Big Head Press

Stuff like if Robert Heinlein got drunk and started scribbling NRA pamphlets. Visit Big Head Press for all your libertarian propaganda needs!

Okay, that's not entirely fair. Bieser et al.'s various comics do tend to share a certain thematic milieu but they are also good, fanciful futuristic storytelling in themselves and though the soapbox makes frequent appearances it's always clearly (and proudly) held up as such. My own favorite has been Escape From Terra, largely because it starts like shameless fan-fiction spun off  Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress... and manages to own it. But hey, if your flavor's guns more than economics, try The Probability Broach, or if you miss the sexual revolution, try La Muse. They're even selling A Drug War Carol, but strictly under the table. From there on, stuff gets a bit ... trippier.

Overall, I'm constantly reminded that libertarians believe in magic. No, really. No matter the endless civilizations' worth of evidence to the contrary, libertarians will still puff out their chests and, with a faraway dreamy look in their eye, proclaim that gosh-darn-it if only we abolished official taxes and police, people would spontaneously pull together and build a true Utopia of individual freedom, dignity, efficient industry and equal opportunity. Believe me, it pains me to say all this as I consider myself an anarchist at heart. Such visions, impractical as they may be to any real system of naked apes who will spontaneouly fabricate police and taxes (mafia and protection money) out of any amount of freedom they're given, nonetheless make for excellent escapist literature.

Which brings me back to Escape from Terra which caught my eye not least because of its spot-on title. That is what this is all about, ain't it? Besides the lure of Heinlein-esque straight-talkin', straight-shootin' cowboy archetypes, this is Utopian fiction and as always manages to charm through sheer hope, the fragile thing with feathers, the vision of a better world if only we could escape the current one. Watch some unnaturally reasonable, competent and clever everyman characters uphold the values of emergent anarchy among sentient individuals. It grows the head.