The Illustrated Rand Chris Matthew Sciabarra
Centenary Symposium, Part I
Ayn Rand: Literary and Cultural Impact
The Illustrated Rand
Chris Matthew Sciabarra
Introduction
This issue of The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies marks the beginning
of a two-part Centennial Celebration of Ayn Rand’s legacy. Born on
2 February 1905,1 Rand lived an extraordinary life, while leaving an
indelible mark on intellectual history. That this journal was founded
—and that it’s now, in its sixth year of publication, indexed by over
a dozen scholarly abstracting services—is just one small indication of
the extent of her influence.2
This Fall 2004 Centenary Symposium focuses broadly on cultural
and literary impact—whether it be Rand’s impact on culture and
literature (see essays by Jeff Riggenbach, Matthew Stoloff, and the
current one) or the impact of culture on Rand (Cathy Young and
Bernice Rosenthal) or the inspiration that Rand provides for literary
theory (Stephen Cox), literary method (Erika Holzer), poetics (Kirsti
Minsaas), and a cultural renaissance (Alexandra York).
In the Spring 2005 issue, we will feature our second Centenary
Symposium, “Ayn Rand Among the Austrians,” which will focus on
the engagement of Rand with Austrian-school thinkers in economics
and social theory.
Rand and the Academy
Rand’s admirers revel in the fact that two decades after the
author’s death, sales of her combined works continue at a brisk pace.
But Rand’s impact can be measured in ways far beyond book sales, as
the exponential increase in scholarly and popular references to the
author illustrates (sometimes literally, as we will soon see).
Of course, mere mentions of Rand do not necessarily translate into
The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies 6, no. 1 (Fall 2004): 1–20.
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influence, especially when many of the mentions are negative. But there
is truth to Oscar Wilde’s maxim, as enunciated in The Picture of Dorian
Gray: “[T]here is only one thing in the world worse than being talked
about, and that is not being talked about” (Wilde 1994, 19). The fact
that Rand has so profoundly entered the Zeitgeist is something that
needs to be celebrated. What we are witnessing is nothing less than
Rand’s cultural ascendancy as an iconic figure.3
In the scholarly world, Rand’s thought has been the subject of
serious treatment in more and more journals, encyclopedias, texts,
and books.4 Her ideas have been discussed in a wide diversity of
publications: American Journal of Economics and Sociology; American
Philosophical Quarterly; Aristos: The Journal of Esthetics; British Journal of
Political Science; Catholic World; Choice; College English; Commentary; Cycnos;
Developmental Review; English Journal; Germano-Slavica: Canadian Journal
of Germanic and Slavic Comparative and Interdisciplinary Studies; Harvard
Journal of Law & Public Policy; The Humanist; Impact of Science on Society;
International Journal of Social Economics; International Review of Economics and
Ethics; Journal of Business Ethics; Journal of Canadian Studies; Journal of
Clinical Psychology; Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology; Journal of
Libertarian Studies; Journal of Philosophical Research; Journal of Popular
Culture; Journal of Reading; Journal of Thought; Journal of Value Inquiry;
Library Journal; The Monist;5 New University Thought; Nomos; The Occasional
Review; The Personalist; Philosophical Books; Philosophy Research Archives;
Policy Review; Political Studies; Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, and Practice;
Reason Papers; Religious Humanism; Resources for American Literary Study;
Social Justice Review; Social Research; Teaching Philosophy; Theory &
Psychology; and University of Windsor Review.6
Articles on Rand are also making their appearance in various
encyclopedias and reference works, including American Authors and
Books; American Novelists of Today; American Philosophers 1950–2000 (a
volume of the Dictionary of Literary Biography); American Writers;
Contemporary Authors; Contemporary Literary Criticism; Contemporary
Novelists; Contemporary Women Philosophers; Encyclopedia of Ethics;
Encyclopedia of Philosophy; Encyclopedia of World Literature; Handbook of
American Literature; History of American Thought; Oxford Companion to
American Literature; Reader’s Encyclopedia of American Literature; Twentieth
Sciabarra — The Illustrated Rand
3
Century Authors; Women in World History; and the forthcoming Encyclope-
dia of the Counterculture, Encyclopedia of Libertarianism, and Encyclopedia of
New York State, among others. Excerpts from Rand’s work are also
included in anthologies in economics, political science, sociology,
philosophy, and business, while full-length book studies are being
published by trade and university presses alike—an upsurge in
scholarly attention that has been noted by such periodicals as The
Chronicle of Higher Education and the now-defunct Lingua Franca. Even
CliffsNotes includes three Rand titles in its series.
