Posted in: Archie, Comics, DC Comics, Image, Marvel Comics, Oni Press | Tagged: 100 Bullets, 1776, Absolute MArtian Manhunter, America250, joe bennett, Semiquincentennial
How American Comic Books Are Celebrating The Semiquincentennial Today
How American Comic Books Are Celebrating The Semiquincentennial Today, From DC To the White House
Published Sat, 04 Jul 2026 16:55:13 -0500
by Rich Johnston
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Last updated Sat, 04 Jul 2026 16:56:57 -0500
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Article Summary
- Semiquincentennial comic book celebrations span DC, Marvel, Archie, Antarctic, Image, Oni, and Drawn & Quarterly.
- DC and Marvel mark America 250 with sharp political satire, patriotic variants, time travel, and major deaths.
- Archie leans into Americana, while indie and historical comics revisit the Revolution through horror and biography.
- America250’s government-backed comics spark Semiquincentennial controversy over religion, history, and patriotism.
Today, the 4th of July, is the Semiquincentennial, the 250th anniversary of the Second Continental Congress’s approval of the final draft of the Declaration of Independence, after the American Rebellion, thereby founding the United States of America. The most significant date in the history of the USA.And for the United Kingdom, from which it rebelled, just another Thursday. But how have the great American comic book publishers been celebrating such a day? Well, it seems as rich, diverse and varied as America itself, from one political extreme to the other. We already looked at how DC Comics seemed to be celebrating the Semiquincentennial with Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso’s 100 Bullets: The US Of Anger #1 this week.
If celebrating was the right word. While also this week, the Absolute Martian Manhunter #12 finale revealed that the fellow in charge of The Agency, causing all sorts of problems in the Absolute Universe, was the Absolute Uncle Sam. And he was an eagle…
Marvel Comics has already run a whole bunch of 250th Anniversary variant covers across their line, with more to come. The covers pay homage to the iconic 1976 Mighty Marvel Bicentennial Calendar, also reissued
Marvel Comics also published the 1776 comic book series earlier in the year, that Bleeding Cool scooped the news would written by Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski, Ron Lim and Sean Damian Hill, seeing Marvel’s heroes travel through time and get mixed up in the Rebellion. And then do a sponsorship tie-in deal with Jeep for their 250 editions of their models
Oh yes, and Marvel Comics also killed off Captain America twice in the same week last month, and had the US Army General Ross as the Red Hulk plan a world in which he enforced democracy as he sees it around the world. And did so by occupying Latveria and invading the neighbouring country of Symkaria. Bit on the nose, these…
Coming later this month from Antarctic Press is Horror Comics: American Nightmares, an anthology to “Celebrate 250 years of the Scars and Shrieks, the old Dread, Fright and Boo” with “macabre Americana, from blood-Redcoats at Lexington to zombies at the Alamo, from gargoyles at the Grand Canyon to were-beasts in Washington.” They also put out a “Spirit Of Independence” sketchbook which did come out in time…
Archie Comics has gone to town with their celebration of Americana this week, making Riverdale look like something out of a Sasha Baron Cohen sketch with Archie Comics Celebrates America’s 250th
Drawn & Quarterly also published this past weekR. Sikoryak’s Declaration Emancipation Illustrated, a graphic novel that mashes up the Declaration of Independence, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the Gettysburg Address with all manner of other comics and Americana
And Ghost Machine titles through Image Comics, historical titles Geiger and Redcoat also had Rebellion celebratory covers by British artist Gary Frank. But as one might expect, also running late…
Oni Press has launched a Kickstarter for the historical graphic novel Liberty by the creator of Prince of Persia, Jordan Mechner, as well as Étienne Le Roux and Loïc Chevallier. This graphic novel focuses on the secret arms smugglers of the Rebellion, with a merchant from Connecticut, Silas Deane, and a flamboyant French playwright, Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, better known for writing The Barber of Seville. staging a daring smuggling operation in 1776
And then there may be the weirdest one, a congressionally licensed series of America250 comic books, drawn byImmortal Hulk artist Joe Bennett, which tells the story of the US insisting that God created the United States and also gives us Roe v. Wade, birthright citizenship, Clarence Thomas, and Trump’s Freedom Trucks in line with current official American government thinking, and produced by Christian publisher Kingstone, who has already published a 2000 page graphic novel adaptation of the Bible. But these comics are funded by American taxpayer dollars.
“The America250™ Celebration Comics Pack is thoughtfully designed for families, classrooms, and communities looking to honor and celebrate America’s 250th anniversary. This curated collection brings history to life in an engaging and meaningful way perfect for sparking conversations, learning, and patriotic pride.”
Colin Woodward, who has read them, says, “The overarching message is that America was founded under the auspices of the Christian God and built by those faithful to him with frequent miraculous assists from on high. We’re a Christian country, it argues on nearly every page, that only exists because the Lord wished it to. Anything in our history that complicates that story has simply been omitted. It’s a cherry-picking expedition par excellence conducted under the auspices of a federal government that’s supposed to stand apart from religion.” And that cherry picking includes “the omission of the origin stories of all of the colonies south of New England — home to most of colonial America’s inhabitants — which don’t fit so well into Kingstone’s narrative. New York, for example, started as Dutch New Netherland, a multicultural, multireligious corporate colony that emphasized tolerance of diversity and had Muslim, Sephardi, and Catholic founders, not just Protestants. William Penn’s Quakers, believing people had an “inner light,” also put no particular onus on religious or cultural conformity and presided over a culturally pluralistic colony where no ethnic group or religious tradition held sway. The Chesapeake country and Deep South were slave states where liberty was a privilege held by an aristocratic elite and most of the white population was unchurched. The leading figures of 17th and early 18th century Virginia, Georgia and the Carolinas didn’t declare that they were in a covenant with God to create a more holy society in the New World: They were, after all, engaged in furthering a lucrative system to produce and export commodities using slave labor within an imperial system unconcerned with individual liberty, divine missions, or self-government. The series editor, Kelly Ayris, wife of the Baptist pastor who founded Kingstone, has constructed the master narrative such that readers won’t have an inkling of any of this.”
