Where did ’08 come from? The story behind the graphic novel

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After a historic, precedent-setting election, there’s usually a rush to press to see who can get out the first book or documentary about the event. For the Obama election, the first books out with a major publisher are: a serious analysis by NBC correspondent Chuck Todd (Jan. 5) and a graphic novel by journalist Michael Crowley and artist Dan Goldman (Jan. 25).

That’s right — the No. 2 slot for book-length journalism about the presidential campaign has been taken by a comic book.

So how did Crowley (a senior editor from the New Republic) pair up with Goldman (who drew the indie Web comic-turned-book ‘Shooting War’) to create ‘’08: A Graphic Diary of the Campaign Trail’ (Three Rivers: $17.95 paper)? Well, in July of 2007, Sean Desmond, an editor at Crown Books, was sitting in the Lucky Strike, a cozy little Parisian-style bistro in SoHo, musing over his scotch to literary agent Bob Mecoy that he wanted to create a print version of Pennebaker’s documentary ‘The War Room’ for the 2008 election. Desmond was grumbling that the public wouldn’t go for the sort of in-depth book he wanted to do.

Mecoy, who’s known to be down with graphic novels (he represents a number of graphic novelists), said the best way to capture the feel of the election would be a journalistic comic book.

“We never could have dreamed that we’d picked the election of the century,” says Mecoy. “If we’d known then ... we probably would have ordered steaks instead of beer [Mecoy’s drink] and French fries.”

So Desmond put Dan Goldman, who’s webcomic ‘Shooting War’ had recently been made into a successful book, together with Crowley, who was following candidates during the primaries. The co-collaborators met for the first time in Desmond’s office, then while on the campaign trail, Crowley fired off comic book scripts about what he saw to Goldman. ‘Writing in medias res was kind of a high-wire act,’ says Crowley.

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Crowley was new to comics; Goldman wasn’t a journalist.

‘We had to learn about each other’s worlds,’ says Goldman. (At one point, Crowley complained to Goldman that he didn’t know how to describe what they were working on. Goldman replied, ‘It’s OK to call it a comic book.’)

Their first attempt was a spread for GQ, drawn in red and blue, which mirrored their initial instinct to write a book that was evenly split between attention to the Republican and Democratic parties.

‘But the more Obama came to the forefront, the more the race seemed to transcend politics,’ says Goldman.

The story arcs of ‘ ‘08’ are very headline-y and don’t take advantage of the way comics work in sequence, but, as in any good comic, the images do most of the heavy lifting, such as an image of the Clintons exchanging a knowing look over a caption that her senatorial seat ‘was a stepping stone to the Oval Office.’ Or else there’s an uncaptioned image of soldiers bearing coffins that is meant to explain why Americans wanted out of the war. Overall, ‘ ‘08’ is a good little graphic novel, or comic book (even Crowley’s terminology varies), that recaptures last fall’s sense of frenzy and may end up being the best little chronicle for re-creating how the presidential race actually felt.

— Laurel Maury