[“1/6” imagines the dystopian MAGA future that almost was.]
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A JAN. 6 COMIC BOOK ASKS THE TERRIFYING QUESTION: WHAT IF THE COUP
HAD WORKED?  
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Todd Zwillich
January 6, 2023
Vice
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_ “1/6” imagines the dystopian MAGA future that almost was. _

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 "1/6: THE GRAPHIC NOVEL," BY ALAN JENKINS, GAN GOLAN, AND WILLIAM
ROSADO.
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The first wave of the mob breaks into the Capitol and ascends the
stairs from the first floor to the second. Capitol Police
Officer EUGENE GOODMAN backs up to the top of the steps to try and
divert the marauders. Goodman tries to get the crowd to go left.
Instead they go right, overrunning him, and happen upon Vice
President MIKE PENCE, who’s just off the Senate Floor. It’s a
disaster.

This a nearly-real scene from new, four-part comic series “1/6“
from Harvard law professor ALAN JENKINS and author and activist GAN
GOLAN.  It’s a speculative telling of the January 6 insurrection
and coup attempt in an oppressive and authoritarian world where the
mob, and DONALD TRUMP, succeeded. (You’ll be able to find it on
Amazon, in comic shops and in book stores starting on Jan. 8.) 

This seemed like a great way to observe the second anniversary of the
attack. So, in between failed House Speaker votes, I called up the
authors. Our chat has been edited for length. 

WHAT WAS THE INSPIRATION FOR THIS PROJECT? WHY DID YOU DECIDE THAT
“1/6” HAD TO BE IN COMIC BOOK FORM? 

ALAN: I found myself waking up in the middle of the night in a cold
sweat worrying about the threats that still remain to our democracy
and watching cynical pundits and politicians trying to spin and negate
it and try to disappear the events of Jan. 6. So I felt the need to
tell that story in a way that would be accessible for everyday folks,
that doesn’t require advanced education or sophisticated English
literacy skills, that would actually be interesting and engaging to
consume. And I’m also a comic book geek from way back. And so
graphic novels seemed like the right way to go. 

_ _GAN: Yeah, we’re not just trying to condense the 850 page final
report of the January 6 committee down and then illustrate it. We’re
using this speculative fiction approach which allows us to get into
some very profound issues at the heart of what happened on Jan. 6. It
isn’t just about what happened. But what could have happened had
they succeeded. What were the intentions of this movement? And what
are the ongoing risks to our democracy? The reality is that the
insurrection itself didn’t end on Jan. 6, and given a chance they
might try again, or try to do something even worse. 

THERE’S A “MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE” VIBE TO THIS WHOLE THING,
RIGHT? “WHAT IF THE BAD GUYS HAD WON?”

ALAN: Well, that’s a long tradition of the dystopian alternate
reality in comic books. This is a metaverse of madness for our
democracy in some ways. We took our inspiration from the best of
speculative fiction. Whether you look at George Orwell's “1984” or
Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale,” or Octavia Butler’s
large body of work. Those are cautionary tales. They are historical
markers, they’re cultural calls to action. And “Man in the High
Castle” certainly fits well within that tradition. And we really are
hoping we’re at least aspiring to reach that kind of storytelling.

_ _YOU NOTICE RIGHT AWAY IN YOUR VERSION, MIKE PENCE WAS ACTUALLY
HANGED. 

_ _GAN: And you see the attempt to blame others for the crime. But
the disinformation and revisionism coming from the seat of government
hopefully will sound eerily familiar to people. That’s because we
used some of the very same disinformation tactics that Tucker Carlson
and Donald Trump and others have used. In our story, government drones
and political apparatchiks push a narrative that’s pretty close to
our real American life. And we’re kind of showing what would have
happened, had they succeeded. In the story it looks surreal and
bizarre to us, but actually…is it? 

I GUESS ALL GOOD DYSTOPIAN FICTION COMES WITH A WARNING.

GAN: When you see a version of the intentions of the MAGA organizers,
you suddenly understand the severity of their vision and how contrary
it is to the values that most of us hold. You can’t do that in a
documentary. The power of all dystopian fiction is it gives us that
warning of the reality we want we have to work to avoid. It’s a call
to action. It’s meant for us to deeply consider the crossroads that
we’re in and make much clearer choices about the country that we
want to live in.

ALAN: And you know, comic books are just an extremely popular and
enduring vehicle for storytelling. If you are 80 years old in the
United States, you grew up around comic books. If you’re 15, you
grew up around comic books. Regardless of ideology, comic books can
reach you and transport you. When a story is good, we lower our
ideological filters and allow ourselves to be transported. And I think
that’s especially important right now. Hopefully, we got that right.

* Comic Books
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* Graphic novel
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* Insurrection in Washington
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* dystopian novels
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