Collective Action Comics

"What the hell is water?" Art, music, literature, drama. When the frontiers of human potential slam against capitalist industry, a force that can't be stopped confronts an object that can't be moved. Capitalism twists and redirects culture and imagination into a revenue stream, limiting to its flow the ideas we're allowed have and drowning all the rest. At the nexus of pop culture and "Pop Culture" struggles Superman, swimming against the current. ---------- Special thanks to our Lovable Sidekicks: Better Possible Futures, Kourtney Smith, Walt Lewellyn, Kafka, The Black Casebook's Very Own Nightwing, JD Lunt, Ambird, Mr. Pig from the Intervention, Travis Armstrong, Chris Marks, Wirecats, Sheeee-itttt, VoidTek, Mars Hottentot, Richard Bell, TakoTuesday, Joseph, and Knife Money ---------- Email: collectiveactioncomics@gmail.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/collectiveactioncomics Twitter: https://twitter.com/CAComixPod Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/cacomixpod.bsky.social Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/collectiveactioncomics

Finally, the definitive Marxist take on Lex Luthor. Just what we've all been waiting for. The strange flavor of 90s foreign intervention, the eventual goal of capitalist policing, and why you should never trust a homeless shelter (it's not what you think) all tie together into the stories of two of the world's most famous mad scientists - one a product of capitalism, the other a perpetuator. It's our final Superman-less issue. In a way. Join us, won't you? ---------- Issues covered: Supergirl and Team Luthor #1 ---------- Special thanks to our Lovable Sidekicks: Better Possible Futures, Kourtney Smith, Walt Lewellyn, Kafka, The Black Casebook's Very Own Nightwing, JD Lunt, Ambird, Mr. Pig from the Intervention, Travis Armstrong, Chris Marks, Wirecats, Sheeee-itttt, VoidTek, Mars Hottentot, Richard Bell, TakoTuesday, Joseph, and Knife Money ---------- Email: collectiveactioncomics@gmail.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/collectiveactioncomics Twitter: https://twitter.com/CAComixPod Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/cacomixpod.bsky.social Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/collectiveactioncomics

Announcing a major new collaboration with the inimitable BLACK CASEBOOK podcast. This summer, get ready for a fall.

What do heroes leave behind? The answer should be obvious. The contest for control of the world economy entered a new age at the end of 1991. Socialist forces were in retreat as the then-second largest superpower, the USSR, crumbled under pressure from more than 70 years of capitalist onslaught. Its splintered masses would be powerless to defend themselves against instantaneous pillage and plunder by the avaricious. Half a planet away, the ostensible beneficiaries of capitalist success, the US working class (including the writers and artists behind Superman), would find their rights and livelihoods under immediate and vicious attack as well, although you wouldn't know it by asking them. An ideology of righteous violence befits a class of owners who need the workers to fight their wars, and it limits the imagination of a class of workers who need each other if they ever hope to win their own freedom. What do heroes leave behind? More heroes. It's time to grasp what that means. ---------- Issues covered: The Legacy of Superman #1 ---------- Special thanks to our Lovable Sidekicks: Better Possible Futures, Kourtney Smith, Walt Lewellyn, Kafka, The Black Casebook's Very Own Nightwing, JD Lunt, Ambird, Mr. Pig from the Intervention, Travis Armstrong, Chris Marks, Wirecats, Sheeee-itttt, VoidTek, Mars Hottentot, Richard Bell, TakoTuesday, Joseph, and Knife Money ---------- Email: collectiveactioncomics@gmail.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/collectiveactioncomics Twitter: https://twitter.com/CAComixPod Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/cacomixpod.bsky.social Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/collectiveactioncomics

Superhero comics are cycles of endless strife, dialectical tides pushing and pulling between too often oversimplified representations of "evil" and "good." As if on a journey from vulgar physical form to enlightened spiritual ascendence, superheroes die and are reborn over and over, with little consideration that this time might be the last. What happens when an economy does the same? How do we allow it to rise and fall like the characters in our funny mags? Like the souls in our bodies? Will it ever be enough? ---------- Issues covered: The Adventures of Superman 499 Action Comics 686 Superman: The Man of Steel 21 Superman 77 ---------- Special thanks to our Lovable Sidekicks: Better Possible Futures, Kourtney Smith, Walt Lewellyn, Kafka, The Black Casebook's Very Own Nightwing, JD Lunt, Ambird, Mr. Pig from the Intervention, Travis Armstrong, Chris Marks, Wirecats, Sheeee-itttt, VoidTek, Mars Hottentot, Richard Bell, and Takotuesday ---------- Email: collectiveactioncomics@gmail.com I nstagram: https://www.instagram.com/collectiveactioncomics Twitter: https://twitter.com/CAComixPod Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/cacomixpod.bsky.social Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/collectiveactioncomics

