The creative minds of Matt Bors and Ben Clarkson have returned with the latest instalment of Justice Warriors. The next graphic novel, entitled Vote Harder, pits mutant cops and best friends Swamp and Schitt against each other in the midst of an election. Bors and Clarkson cowrote the story with Clarkson illustrating and Bors providing backup illustrations. Felipe Sobreiro provided the colors while Bors provided the lettering.
The first book, Justice Warriors, was initially published in 2023 as a trade paperback and has gone through three printings. Justice Warriors received praise for its humor and witty critique. The Beat described it as a “sassy, surgical satire.”
Published by AHOY Comics, Justice Warriors: Vote Harder is described below:
In crime-free utopia Bubble City’s first-ever election for mayor, feckless celebrity incumbent The Prince faces a challenge from within the Bubble’s elite: his half-cousin Stuffina Vippix IX, who promises austerity and competency. Finally a choice for the people! But out in the Uninhabited Zone, which is packed with millions of mutants, the radical and armed Flauf Tanko mounts a third-party run to inspire the masses who are fed up with the entire system. Rallying to protect the votes from the people, mutant cops Swamp and Schitt are called in on special duty. Schitt must act as bodyguard to the Prince, while his poll numbers drop and assassination attempts ramp up. Meanwhile, Swamp is sent on a clandestine mission inside the mutant opposition—to infiltrate, report, and maybe fall in love with a passionate activist triggering an identity crisis. Can the two partners survive being pitted against each other in a horserace?
Bors said the sequel “updates” the paranoia that political thrillers of the 70s have for the modern age of “conspiracy, partisanship, and the desire to break out of the confines of the ballot box to do something far more radical.” He describes Vote Harder as containing, “Unlikable candidates. An unfair media. And a system designed to prevent real change. It’s the most important election of everyone’s life—and possibly their last.”
Clarkson adds on that it is “bigger, badder and more justicier than the original with a thrilling dose of orbital space lasers, giraffe assassins and obscure parliamentary procedure.”
Given the timing of the release coinciding with the presidential election happening in the U.S., AHOY Comics Editor-in-Chief Tom Peyer commented that readers might find themselves thinking of Vote Harder as they sit in the ballot box and vote, saying that “it might even take some of the sting away.”
An excerpt of a few of the pages can be found below where readers can see just how “amphetaminesque,” as Peyer described it, the artwork is:
Published by AHOY Comics, Justice Warriors: Vote Harder released on Sept. 10 and is now on bookshelves.
Source: AHOY Comics
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