From The US OF Anger to America 250, comic books really do have it all for the Semiquincentennial!
- DECLARATION EMANCIPATION ILLUSTRATED TP(W/A/CA) R. Sikoryak
R.Sikoryak revisits the Declaration of Independence on the 250th anniversary of its signing. R. Sikoryak, the cartoonist who cemented his reputation as the king of the visual mash-up with Masterpiece Comics and The Unquotable Trump, sets his sights on the documents that shaped the United States during the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. A prequel of sorts to his Constitution Illustrated, Sikoryak presents the unabridged text of the Declaration of Independence alongside the Emancipation Proclamation and the Gettysburg Address in a double sided book, rendered in the bright, bold, and iconic styles of over 100 different American comics, cartoons, and graphic novels from over a century. The severing of colonial ties to Great Britain and the critical turning points in American history that followed have never been more vividly manifested than in the skillful hands of Sikoryak, who doesn’t hesitate to dream up Jeffy from Family Circus as Thomas Jefferson and Mr. Magoo as a British loyalist. Declaration/Emancipation Illustrated is an entertaining, multilayered trip through American history and American comics. $15 7/1/2026 - Absolute Martian Manhunter #12by Deniz Camp and Javier Rodriguez
THE JAW-DROPPING FINAL ISSUE! It all comes together here: green and white, life and death, husbands and wives, fathers and sons, free will and fate, crime and punishment. Beginnings and endings. Why do people do the things they do? Read this issue to find out. $4.99 7/1/2026 - 100 BULLETS THE US OF ANGER #1 (OF 8) (MR)
(W) Brian Azzarello (A) Eduardo Risso (CA) Dave Johnson
HAPPY 250TH, AMERICA. LONO’S BACK. YOU WON’T SURVIVE THE YEAR. Not many people made it out alive from the fall of the Trust in 100 Bullets. Lono did–just barely–and it sent him spiraling on a years-long international odyssey. His one-time protege, Loop Hughes, was the only one smart enough to walk away clean. But now tragedy has come knocking on Loop’s door, and the scent of blood has attracted a dangerous stray dog. Lono’s back in the United States, and he’s on the hunt…through a network of good ol’ boys and militias, megachurches, millionaires, and madmen. In Brother Lono, Lono unsuccessfully tried to save his own soul; in The US of Anger, he’ll play Satan to a host of demons tempting the United States to sell hers. The multi-Eisner Award-winning team of Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso has returned to its most famous creation, unleashing a new chapter in Vertigo’s greatest crime saga–told for the first time in stunning black and white! $3.99 7/1/2026 - HORROR COMICS AMERICAN NIGHTMARES #1 (ONE-SHOT)
(W) Various (A) Various (CA) Kelsey Shannon
Celebrate 250 years of the Scars and Shrieks, the old Dread, Fright and Boo, with Antarctic Press! Our best bizarrtists like Brian Denham, David Hutchison, Kelsey Shannon and more provide a plethora of patri-rot-ic pinups depicting all manner of macabre Americana, from blood-Redcoats at Lexington to zombies at the Alamo, from gargoyles at the Grand Canyon to were-beasts in Washington. Sit back and enjoy fear-works display! $7.60 7/15/2026 - ARCHIE COMICS CELEBRATES AMERICAS 250TH (ONE SHOT)
(W) Various (A) Various (CA) Dan Parent
America is celebrating its 250th birthday, and who better to ring in the occasion than the beacons of Americana—Archie Andrews and all his friends and family in Riverdale! Take a walk down memory lane (no, not THAT Memory Lane), as we revisit some of the best U.S. and U.S. history stories from Archie’s 85 years! $4.99 7/1/2026 - REDCOAT #19 CVR C GARY FRANK USA 250TH ANNIVERSARY WRAPAROUND VAR
(W) Geoff Johns (A) Bryan Hitch, Andrew Currie, Brad Anderson (CA) Gary Frank
The senses-shattering consequences of last issue puts both immortal British soldier Simon Pure and genius physicist Albert Einstein on a path they will never be able to come back from. At least, not without paying an enormous price. $3.99 8/19/2026 - GEIGER #24 CVR D GARY FRANK USA 250TH ANNIVERSARY VAR
(W) Geoff Johns (A) Gary Frank, Brad Anderson (CA) Gary Frank
NEW STORY ARC The road to GEIGER’s shocking anniversary issue starts here! When the Glowing Man comes face to face with an army of Junkyard Joes, he realizes the terrifying truth: These soldiers weren’t built for war. They were built to destroy nations. And even the Man of Mass Destruction might not be able to stop them. All this plus…Redcoat. $3.99 7/29/2026 - SPIRIT OF INDEPENDENCE SKETCHBOOK (ONE SHOT)
(W) Blank Sketch (A) Blank sketch pages (CA) Blank sketch cover
Celebrate the U.S.’s 250th Anniversary with your own American success story, or any story you like! Tell it in stark black and white; shades of gray; red, white and blue; or whatever colors represent you best. It’s still a free country, so do it proud! $4.99 7/8/2026
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