Small town boy makes good? or big city media conglomeration makes believe? Absolute Superman is an ostensible return to the character's origin as a voice (and fist) for the masses, but can we trust DC Comics (a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery) to deliver such a hero? More importantly, does the book's intent even matter? ---------- Special thanks to our Lovable Sidekicks: Better Possible Futures, Kourtney Smith, Walt Lewellyn, Kafka, The Black Casebook's Very Own Nightwing, JD Lunt, Ambird, Mr. Pig from the Intervention, Travis Armstrong, Chris Marks, Wirecats, Sheeee-itttt, VoidTek, and Richard Bell ---------- Email: collectiveactioncomics@gmail.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/collectiveactioncomics Twitter: https://twitter.com/CAComixPod Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/cacomixpod.bsky.social Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/collectiveactioncomics

How many of your neighbors have you met? When was the last time you helped the homeless? Do you, as a worker, have the power to affect government policy? Organizing takes many forms, some immediate and some sustained. While the abilities of Superman would certainly be helpful, they're by no means necessary to build a world that protects the vulnerable. Journey with us as we explore historical currents in oppression and the never ending battle to oppose them. ---------- Issues covered: Justice League America 70 The Adventures of Superman 498 Action Comics 685 Superman: The Man of Steel 20 Superman 76 ---------- Special thanks to our Lovable Sidekicks: Better Possible Futures, Kourtney Smith, Walt Lewellyn, Kafka, The Black Casebook's Very Own Nightwing, JD Lunt, Ambird, Mr. Pig from the Intervention, Travis Armstrong, Chris Marks, Wirecats, Sheeee-itttt, VoidTek, Mars Hottentot, and Richard Bell ---------- Email: collectiveactioncomics@gmail.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/collectiveactioncomics Twitter: https://twitter.com/CAComixPod Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/cacomixpod.bsky.social Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/collectiveactioncomics

What does it mean to be "super?" What does it mean to have "power?" The Death and Return of Superman has us asking these questions in an era when it was less and less appropriate to do so. It was also a time of deep unrest, being the first sprout from the seeds of counterrevolution the previous decade. The ostensible leaders of resistance to such reaction were about to take us on quite the merry chase, and many liberals in the US were relieved to be "represented" once again, despite all evidence to the contrary. Join us. Join us as the Man of Steel dies and with him, our tomorrows. We may yet see them reborn. Welcome to season three of Collective Action Comics. ---------- Erratum: I called it the "North American Free Trade Association," but everyone knows it's the "North American Free Trade Agreement." I'm a ding dong. ---------- Issues covered: Superman: The Man of Steel 18 Justice League America 69 Superman 74 The Adventures of Superman 497 Action Comics 684 Superman: The Man of Steel 19 Superman 75 ---------- Special thanks to our Lovable Sidekicks: Better Possible Futures, Kourtney Smith, Walt Lewellyn, Kafka, The Black Casebook's Very Own Nightwing, JD Lunt, Ambird, Mr. Pig from the Intervention, Chris Marks, Wirecats, and Sheeee-itttt ---------- Email: collectiveactioncomics@gmail.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/collectiveactioncomics Twitter: https://twitter.com/CAComixPod Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/collectiveactioncomics

IT'S A SAN DIEGO COMIC CON TAKEOVER, FOLKS! Many thanks to SDCC for hosting our panel "Revolutionary Comics: Revolutionaries in Our Comics!" Five wonderful creators, one amazing moderator, and some goofy schlub with a podcast came together to talk radical politics in comics we love, our visions for the future of comics, and how we engage with creative works socially. **Apologies for the panel audio, it's explained in the intro. Please feel free to write in making fun of me for being an absent minded doofus.** Find the slide deck here: https://tinyurl.com/revolutionaryslideshow ---------- Find everyone here: Alec Robbins: http://alec.land/ Iggy Craig: https://iggy.zone/ Mariah-Rose Marie: https://www.mariah-rose.com/ Julio Anta: https://www.julioanta.com/ Jacoby Salcedo: https://www.jacobysalcedoart.com/ Cartoonist Coop: https://cartoonist.coop/ That Distant Fire: https://www.thatdistantfire.com/ ---------- Email: collectiveactioncomics@gmail.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/collectiveactioncomics Twitter: https://twitter.com/CAComixPod Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/collectiveactioncomics

Today in Bonus Feed Land, the irrepressible Neil Kapit takes the stand as a character witness for that plucky upstart Tony Stark! Neil asserts that, while Iron Man might not be the most beloved superhero on the left, the pathos and self-sacrifice of this demon-haunted Avenger speak to a far more interesting human being than the movies or Mark Millar would have us believe. Find the full episode on Patreon! https://x.com/WirecatsComic https://www.instagram.com/wirecatspresents/ https://globalcomix.com/a/wirecats-presents https://linktr.ee/neilkapit ---------- Email: collectiveactioncomics@gmail.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/collectiveactioncomics Twitter: https://twitter.com/CAComixPod Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/collectiveactioncomics

