Procure Citizen Jack Edited By Sam Humphries Displayed In Manuscript

good companion piece to this ugly election cycle, A bit over the top, but some biting commentary too, amidst the violence and horror, I can't believe how funny this was, I was so pleasantly surprised, Yes, it absolutely makes fun of America and its politics, and its great, Humphries is dialed into the current political climate and I'm sure people from both sides of the aisle will complain, While its crass, ridiculous, and over the top so is some of the best comedy, The book was very smart at times though, especially the reveal at the end, The art by Tommy Patterson was really good, especially his take on Marlinspike, Not sure if this is an ongoing book but I'd definitely read more, A sexist, slovenly, mendacious, corrupt man with no understanding of politics decides to run for president and finds that the worse he behaves, the more his public adores him.
I don't know how comics creators come up with these crazy ideas! There's also a dolphin news anchor, Oh, this book is SO relevant to our current presidential election and also the overall mindset of the country in, Theissues were an incredibly fast read which is my only complaint I want more, The writing and the art were both very much on par with each other, and unlike a certain orange haired xenophobic presidential candidate, his comic book doppelganger in Citizen Jack is a bit more relatable.
I do hope there's more of this series to come as I'd like to see where it goes from the end, A presidential campaign where one of the candidates is a female demagogue suspected of embezzlement, campaign fraud, and corporate corruption and the other is a male demagogue and an antiintellectual loudmouth pandering to the lowest common denominator on a zero substance platform backed by the forces of darkness its theUS Election Citizen Jack!

Sam Humphries and Tommy Pattersons Citizen Jack is a satire on American politics whose impact is watered down by the outrageousness of the current election its sort of modelled on though its still an enjoyable enough read.


Jack Northworthy is a drunken divorcee snowblower salesman who decides to run for office and, with the help of a demon called Marlinspike, actually gets somewhere.
Jacks campaign speeches will sound familiar to anyone who keeps up with American politics hes essentially a tea party candidate like Ted Cruz or Sarah Palin, talking about Washington insiders, the intellectual elite, and “real” Americans.


The comic has a mangaesque flavour to it too with Marlinspike looming next to Jack throughout, though only Jack can see him, like the demon/protagonists relationship in Death Note.
Theres also a talking dolphin pundit on the news that noone questions which is a bit like some of the anthropomorphised animal characters in Dragon Ball.
Generally though Tommy Pattersons art wasnt anything special and the already shaky quality got worse towards the end of the book,

On the whole demon thing, we find out in the end that Marlinspike is challenging an enthroned demon the King of Hell for power and that the Demon King is controlling the British Prime Minister.
But why wouldnt the King control the US President in the first place given how the US is more powerful than Britain It doesnt make sense that hed give Marlinspike a prime opportunity to usurp him using a more powerful human pawn.


Obviously being a satire Humphries pushes the boat out on what Jack says and does far beyond anything Donald Trumps said and hes said plenty! but hes basically making the same point many people have realised from Trumps success: people dont care about facts or figures, they just want someone brash and entertaining wholl confirm their bias and reassure them generally that thingsll work out.


Jack being unstoppable because of his demon puppet master makes things a bit less interesting as all tension goes out the window.
Otherwise though Citizen Jack is a decent enough comic about American politics even if the satire doesnt prove to be anywhere near as entertaining as the real election has been so far and promises to be as we get nearer to November.
This book is meant to be funny and uncomfortable, A combination I usually seek out in my standup comics, more than my printed comics,

Premise: a dumpy loser succumbs to a demon to get elected as President of the US, He's an obvious Drumpf metaphor, a bigot, liar, womanizing asshole, and he's got a lot of bad ideas and a loud mouth to keep announcing them to whatever creature will listen or at least not beat his ass for spewing them.


