By Ariel Baska — Politics and spectacle have always gone hand in hand.

So much so, in fact, that the alternative historical fiction that Chuck Brown invents for On the Stump, Vol. 1 seems alarmingly plausible. Once upon a time, Horatio Seymour actually resorted to fisticuffs in a debate with Ulysses S. Grant. He won the day and the White House and from that day on, politics became more about bloody spectacle than policy.

Brown & Prenzy’s perfectly articulated story of the insidious and intertwining nature of national pride, racism, government-sanctioned violence, and the cult of celebrity, starts a century and a half after Grant’s royal thumping. The Slay Act is about to make the violence of the political arena a whole lot more gruesome. Thunder Bearer, a power-hungry senator with a lethal punch, looks poised to pass a bill that will turn every bout into a celebrity death match.

Enter Senator Jack Hammer, here to upset the status quo. He appears at first as a small, distant figure in a huge arena - an everyman, who is suddenly down for the count in his first close-up. As a barrel-chested black man with nothing to lose, Prenzy draws him as a blur of energy in the heat of the first fight, but slumped and weary in equal measure, in both defeat and victory. Whether scarfing down a burrito or invading a secret lair, his look stays largely the same. Blue pants and a bare chest. He is an iconic figure, with more than a hint of John Henry about him.

Thunder Bearer by contrast, looks like a fusion of Texas macho chic with Viking Americana, as do his cronies. This imagery is no accident. His design screams white pride. Prenzy unites the two main branches of modern white supremacist imagery - Northern European and Old West - and makes it mythic. Norse gods meet the frontier myth.

This book is full of glorious allusions and from the start, the creators are working on two levels simultaneously. The immediate threat, the iconic imagery is all too clear, but throughout, Brown and Prenzy draw on allusions to art history, lore, films, and literature that work on the edge of your perception. The visual themes and expressive style recall the Harlem Renaissance at certain times, while in other moments Prenzy deliberately channels the visual language of cartooning, so closely associated with racist caricature. Jack Hammer’s high-octane fighting style as drawn gives a new look to black excellence, just as the bulging eyes of the white supremacists draw attention to a subversive but powerful reversal of the imagery of bigotry.

The bigotry is never the point, however, the fight against it is. Brown & Prenzy use another artistic movement, blaxploitation, to explore themes associated with the empowerment of black women, who join the fight. And do they ever. FBI agent Annabelle Lister gives as good as she gets, even in her very first scene. A secret organization called the Blacksmiths unites some pretty badass women as well, who get some of the most knock-out layouts in the book. As they brawl and duke it out, two female mercenaries, who only ever improve the storytelling. Both because you never quite know who hired them, or what their mission really is, and because their banter is a desperately needed breath of comic relief every time they appear. Then you turn the page, and Prenzy & Brown have taken your breath away yet again.

The trade paperback includes Sanford Greene’s ferocious variant covers, each and every one distilling into a war cry the essential rage at the political machine within this complex story. Additionally, the trade includes important essays that frame the historical, religious, and cultural context of On the Stump. Written after the start of the pandemic, they presage the divide over the 2020 election, and encourage civic action, in terms more academic than the book as a whole, but no less important.

The conclusion of Jack Hammer’s story is a harrowing appeal. Brown & Prenzy emphasize through an alternate timeline how much America has lost in the last four years, and how much the American people have abdicated responsibility for their actions. This book is both a time capsule and a necessary reckoning. Unmistakably made in this moment, but unmistakably here to stay.

Overall: A secret sculpture of the future, the past, and the shape of things as they are. Bloody, pulpy, with a heartbeat all its own, chiseled to perfection by Prenzy & Brown. 10/10

On the Stump, Vol. 1

On the Stump, Vol. 1
Writer: Chuck Brown
Artist: Prenzy
Colorist: Prenzy
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Publisher: Image
Price: $14.99
The campaign trail is paved with blood and broken bones. History diverged one fateful day in 1868, when presidential candidate Horatio Seymour lost his temper mid-debate and violently attacked Ulysses S. Grant, earning him not only widespread popularity but the presidency as well. Today, elections are decided by brutal, highly publicized hand-to-hand combat in arenas called Stumps. And in a society that adores violence this much, it's no surprise that powerful people get away with murder. But not for long—not if Senator Jack Hammer and FBI Agent Anna Bell Lister have anything to say about it.Eisner-nominated writer CHUCK BROWN (BITTER ROOT, Rotten Apple) teams up with artist FRANCESCO CHIAPPARA and letterer CLAYTON COWLES for a political action series set in a hyper-violent world full of countless injustices and people who have to fight for their place in it. Collects ON THE STUMP #1-5
Release Date: November 4, 2020
Buy It Digitally: On the Stump, Vol. 1

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Jacob Cordas contributed to this review.

Ariel Baska has had many past lives, but right now she has a podcast, Ride the Omnibus, parked at the intersection of pop culture and social justice.