Comics Lowdown | Special Nazi-punching edition

In an unprecedented week in American history, comics were all over the place.

After seeing a rioter in Captain America gear during the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, Neal Kirby, the son of Jack Kirby, has condemned the use of his father’s character by the far right. “Captain America is the absolute antithesis of Donald Trump,” he wrote, later adding “My father, Jack Kirby, and Joe Simon, the creators of Captain America and WWII veterans, would be absolutely sickened by these images.”

The problem with the Punisher: The Punisher’s elongated skull logo (and specifically, the version used in the 2004 film) has become an icon for white nationalists, Proud Boys and Blue Lives Matter enthusiasts. At Inverse, Eric Francisco offers a brief history of the alt-right’s use of the skull and Disney’s failure to assert its IP rights. At CBR, Cass Clarke summarizes the thoughts of Gerry Conway, who created the character. At SyFY Wire, Mike Avila calls on Marvel to retire the logo and “give the Punisher a makeover.” He also reached out to former Punisher writer Garth Ennis, who had this to say:

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Upcoming ‘Pearls Before Swine’ storyline will feature ‘an attempted presidential coup’

The strips were created before last week’s real-life attempted presidential coup.

Following the attempted insurrection/coup last week, Pearls Before Swine creator Stephan Pastis took to Twitter to inform readers that an upcoming storyline in the comic strip will feature “an attempted presidential coup.”

Pastis said the strips were created before the events of last week. They are set to run the week of Jan. 18 — the week of the presidential inauguration.

“They were all created at least a month in advance of yesterday’s events and are not a commentary on them,” he said in the tweet.

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