Barack Obama

The real-world 44th U.S. President appears in comics as himself, a public figure depicted satirically and editorially across humor and mainstream titles. No fictional origin exists — he is portrayed as the recognizable political figure he is in real life.

Long before he became a fixture in editorial cartoons and satire collections, Barack Obama made his comics debut in the pages of Mad #482 in 2007, brought to life by the inimitable Peter Kuper during the height of the Modern Age. Over roughly fifteen years, his image turned up across 29 catalog appearances — from the irreverent halls of EC's Mad to the surprisingly wholesome world of Archie and the annual Best Editorial Cartoons of the Year collections — making him one of the more versatile real-world figures to grace the comics page. Along the way he shares panel space with an eclectic crowd: George W. Bush, Hillary Clinton, Ronald Reagan, and even Captain America and a Red Lantern, which tells you everything about the wonderfully unpredictable corners of comics where his likeness has landed. If you're drawn to the place where political history and pop culture collide on the printed page, his comics footprint is a genuinely fascinating snapshot of an era.