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Comics have a history of intersecting with world events, whether it’s Captain America punching Nazis or Spider-Man combing through the wreckage at Ground Zero. So it was only a matter of time before Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, got his own comic book.
Portland-based publisher TidalWave Comics has released Political Power: Volodymyr Zelensky, a 22-page comic book written by Michael Frizell and drawn by Pablo Martinena. It is also available digitally and will eventually be released in a special hardcover edition.
In a press release, TidalWave stated that a percentage of the comic book’s sales will be donated to the International Red Cross as it struggles to aid Ukrainian citizens enduring the humanitarian crisis caused by the Russian invasion.
“This book means a lot to me because of my Ukrainian heritage,” said publisher Darren G. Davis. “Both sets of my grandparents immigrated from Ukraine. I wanted to use this medium to not only tell a story but to somehow donate to the cause at the same time. It does not hurt that Volodymyr Zelensky has a fascinating story.”
Before becoming Ukraine’s sixth president and a symbol of the resistance against Russian president Vladimir Putin, Zelensky starred as a president in the television show The Servant of the People.
“This was a challenging script to write,” Frizell said. “The publisher and I wanted to focus on the man beyond the media’s current focus—Ukraine’s war with Russia and Zelensky’s battle of wills with Putin. Who is he? What makes him tick? Why is he the right leader for Ukraine at this moment? Those are the things I was curious about when I started the research.”
TidalWave has a long history of publishing biographical comic books about politicians. In recent years, it has tackled Stacey Abrams, Jimmy Carter, Pete Buttigieg and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. You can purchase TidalWave’s comics at tidalwavecomics.com.
Related: A Portland Publisher Just Released a Crime-Fighting James Comey Comic.