The two presumed presidential nominees, John McCain and Barack Obama, will star in their own comic books, according to an Associated Press story today.

But the books aren’t going to ha-ha comic books or packed with super-heroes fighting villains for world domination or even the Electoral College. IDW Publishing says they will be illustrated, word-balloon stories of the two men’s lives.

Gee, is that what we’ve come to in American democracy? Is the only way we can get people to pay attention about the future Leader of the Free World is to draw pictures and word balloons?

Heck, with the way my eyesight is deteriorating in my advancing years, I’m definitely going to check these books out. I always did like Superman comics although I suspect we may need Wonder Woman to really clean up the mess.

Here are the first few graphs of the story:

KANSAS CITY, Mo.—It’s a year of superheroes in Hollywood, with the big-budget epics of Batman, Iron Man and the Hulk, but a big-budget production out of Washington, D.C., is carving a niche in the animation trend. Presumptive nominees John McCain and Barack Obama will star this fall in their own comic books put out by IDW Publishing, a San Diego-based publisher better known for telling the stories of robots (“The Transformers”) and vampires (“30 Days of Night”).

Don’t expect Captain America-versus-Superman hijinks or super-villains threatening the electoral process. Trading sound bites for word balloons, the books purport to tell McCain and Obama’s life stories, independently researched and illustrated by a veteran team of writers and artists.

Source of comic book cover: I uploaded this funny comic book cover at this site: http://www.bigpicweblog.com/exp/index.php/weblog/comments/831/.