For all those who scoff at anything that even remotely suggests so-called "conspiracy theories," believing they're all far-fetched fictions made up by paranoid whack-jobs, here's a little something to chew on: right-wingers looking to inflitrate comic books!

At Bill Jemas' zenith as President of Marvel Comics he commissioned "4/11," also known as The White Album, an anthology series telling stories about world war, politics and terrorism with a slant towards fixing problems, finding new solutions and making the world a better place. Mark Millar and Frank Quitely's short story about Irish sectarianism was a highlight, but the project faltered after one invited writer had her work rejected and went AWOL, and the third issue and subsequent collection were both cancelled - seen as an initial sign that Jemas was on the skids. And he skidded out of the door to be replaced by a safer pair of hands.

We wonder what he's make of Marvel's upcoming "Combat Zone: True Tales from GI's in Iraq." Not only has this book been waiting for publication at Marvel for a while, but a number of artists have been approached, started on the book and then left when it's true nature was revealed.

While a number of Marvel's previous titles involving war and terrorism have tried to explore issues from different perspectives, reports I've had are that this is not the case here. America is the One True Hope, all who oppose her or disagree with her current thinking are evil scum, and the world would be better off without them. And thank the Lord we have these plucky brave soldiers to do her bidding.

And certainly the resume of "Combat Zone's" writer Karl Zinsmeister, credited as the "embedded correspondent," makes for interesting reading.

He's editor-in-chief of the American Enterprise Magazine, the in-house magazine of "The American Enterprise Institute" (AEI). The AEI is a neo-conservative think tank, with strong ties to the oil industry and the White House, and one of the most important architects of President Bush's current foreign policy. Famous members include Richard Perle, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, ExxonMobile's CEO Lee Raymond and the Vice-President's wife Lynne Cheney...

The complete article is here, including links to more information on Zinsmeister, the AEI and its connection to the Project for a New American Century, the conservative think-tank widely believed to be the architects of the War On in Iraq.

Like many of the military's grossly-misleading recruitment campaigns over the past decade, and it's insidious involvement in the video game industry, this is just another example of the attempt to brainwash those most likely to die on the front lines of this country's ill-advised wars. Good to see many artists - ultimately, the real marketing draw for a project like this - are not simply taking the paycheck and actually taking a principled stand against it.