Rand and Popular Culture
In addition to the encouraging growth of Rand references in
scholarly circles, there has been a remarkable growth in such
references throughout popular culture. That development is not
measured solely by her influence on authors in various genres—from
bodybuilder Mike Mentzer to fiction writers Edward Cline, Neil De
Rosa, Beth Elliott, James P. Hogan, Erika Holzer, Helen Knode,
Victor Koman, Ira Levin, Karen Michalson, Shelly Reuben, Kay
Nolte Smith, L. Neil Smith, Alexandra York, and so many others.7 It
is measured also by the number of Rand-like characters or outright
references to Rand that have appeared in fictional works of various
lengths and quality. Among these are works by: Gene Bell-Villada
(The Pianist Who Liked Ayn Rand); William Buckley (Getting It Right);
Don De Grazia (American Skin); Jeffrey Eugenides (author of the
2003 Pulitzer-Prize-winning Middlesex); Mary Gaitskill (Two Girls, Fat
and Thin); John Gardner (Mickelsson’s Ghosts); Laci Golos (Sacred Cows
Are Black and White); Sky Gilbert (The Emotionalists); Rebecca Gilman
(Spinning into Butter); Terry Goodkind (books in the Sword of Truth
series, such as Faith of the Fallen and Naked Empire); David Gulbraa
(Tales of the Mall Masters; An Elevator to the Future: A Fable of Reason
Underground); Robert A. Heinlein (The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress);
Orlando Outland (Death Wore a Fabulous New Fragrance); Robert Rodi
(Fag Hag); Matt Ruff (Sewer, Gas, and Electric: The Public Works Trilogy);
J. Neil Schulman (The Rainbow Cadenza; Escape from H eaven); Victor
Sperandeo (Cra$hmaker: A Federal Affaire); Tobias Wolff (Old School);
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and, finally, Tony Kushner, whose play Angels in America, adapted for
HBO, includes a discussion of the “visible scars” from rough sex,
“like a sex scene in an Ayn Rand novel” (Kushner 1994, 4.8.112).
The Kushner drama is not the first time that Rand’s name has
been heard on television, however. Rand has made her way into
countless television programs. From questions on game shows, such
as “Jeopardy” and “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” to the canceled
Fox series “Undeclared,” and such other series as “Columbo” (a
1994 episode with William Shatner, “Butterfly in Shades of Grey”),
“Home Improvement,” “The Gilmore Girls” (two episodes: “A-
Tisket, A-Tasket” and “They Shoot Gilmores, Don’t They?”),
“Frasier,” and “Judging Amy,” the Rand references are plentiful. In
Gene Roddenberry’s sci-fi series “Andromeda,” there is a colony
called the “Ayn Rand Station,” founded by a species of “Nietzsch-
eans.” In Showtime’s “Queer as Folk,” a leading character, free-spirit
Brian Kinney, is described as “the love-child of James Dean and Ayn
Rand.” And the WB’s “One Tree Hill” showcased Rand’s work in an
episode entitled, “Are You True?” The main character, Lucas, is
given Atlas Shrugged by a fellow classmate. Increasingly frustrated by
his basketball troubles, Lucas is told “Don’t let ’em take it: Your
talent. It’s all yours.” By the end of the episode, we hear Lucas’s
voice-over as he walks to the basketball court: “Do not let your fire
go out, spark by irreplaceable spark.” Reading from the John Galt
speech, he tells us: “Do not let the hero in your soul perish.”
