOU ever done for me, Rep. Elton Gallegly?