Thank you all for a wonderful three years of Collective Action Comics! Please find attached the answers to all your burning questions. I tried my best to answer each one with the appropriate proportion of sass and humility. Here's to the future! Very proud to be fighting for it alongside all of you. (Please don't X-communicate me for having once liked Joss Whedon's X-Men) ---------- Email: collectiveactioncomics@gmail.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/collectiveactioncomics Twitter: https://twitter.com/CAComixPod Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/collectiveactioncomics

Today in Bonus Feed Land, friend of the show Shaun Corley takes Nat on a historical jaunt through a catalog of Marvel's earliest anticommunist stories and characters all the way up to some of their more recent racist depictions of dastardly foreigners. Find the full episode on the Patreon! (A contribution to MECA has been made in Shaun's name in appreciation for his appearance on the show.) BIG APOLOGIES FOR THE AUDIO QUALITY. Nat was trying something new, and boy howdy did it not work. https://screenrant.com/author/shaun-corley/ https://www.instagram.com/corleyontheshore/ ---------- Email: collectiveactioncomics@gmail.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/collectiveactioncomics Twitter: https://twitter.com/CAComixPod Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/collectiveactioncomics

Today in Bonus Feed Land, we laugh! We cry! The great critic and writer Elizabeth Sandifer walks Nat through Mark Millar from his earliest work (it might surprise you) to his most recent corporate gambit (it won't)! https://www.eruditorumpress.com/last-war-in-albion https://www.patreon.com/elizabethsandifer ---------- Email: collectiveactioncomics@gmail.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/collectiveactioncomics Twitter: https://twitter.com/CAComixPod

From oil fields to poppy fields to killing fields, the United States lays claim upon the Earth. Overwhelming force in service of the export of capital requires constant presence and insistent justification. There is no excuse too craven nor apologia too callow for the media that abets these crimes. No matter how you costume it, the violence is beyond vindication and even beyond satire. Our heroes can do better. We can do better. We will. (This season owes love and gratitude to Lawrence Ferlinghetti, without whom poetry would be incomplete.) ---------- Email: collectiveactioncomics@gmail.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/collectiveactioncomics Twitter: https://twitter.com/CAComixPod

You asked, we delivered! We're finally doing it, folks! We're tackling the movies! In this sweeping interview, Walt from the Black Casebook breaks down what works and what doesn't about Whedon's two Avengers movies and how they compare politically and narratively to Millar's The Ultimates. Subscribe on Patreon to hear the whole thing! Listen to the Black Casebook anywhere fine podcasts are sold! https://pod.link/1618791941 ---------- Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/collectiveactioncomics Email: collectiveactioncomics@gmail.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/collectiveactioncomics Twitter: https://twitter.com/CAComixPod

Sometimes, you have to break a few omelettes to get to the eggs inside. "Conventional wisdom" is a curious thing, and, in the United States, it's been deliberately constructed, shaped, and molded over the last 70+ years. Patriotic imagery and severely lacking history curricula have joined forces to warp the perception of the US, leaving its citizens believing it to be a historical force for good. Obviously, this isn't the truth. But, hey, you certainly wouldn't know it from this issue. And, yes. It's the one with Captain America doing that thing you've heard about. ---------- Email: collectiveactioncomics@gmail.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/collectiveactioncomics Twitter: https://twitter.com/CAComixPod

Message delivered. The end of the mission draws near.

In this special bonus interview for season two, we get to hear from writer/artist Ben Becker on the first issue of his new anthology series "Paper Medicine" and follow him on the journey that led him to write about some very comradely goldfish piloting a mechanical man. Join us as we talk comics, cooperatives, and the aquatic liberation that only communism can bring. ---------- Follow Ben! https://benmaxbecker.com/ Buy Paper Medicine! https://benmaxbecker.com/shop Volunteer with the Cartoonist Cooperative! https://cartoonist.coop/

Good news: There's very little of The Ultimates in this episode. Bad news: That means we have to fill air time talking about ways in which the US government infiltrates and shuts down left wing movements, how the working class needs to learn to come together, and how other countries are good, actually. Hooray. ---------- Email: collectiveactioncomics@gmail.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/collectiveactioncomics Twitter: https://twitter.com/CAComixPod

Tony Stark knows you better than you know yourself. In this age of sensors, cameras, and speculative markets, everything we do is catalogued and sold to the highest bidder. Unlike the Earth in this issue, our privacy isn't being invaded. We're giving it up willingly. (Ultimate Celebrity Sighting Count: 23) ---------- Email: collectiveactioncomics@gmail.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/collectiveactioncomics Twitter: https://twitter.com/CAComixPod