Matt Bors and Ben Clarkson’s Justice Warriors will return from Ahoy Comics this fall as a full-length graphic novel, titled Justice Warriors: Vote Harder.
A dystopian satire series that pokes fun at capitalism and law enforcement in a future of severe inequality, the first Justice Warriors miniseries was released in 2022 and collected in 2023. This new graphic novel takes aim at politics and elections, which no doubt makes it the perfect companion to what’s happening in America this year.
“Bubble City is having its first ever mayoral election and mutant cops Swamp and Schitt are pulled in to special duty to protect the vote from the people,” Bors said in his newsletter. “Ben Clarkson and I have been hard at work, along with our colorist Felipe Sobreiro, to top our first volume of the series and bring you an election year satire for the ages.”
Here’s the description from Ahoy:
In crime-free utopia Bubble City’s first-ever election for mayor, feckless celebrity incumbent The Prince faces a challenge from within the Bubble’s elite: his half-cousin Stuffina Vippix IX, who promises austerity and competency. Finally a choice for the people! But out in the Uninhabited Zone, which is packed with millions of mutants, the radical and armed Flauf Tanko mounts a third-party run to inspire the masses who are fed up with the entire system. Rallying to protect the votes from the people, mutant cops Swamp and Schitt are called in on special duty. Schitt must act as bodyguard to the Prince, while his poll numbers drop and assassination attempts ramp up. Meanwhile, Swamp is sent on a clandestine mission inside the mutant opposition—to infiltrate, report, and maybe fall in love with a passionate activist triggering an identity crisis. Can the two partners survive being pitted against each other in a horserace?
“Justice Warriors: Vote Harder is an epic thrill ride about the infiltration of civil society by law enforcement, the corrupt bickering of unaccountable elites, and unchecked military expansion which is, of course, unrelated to the regular healthy function of our corporate oligopoly — er, democracy,” said Clarkson. “It’s bigger, badder and more justicier than the original with a thrilling dose of orbital space lasers, giraffe assassins and obscure parliamentary procedure.”
Bors is the former editor in chief for The Nib, the award-winning political/nonfiction comic site that shut down last year. Clarkson has worked in animation for Adult Swim and Vice.
Bors said the new graphic novel “takes the feel of paranoid political thrillers of the ’70s and updates it for the online age of conspiracy, partisanship and the desire to break out of the confines of the ballot box to do something far more radical. Unlikable candidates. An unfair media. And a system designed to prevent real change. It’s the most important election of everyone’s life—and possibly their last.”
Any resemblance to actual elections … is probably intentional. Look for it to arrive in stores on Sept. 11. Check out some preview pages below.
