Saddam Hussein

Few figures from the real world have made their way into comics quite like Saddam Hussein, who turned up in the pages of Cracked in 1991 — right at the height of the Gulf War's cultural moment — brought to satirical life by Lou Silverstone and Walter Brogan. A product of the Copper/Modern Age, this version of the infamous dictator found a second home in the irreverent British anthology 2000 AD under Fleetway Publications, sharing pages with a wonderfully eccentric cast that includes Big Dave and Psi-Judge Bhaji. With only four catalog appearances across a tight 1991–1993 window, he's a compact but historically vivid slice of comics reacting in real time to world events — a reminder that the medium has always had sharp things to say about the powerful.