Polite Dissent

With the Daytona 500 this weekend marking the beginning of the 2007 NASCAR season, I thought this would be a good time to look at the history of NASCAR and comic books. What’s the point of being a vocal comic book and NASCAR fan if I can’t put it to good use?

Contrary to popular belief, the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing — better known as NASCAR — actually has a fairly substantial association with comic books — both as a subject and as a sponsor — starting in the early 1990s.

Beginning in 1991, Vortex Comics published a number of NASCAR-related comics. There was The Daytona 500 Story, which related the history of the race of the same name. Legends of NASCAR ran for 16 issues, and each issue featured the biography of a different racing champion. The art was surprisingly good with pencils by artists including Herb Trimpe and Don Heck. There was also a Legends of NASCAR Christmas Special — and, true to the spirit of comic books in the ’90s — a hologram cover. Vortex also published NASCAR Adventures which, like Legends of NASCAR, profiled a different racer in each issue. It originally ran for 2 issues, but then came back with a #5, and a little later with a #7. To the best of my knowledge there was never a #3, 4, or 6. For the kids, Vortex published the one-shot Adventures of the NASCUBS, featuring anthropomorphic race car driving animals as well as the “Official Mascots of NASCAR.” The NASCUB characters have never been seen again.

In 1998, at the UAW-GM Quality 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway (now known as Lowe’s Motor Speedway), Dale Jarrett competed in a special Batman themed car. His teammate, the late Kenny Irwin, raced in a Joker car.

In 1999, DC released Superman Meets the Motorsports Champions, a one-shot comic book starring Superman (surprise!) as well as 9 different race drivers including Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr (back when he was driving exclusively in the Busch Series). The comic was written by Chuck Dixon with art by Paul Ryan and was available only at K-Mart stores. Later that year, Jeff Gordon raced a Superman themed car in the Winston (the NASCAR all-star race) and Dale Earnhardt Jr. raced another in the Phoenix 300.

In 2000, Custom Comics of America released RaceWarriors (probably not the best name for a comic), which purported to tell the story of stock car racing in the year 2020. Each issue also featured a backup feature on a famous NASCAR driver. It was an ambitious project, as the initial covers stated “A new edition each week” and “Collect all 38 issues!” Presumably, they were going to release a comic for each week of the racing season, including the off weeks. However, by issue #9 the blurb on the cover had changed to “A new edition every 2 weeks” and issue #10 had “A new edition ever month.” There was no issue #11.

In 2001, Bill Elliot (#9) and Casey Atwood (#19) both raced special Spider-Man themed cars at that year’s UAW-GM Quality 500 in Charlotte. Ironically, both of them were driving Dodges. These were the best looking Spider-Man cars by far, much better than the ones designed to advertise the Spider-Man films.

In April 2002, at the Texas Motorsports 300 (a Busch Series race), Lyndon Amick raced a Spider-Man/Dr. Pepper themed car to advertise the upcoming Spider-Man motion picture.

Terry Labonte had a special Spider-Man 2 theme on his #5 car during the 2004 Pepsi 400 in Daytona to advertise the second Spider-Man movie.

In August 2004, Hot Wheels sponsored a Justice League Racing Weekend at the Michigan International Speedway with several Justice League themed cars racing on both days. In the Busch Series race on August 21st, there were Flash, Batman, and Martian Manhunter cars. The next day, at the main Nextel Series event, there were Flash, Green Lantern, Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman Cars. There was also a general “Justice League” car showing all the heroes. The villains weren’t left out either; they were featured on the pace car. Appropriately, Greg Biffle in the #16 Flash car won the race.

Not content with his name on just a few cars, Batman had an entire race named after him. The June 19, 2005 race at the Michigan International Speedway was officially known as the “Batman Begins 400.” Mark Martin also raced a Batman Begins themed car in the event.

In 2006, Jeff Gordon raced a Superman Returns car in the July 1st Pepsi 400 at the Daytona Motor Speedway.

This year the NASCAR/comic book connection continues. We have already had NASCAR featured in Archie #572, and later in the year comes the NASCAR Heroes series by NASCAR Comics.

Tags: comics nascar