Truth be known, most every person in this world holds some sort of ideology. They may not know it, or may it may not be clearly defined, but more often than not, people cling to an ideology for one reason or another.

It’s no surprise either to see people push their ideology onto others at some point in time. Whether they do it indirectly or blatantly, there are people out there who would love nothing more than to have the majority of the world buy into their same belief system.

Take for example comic book writers. They have the ability to push their worldview in a very powerful medium and they also are able to praise it at the same time. These comic book writers have conservative, liberal and even anarchist positions on various topics and it becomes often fascinating to see how they can best glorify such beliefs.

For Frank Miller’s comic 300, we see a conservative worldview played out on the pages. In the battle of Thermopylae, there is a battle between Greeks and Persians, but yet it’s much more than that. It’s freemen against slaves, it’s democracy against dictatorship and it sends out the ever popular message: “Freedom isn’t free.” The whole message and stance is concurrent with the conservative approach towards world affairs and Miller is able to popularize it with his comic. The Greeks come out looking like heroes while the Persians appear as ones that must be defeated, even if it means giving your life to do so. With the movie adaptation being produced post-9/11, this political message became all the more clear as it typified America’s fight against Middle East tyrants.

Frank Miller's Greek soldiers are more than just a history lesson but rather a heroic vision of freedom fighters. With the movie adapted post-9/11, this political bias becomes even more pronounced.
Frank Miller's Greek soldiers are more than just a history lesson but rather a heroic vision of freedom fighters. With the movie adapted post-9/11, this political bias becomes even more pronounced.

In keeping with world affairs, one graphic novel which echoed the voices of liberalism was Watchmen. Set in the 1980s during the Cold War, Alan Moore’s graphic novel speaks of a world that has gone to chaos and near-extinction that happens under president Richard Nixon once JFK is assassinated. Moore shares a deep hatred for the Cold War and it’s shown through the bleak world he portrays. The hard stance given by Nixon (and conservatives) is criticized as well as it’s shown to have brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. Likewise, the character of Rorschach, whose hate for liberals is unquestioned and characterizes them under their popular stereotypes, is about as ugly and grotesque a character there is. He’s quoted as saying, “the whole world will shout ‘save us’ and I’ll whisper ‘no’”. That alone is hardly a ringing endorsement of a conservative superhero.

Rorschach, a liberal-hating conservative, is hardly the idealistic and beloved superhero. He's just one of the many critiques Moore takes in the Cold War
Rorschach, a liberal-hating conservative, is hardly the idealistic and beloved superhero. He's just one of the many critiques Moore takes on the Cold War.

Yet Moore, who is a committed anarchist, showed more of that side in his graphic novel V for Vendetta. Set in England, this a complete indictment of the government, whose reach has overextended to the point of being totalitarian. Moore is able to rile up anger at the practices of big government practices as the reader sympathizes with the struggle of V. While the graphic novel’s fascist government was far more extreme than Britain’s ever-growing government in the 1980s, Moore still very successfully gets his point across that the government is evil.

While these are three examples of an author’s ideology seeping out onto the pages, there are many more. Whether it be a conservative, liberal, libertarian or anarchist view these authors have, they often let these views seep out into their own pages, wishing their readers to sing their same tune.