Rand’s presence on television is not restricted to live action
dramas or sitcoms. It has also been felt in cartoons. In a “Futurama”
episode entitled “Second That Emotion,” the character Bender holds
up Atlas Shrugged while commenting that, in the sewer among the
mutants, they find “nothing but crumpled porn and Ayn Rand.”8 In
an infamous “South Park” episode called “Chickenlover,” Atlas
Shrugged is presented to Officer Barbrady, who has recently learned
how to read, and who, upon seeing the massive size of Rand’s novel,
laments his achievements in literacy.9
More philosophically astute, perhaps, are the Rand references on
“The Simpsons,” the longest-running animated show in television
history.10 As William Irwin and J. R. Lombardo (2001, 85) tell us in
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5
The Simpsons and Philosophy:
[I]n “A Streetcar Named Marge,” Maggie is placed in the
“Ayn Rand School for Tots” where the proprietor, Mr.
Sinclair, reads The Fountainhead Diet. To understand why
pacifiers are taken away from Maggie and the other children
one has to catch the allusion to the radical libertarian
philosophy of Ayn Rand. Recognizing and understanding
this allusion yields much more pleasure than would a
straightforward explanation that Maggie has been placed in
a daycare facility in which tots are trained to fend for
themselves, not to depend on others, not even to depend on
their pacifiers.
Rand, Branden, and Illustrated Media
Another barometer of Rand’s cultural ascendancy is the extent of
her permeation into that other illustrated medium: comics.11 Rand
(1995, 386) had recognized the comic strip as a legitimate literary
exercise in fiction, “a variation of stage or movie technique,” which
can successfully dramatize ideas. In fact, her own introduction to
Romantic literature was The Mysterious Valley (1915) by Maurice
Champagne, a richly illustrated adventure story serialized in a boys’
magazine. The illustration of its hero, Cyrus, so impressed Rand as
the perfect physical embodiment of her ideal man, that she admitted to
Barbara Branden (1986, 12) that the appearance of all of her own
heroes was a derivative, “completely taken from that illustration.”12
Interestingly, psychologist Nathaniel Branden was similarly
attracted to illustrated media as a youngster.13 He remarked that such
media “are a kind of child’s projection of the heroic.” So it is
unsurprising that Rand herself would exert some influence on those
comic artists who have extolled heroic and super-heroic values in
physical, symbolic, and metaphorical ways. The comic hero, like the
Randian hero, revels in his “outsider” status. “They are all the
outsiders,” Branden observes.14 “They are all doing good work, but
are, in many ways, unappreciated, misunderstood or even opposed”
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(in Hagen 1992b, 37).
Branden’s favorite childhood heroes—the Lone Ranger,
Superman, Batman, and, later, the Scarlet Pimpernel—were all
“masked,” “disguised,” or “invisible” men.15 Rand once told Branden
that, as he aged, he had clearly “kept the same values—daring,
audacity, independence”—while “adjusting the form of their
expression. . . .” But she was perceptive enough to see that the
disguised heroes of Branden’s youth struck a chord in his own
feelings of isolation (Branden 1999, 48–49)—characteristics felt,
perhaps, by those who have responded with equal passion to Rand’s
fiction, as they search for a visible manifestation of their values.16
Given the passionate responses that illustrated fiction has
inspired, it is perhaps no surprise that Rand herself understood the
importance of using such media to spread her ideas. She had
authorized King Features to produce an illustrated condensation of
The Fountainhead, long before its production as a film.17 The serial
began its run on Christmas Eve, 1945. “The Illustrated Fountainhead”
was syndicated in over thirty-five newspapers, domestically—in Los
Angeles, New York, Chicago, Detroit, Baltimore, and San Francisco,
and, globally—in Caracas, La Paz, and Buenos Aires.
Michael S. Berliner explains (in Rand 1998, 3) that due to the
increasing popularity of The Fountainhead, King Features had proposed
to syndicate an illustrated condensation of the novel. Rand “oversaw
the whole process, writing much of the copy for the thirty install-
ments. By contract, she had the right to approve the artist’s proposed
visualizations of the characters, to approve a general outline of the
scenes, and to approve and edit ‘every word’ of the condensation.
She was also guaranteed that Roark’s speech would occupy at least
one day of the series.” The serial is not an authentic comic strip of
sequential art, but more along the lines of illustrated prose. Rand
admired the illustrations of artist Frank Godwin.
