The things that you need to do when you want to make a Barack Obama comic

After gracing the covers of a Christian magazine, Barack Obama is now on a new comic book character. Newsarama had an interview with writer Jeff Mariotte on the different aspects of making a Barack Obama comic book. Here are some excerpts from the interview.

NRAMA: How in-depth did you research the character and person of Barack Obama to portray him truthfully?

JM: The research process is the most time — and labor-intensive part of the whole thing. I've been reading virtually every article in the mainstream press, following news and politics Web sites, watching news coverage on TV. I've read both of Obama's own books. There have been other books coming along, but they're a step or two behind us — there were no biographies out before our book was, and while there have been some quickie books on the campaign, some of which I picked up, they didn't cover the transition period. Certainly there will be books on the first 100 days, too, but they won't be available in time to help with this. We're ahead of the curve, relying on primary materials — the words of the actual participants in history, whenever possible, to get the story right.

NRAMA: When doing this, I’m sure there’s no shortage of material — in fact, one of the challenges must be choosing what to fit in and what to leave out. Is that true, and if so, how did you decide on what would make the best story?

JM: That is absolutely true. For instance, at the moment I'm working on the third book, [about] the first 100 days. The administration has been far more active to this point than most administrations, really hitting the ground running and dealing with a variety of issues, some small but many hugely important. So those are the ones I'm trying to squeeze into the book — but not by sacrificing the human moments that show who Barack Obama and his family really are. Most of my comic work has been fictional — "Desperadoes," "Graveslinger," "Zombie Cop," etc., so reporting on reality is definitely a challenge (although I have written some nonfiction prose books, so not entirely new to me) — and winnowing the material down to fit into the space available is the biggest challenge of all.