There are conceptual parallels to the Trump campaign and inexplicable rise to prominence, And here's where it gets uncomfortable, Other than the demon backing the effort, it all seems realistic enough not satirical, and this not enjoyable to me, Is this meant to be the comforting acknowledgment to the bigoted Drumpfians Is Sam Humphries writing this to legitimize this clown car


This book would be a more enjoyable read IF the antihero was sympathetic, relatable or even just had something going for him.
Other than that'stastic hair:


The book would have more weight if there was anything new it reported about the sorry state of governance and media in the US.
As it is, it feels like the usual criticisms and barbs we've heard a thousand times on Stewart and Colbert,

This book would make me feel more fired up if it wasn't another poem to the futility of individual voters and shakers.


"A biting critique of the American political system" The Nation Nope, Retread.

"A wicked sense of humour" IGN, Huh. Maybe to a teenager

I think I remember when picking up this book that I was optimistic because Sam Humphries was writing, and I'll say he didn't do a bad job definitely took the story past the finish line but there wasn't anything really new to tell here.
It felt like the kind of Facebook journalism we've become used to in this presidential season, Remove the supernatural elements and this story of a buffoon running for president and doing well despite attempting to sabotage his own campaign is a little too onthenose for theelection year.
The creators of South Park have sometimes been frighteningly prescient with some of their satire, . . one can only hope that Humphries isn't as accomplished as

a futurist, How does a local drunken buffoon
run for president and actually
get taken seriously
Demonic help of course
In what can only be described as
A combination of Faustus and thePresidential race
Author Sam Humphries
meshes Witty dialog
and amazing art
combine into
a bleeding edge political satire
with a keen insight into the American political process
Gee, where do ya think the author got the idea for this one!! Lol.
I was thoroughly entertained. Crazy, brash. The story lacks consistency as much as the artwork does, Jack, the main character, oscillates between being overlyconfident and weak as a kitten then again this humanizes him somewhat, His relationship with his father, his exwife and his voters should not make him a viable candidate, but he still gains popularity, perhaps in spite of it.
The whole demon thing is likely in Jack's broken mind only, Some of the most horrible things imaginable happen under his guidance that are certainly not something a presidential candidate would do, Each and every dumb thing Jack does earns him more points, so the Oval Office gets closer and closer, The ending isn't surprising since the setting is too unrealistic for him to lose,

The events stop being funny after the first issue or two and the protagonist is a weak character with many flaws, so this mediocre, lessthanbelievable parody of the American electorate fails to impress.


Ever since he was a boy, Jack Northworthy has wanted to be number one, Jack now depends on his snowblower business for money, It's not been going so well since his exwife replaced him as mayor, Jack's father also refuses to use his connections to help his son, When demon Marlinspike offers him the position of US president, normal, everyday, boring Jack can't help but accept,

Jack's first move is to announce his candidacy, He gets buck naked and dives into a frozen lake, The event is witnessed by two locals who film the event, The video is mocked on the news networks, but Donna Forsyth gets sent to run his campaign and a rich businessman secretly funds it.


His campaign isn't impressive until Marlinspike intervenes, Jack punches a guy with a gun Marlinspike gets him to do it but not before getting shot and having an old friend killed.
This earns him as much chance of earning a nomination as the other candidate from his party, the shrewd senator Honeycutt,

Honeycutt buys off Jack's delegates to earn the nomination and gets killed by Marlinspike, Jack is found standing over Honeycutt's body, but he convinces the vitnesses to stay quiet and continue the campaign with him,

Jack feeds his own father to the dogs in a fit of rage after being humiliated in the first debate with his opponent.
His attitude shifts dramatically from wanting out of the race to being determined to win again,

Donna's employer, the man who secretly financed Jack's campaign, asks that she tank Jack's election, but she refuses, Even though Jack himself decides to quit, she doesn't let him,

Jack intentionally ruins his chances by advocating a war on kids and then confessing to his father's murder, The patricide surprisingly nets him the presidency, but he won't be able to rid himself of Marlinspike,

What happens next shouldn't be too hard to fathom, Jack will likely stay under Marlinspike's thumb like he did with his father, so he will never really be number one, .