The Fountainhead was not the only illustrated Rand work. Rand
had been convinced of the multimedia potential of Anthem as well.
On 5 September 1946, she had written to Walt Disney—with whom
she served as a member in the Motion Picture Alliance for the
Preservation of American Ideals (B. Branden 1986, 199)—in the
Sciabarra — The Illustrated Rand
7
hopes of persuading him to translate the book into “stylized”
animation. Cecil B. DeMille had suggested that she contact his niece,
choreographer Agnes DeMille, to produce a ballet based on Anthem
(Rand 1995, 317).18 Anthem was eventually dramatized for radio
broadcast in September 1950 (Rand 1995, 475, 479), and was adapted
as an illustrated work thereafter.
The illustrated Anthem appeared in June 1953, in the last issue
(volume 14, number 4) of Famous Fantastic Mysteries. Frank Robinson
(1999) explains that both Famous Fantastic Mysteries and Fantastic Novels
included covers and interiors by Virgil Finlay, Frank R. Paul, and
Lawrence Sterne Stevens (“Lawrence”). Book reprints in the science
fiction genre were featured regularly in these publications. When
Famous Fantastic Mysteries passed into the hands of another publisher,
however, “readers were startled to find” a movement away “[f]rom
the pulp novels of Abraham Merritt, George Allan England, Ralph
Milne Farley, and Austin Hall,” and toward “Arthur Machen,
Algernon Blackwood, Lord Dunsany, William Hope Hodgson, G. K.
Chesterton, Jack London, and Ayn Rand” (102). Lawrence was the
illustrator for the Anthem issue, which was identified as “A Classic by
Ayn Rand (Author of ‘The Fountainhead’).”19
Rand’s impact on illustrated media goes far beyond the adapta-
tion of her work; her ideas have had a significant influence on many
writers and artists in the comics industry, as well as illustrators and
cartoonists. And Nathaniel Branden suspects that this influence will
grow. “It will be felt, and often it will show up in ways that people
will not necessarily know. That’s the nature of the universe,” he adds.
“Nobody, each time he says or does something, can announce all of
the influences of his life. But . . . I’m quite convinced [Rand’s]
influence will persist” (45).
It does persist: in the classic 1991 Revolutionary comics series,
by writer Patrick McCray and artist David Lloyd, Elvis Shrugged, which
asks “Is Elvis alive?” with the same air of mystery as “Who is John
Galt?”; in the work of cartoonists, such as James Cox and Allen
Forkum (see Forkum 2002);20 in the Atlas Shrugged spoof, “Kiki
Shrugged,” by cartoonist Peter Abrams at Sluggy Freelance;21 in the
Atlas Shrugged “sequel,” Atlas Shrugged 2: One Hour Later, part of Bob
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the Angry Flower’s “Classic Literature Sequels”;22 and in the work of
comic book writers and artists, such as Steve Ditko, Frank Miller,
Alan Moore, Barney Steele, and Bosch Fawstin (2004), as well as
David Anthony Draft, publisher of Comics Interview (see Hagen 1992b,
36).
Steve Ditko and Frank Miller
No comic artist has been better known for incorporating Randian
themes in his work than Steve Ditko, co-creator, with Stan Lee, of
“Spider-Man.”23 Among Ditko’s comic book heroes, one will find
Static,24 The Creeper, The Blue Beetle, and Mr. A (as in “A is A”), as
well as the faceless crime fighter known as The Question,25 whom
Lawrence (2001) has characterized as the quintessential Ditko
character reflecting “the artist’s Objectivist beliefs.”26
Ditko emerged from—and shaped—the “Silver Age” of late ’50s,
’60s, and early ’70s comic book art. His work is in keeping with that
era’s use of the comic genre as a “vehicle for consciousness-raising
every bit as much as popular films and television shows” (Skoble
2003, 185).27
Consciousness raising in comics was not always the norm. In the
Golden Age, which began around 1939 and extended through the
’40s, comic book superheroes were a virtual arm of the government
war effort, doing battle against European and Pacific enemies. Later,
psychiatrist Frederick Wertham conducted studies into abnormal
behavior in young people and, in his book Seduction of the Innocent
(1954), claimed that American youth had been corrupted through
their consumption of comic books, which depicted latent homosexu-
ality (Batman and Robin), fantasies of sadistic joy (Superman), and
un-woman-like behavior (Wonder Woman). This prompted Estes
Kefauver’s judicial committee to hold congressional hearings in 1954
on the subject of “Comic Books and Juvenile Delinquency.” Fearing
government censorship, the Comics Code Authority emerged to self-
police the industry (Kroopnick 2003). Perhaps recalling this 1950s
attack on that industry, Rand herself had expressed exasperation with
those “[m]odern intellectuals [who] used to denounce the influence
Sciabarra — The Illustrated Rand
9
of comic strips on children . . .” (“The Comprachicos” in Rand
1975a, 232).
