A giant monster has been ‘birthed’ from a landfill site in Ohio, and begins rampaging across the US. The rotund, naked, short-fingered beast is given the name Rumpke, after the landfill site he climbed out of, and his emergence, and destructive activities, are the catalyst for a bizarre political movement. Journalist Fred Millard is sent to find out what he can about what’s going on, and why seemingly normal, everyday people are so obsessed with Rumpke.

As political satire goes, American Greatness #1 is about as subtle as a brick to the head. It’s very on-the-nose; there’s no mistaking exactly what the comic is really about, even if you’re just looking at the cover.

Writer Fred Millard (yes, the main character has the same name as the pseudonymous author, whose desire to remain anonymous is an unfortunate necessity in the current US political climate) and artist Seb Valencia have crafted a comic that’s impressively produced, taking aim at an array of targets beyond the obvious one that the monster so clearly represents.

American Greatness pokes at things such as QAnon, a certain faux-hillbilly, guyliner-wearing VP, the red hats (with their own four letter acronym), plus much more besides.

Beyond the obvious, more visual satire, there is some more subtle commentary on how a certain political movement relies so much on repeated buzzwords to an audience who feel aggrieved and left behind, to the frustration and bewilderment of the rest of the world, not just the US.

There’s a clever sequence involving the listing of Rumpke’s ‘accomplishments’, which simultaneously shows the monster destroying something his own followers supposedly respect and look up to; of course, as long as he’s also sticking it to the ‘right’ people, they simply don’t care, even if the beast destroys their own lives.

There’s also a frustrating, all too realistic exchange with one of the monster’s followers that’ll likely be very familiar to anyone outside the red hat cult.

Though American Greatness #1 isn’t subtle by any stretch of the imagination, it does seem as if the time for subtlety has long passed. It vanished almost as soon as a certain, human-sized monster emerged from a golden escalator, and immediately started appealing to the baser instincts of a depressingly large, easily manipulated percentage of the population.

Millard and Valencia’s frustration, or perhaps more accurately their outright disgust and despair, with the current state of politics (which unfortunately isn’t confined to the US), is on full display in American Greatness #1.

It does feel like we’re currently in a death spiral of hopelessness when it comes to the political situation in certain countries at the moment. However, one thing that American Greatness truly excels at, is reminding us that we’re not alone in our thoughts of the current state of the world.

You can buy American Greatness #1 from Indy Planet, Amazon or most digital ebook stores.

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