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Alabama Needs John Patterson for Governor (1958) comic books

  • Issue #1958
    Alabama Needs John Patterson for Governor (1958) 1958
    • Includes COA from Commercial Comics Inc.

    Alabama Needs John Patterson for Governor (1958) is a political promotional comic book published by Malcolm Ater's Commercial Comics Co. Full color, 16 pages, 5-in. x 7-in., all newsprint. The 1958 Gubernatorial campaign of Alabama between Attorney General John Patterson and Judge George Wallace will go down as one of the greatest dogfights in Southern Political History! Both men desperately wanted the governorship, and nothing was spared in their campaign to get elected. For John Patterson, it meant hiring a Yankee from up north to come down and write the first pro-segregation comic book in U.S. political history! So how effective was this comic book? Well, this was the only election that George Wallace ever lost. Wallace was so impressed with the Patterson comic that he hired the comic's creator, Malcolm Ater, to work for him in the 1962 Alabama Governor's election when state law did not allow John Patterson to run for a second term. Not only did Malcolm Ater help elect Patterson as Governor in this 1958 election, his 1962 book for George Wallace helped propel Wallace into the Governor's mansion. And when Wallace couldn't succeed himself as governor, Mr. Ater went back to Alabama in 1966 to do yet another book for John Patterson. This booklet has a crease down the middle which was standard practice for the purpose of mailing. This fold is not considered a defect.