The naysayers were at least partially correct in their assumptions.
As Paul Buhle (2003, B7) suggests, the increased interest in the
impact of comics derives from the fact that “mass culture, from the
early moments when we could take it in as children, has affected us.”
Buhle, who founded the journal Radical America, recognized in ’60s
comics an “underground” art form that encapsulated “resentment
toward, and resistance of, authority in all forms,” which “added up to
a barely visible political aesthetic” (B9). The ’60s superhero revival
had collided with the counterculture, mirroring its rebellion and
dissent. Alan Moore, who has been characterized as “the most
acclaimed writer currently working in mainstream comics” (Wolk
2003, 9), observes that Ditko’s brilliant artistry in particular—from
“his psychedelic ‘Dr. Strange’” to the “teen-angst of Spider-Man”—
appealed to many in the left-wing counterculture, despite the fact that
his explicit ideology was Randian and “right wing.”28 Indeed, despite
Moore’s left-wing anarchist predilections, and his view of “Ayn
Rand’s philosophy [as] laughable” and elitist, he recognized the
Randian nature of Ditko’s “political agenda,” and retained the utmost
“respect for Ditko” and for his ability to express that agenda with an
“uncompromising attitude.” In the Watchmen, Moore actually
resurrects Ditko’s Mr. A and The Question (whose “real” name was
Victor Sage) through the character Rorschach, whom he portrays as
a raving right-wing vigilante (Cooke 2000).
In a way, Ditko’s appearance, like Rand’s, was of a unique
historical moment.29 As Rodney Schroeter (1987, 51) remarks:
In the late ’60s the mainstream media made a most astound-
ing discovery: Comics could deal with “relevant” issues. . . .
Steve Ditko did not limit himself to specific current-event
issues. He explored the values and philosophies behind
them, and their wider consequences. Nor was he content to
simply denounce something bad; he offered positive alterna-
tives. As such, he surpassed what most of the relevant
comics attempted. Many comics stories dealt with racism.
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Ditko attacked the underlying cause of racism: Collectivism,
the idea that the individual is nothing while the group is all.
In place of collectivism, Ditko espoused individualism, the
idea that a person should be considered on his merits alone,
not on the basis of his race, his tribe, or nationality.
In this respect, Ditko was a consummate radical, seeking to go to the
root of social problems. In attacking government corruption, he
focused on its roots in philosophic pragmatism. In attacking war, he
focused on the illegitimacy of initiating the use of force (51–52; Ditko
1985, 36–38).
Ditko’s prose is indisputably Randian, motivated by a profound
concern for life and for an uncompromising devotion to justice. In
Safest Place in the World, for example, Ditko (1993) exposes the
dynamics of a society that persecutes freethinking individuals, by
showing how even the oppressors become victims themselves, at the
mercy of anyone who wants to get ahead through the unearned—
through backstabbing, betrayal, and paranoia. Ditko (1985) rails
against those who proclaim there are no absolutes. He rejects the
doctrine of “hatred of the good for being good” (19). He proclaims
the virtues of justice wherein “every man be recognized for what he
is and be treated accordingly, his virtues praised, his vices con-
demned” (29). In Ditko’s stories, “[n]o man really escapes justice
because[,] psychologically, no man escapes himself! Irrationality is
injustice to oneself! Reality is the ultimate justice!” (105).
There is, perhaps, no better way to grasp Rand’s influence on
Ditko than to simply let Ditko speak for himself. The following
passages appear in Volume 1 of The Ditko Collection, and they are all
taken from Ditko’s “Mr. A”—which is drawn, appropriately, in sharp
blacks and whites:
I don’t abuse my emotions. I have no mercy or compassion
for the aggressors . . . only for their victims . . . for the
innocent! To have any sympathy for a killer is an insult to
their victims. (8)
Sciabarra — The Illustrated Rand
11
Fools will tell you that there can be no honest person! That
there are no blacks or whites. . . . That everyone is gray! But
if there are no blacks or whites, there cannot even be a gray.
Since grayness is just a mixture of black and white! So when
one knows what is black, evil, and what is white, good, there
can be no justification for choosing any part of evil! Those
who do so choose, are not gray but black and evil . . . and
they will be treated accordingly! (4)
Justice demands that man’s principles be fixed in terms of
good and evil, black and white! Man is not infallible! He is
not to be judged black, if after unwittingly committing an
error, he takes measures to correct it! But any man who
deliberately commits an evil act will be so judged and treated
accordingly! No man shall profit from choosing to be evil at
the expense of those who choose to be good! (9)
And in a passage inspired by a speech from Atlas Shrugged, given
by the character Francisco d’Anconia (see Rand [1957] 1992, 410–15),
Ditko’s Mr. A extols the virtues of money:
Only fools will tell you that money is the root of all evil!
Money is the tool of exchange, a tool that first must be made
before it can be used, begged, stolen or earned! And it has
to be made by the productive abilities of men! Is that evil?
Money is made by, and the rightful tool of, honest people!
For people who can exchange their abilities for an equal
value: Money! And that money is exchanged for an equal
value in products and services provided by other men’s
abilities. Is that evil? Beggars and thieves exchange nothing
for their wants and demands of someone else’s earned
wealth, nor the cheats and corrupters who knowingly deal in
the inferior, the illegal, and the non-value for a true value:
Money! And that is evil! (Ditko 1985, 9)
If Ditko is the gold standard by which to measure Rand’s impact
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on comics, Frank Miller—famous for the Batman “Dark Knight”
series, Daredevil series, and Ronin series—follows closely behind.
This may be surprising; Nathaniel Branden, for instance (in Hagen
1992b, 35), was deeply impressed with Miller’s Dark Knight Returns,
but very surprised to hear that Miller owed any debt to Rand because
“his view of life seems to be rather dark.”30 Miller’s Randian
influence is less political than it is aesthetic and literary, insofar as he
constructs single-minded, intransigent characters. He credits Rand’s
Romantic Manifesto as having helped him to define the nature of the
literary hero and the legitimacy of heroic fiction (in Hagen 1992a,
10).31 And in an “Afterword” to Martha Washington Goes to War,32
Miller expresses his debt to Rand even more explicitly:
We all borrow from the classics from time to time, and my
story for this chapter in the life of Martha Washington is no
exception. Faced with the questions of how to present
Martha’s rite of passage and how to describe the fundamen-
tal changes in Martha’s world, I was drawn again and again
to the ideas presented by Ayn Rand in her 1957 novel Atlas
Shrugged. Eschewing the easy and much-used totalitarian
menace made popular by George Orwell, Rand focused
instead on issues of competence and incompetence, courage
and cowardice, and took the fate of humanity out of the
hands of a convenient “Big Brother” and placed it in the
hands of individuals with individual strengths and individual
choices made for good or evil. I gratefully and humbly
acknowledge the creative debt. (in Miller and Gibbons 1995,
137)
Quite clearly, that “creative debt” to Ayn Rand is widely owed by
many scholars, writers, and artists. When Rand has become so
embedded in the American psyche that her ideas are filtered through
encyclopedias and textbooks, cartoons and comics, fiction and film,
I think it is safe to assume that she has not only survived, but
flourished. And for those who are enamored of Rand’s philosophy, the
cultural apex will be reached when her ideas are so embedded in the
Sciabarra — The Illustrated Rand
13
American psyche that they will have brought about a veritable
intellectual revolution.
Acknowledgments
I’d like to express my appreciation to the following individuals who helped in
ways large and small: David M. Brown, Robert Campbell, Jerry Dickson, Steve
Ditko, Sheldon L. Field, Anne Heller, Elizabeth Kanabe, Roderick T. Long, Karen
Marcus, Michael Marcus, Joseph Maurone, Jon Osborne, Craig Ranapia, Steve Reed,
Bryan Register, Stan Rozenfeld, Timur Rozenfeld, Arthur Silber, Aeon Skoble, Ellen
Stuttle, Chris Tame, Joan Kennedy Taylor, Kirsten C. Tynan, Richard Warshak, and
Jane Yoder. The usual caveats apply.
Notes
1. The actual date of Rand’s birth is 20 January 1905, according to the Julian
calendar, in use in pre-revolutionary Russia.
2. For a discussion of this journal’s progress, see Sciabarra 2003b. An earlier,
much briefer, treatment of the issues discussed in the current essay can be found in
Sciabarra 2003e.
3. For discussion of Rand’s impact on other aspects of popular culture,
including her impact on the rock band Rush and on progressive rock music in
general, see Sciabarra 2002; 2003c.
4. For recent surveys of Rand scholarship, see Sciabarra 1998; 2003a; 2003d.
5. See especially Smith 1992, in which Douglas Rasmussen acted as an advisory
editor. This issue of The Monist, on teleology and values, includes essays referencing
Rand by Harry Binswanger and Douglas J. Den Uyl.
6. For a further bibliographic listing of sources, see Gladstein 1999 and, online,
The Objectivist Reference Pointer (maintained by Matthew Stoloff at
<http://home.netcom.com/~magnus2/>) and The Objectivist Reference Center
(maintained by Richard Lawrence at <http://www.noblesoul.com/orc/
index.html>). A further listing of “Ayn Rand Research Sources on the Web” can be
found on the website of The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies at <http://www.
aynrandstudies.com/jars/links.asp>.
7. For a provocative exchange between two of these authors, see York 1983;
Holzer 2003a. See also Holzer 2003b. There are other authors who claim to have
gone through a Rand phase, while not having been influenced by her philosophical
or literary legacy. See, for example, Prescott 2003.
8. See <http://www.geocities.com/theneutralplanet/transcripts/season2/
2ACV01.html>.
9. See <http://home.arcor.de/pla-scripts/scripts-203.htm>.
10. Insightful commentary on The Simpsons is offered by literary and cultural
theorist Paul Cantor (in Carson 2003), who admits to having been influenced by Ayn
Rand.
11. A full defense of comics-as-art-form is beyond the scope of this paper.
However, something needs to be said in response to the assertions of those writers—
such as conservative John Podhoretz (2004), self-confessed “anti-comic-book
snob”—who dismiss comics as “the most immature and illiterate of cultural forms,”
“the province of powerless boys . . . a cultural embarrassment because the common
culture has unthinkingly and stupidly accepted them as an art form.” Podhoretz
views this acceptance as the “natural outcome of the youth-worship that took over
American culture in the 1960s . . .” (Interestingly, this is the same kind of attitude
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directed against “adolescent” expressions of admiration for Rand, which are
dismissed as a vestige of “youth.”)
In truth, however, comics provide a kind of mythology for the modern age.
They are generally defined as “sequential art.” A more detailed definition is provided
by McCloud 1993. Taking a cue from master comics artist Will Eisner, McCloud
defines comics as “juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence,
intended to convey information and/or to produce an aesthetic response in the
viewer” (9). He roots the medium in epic stories, which were pictured on walls
among the ancient Egyptians and the pre-Columbians, or in tapestries (e.g., the
Bayeux Tapestry), or even in “collage novels” (such as those of Max Ernst).
McCloud celebrates the visual iconography of the comics form; his book is a fine
introduction to the topic. See also Carrier 2001.
Another important development in the comics art form is the rise of the graphic
novel. See especially McGrath 2004, which characterizes the graphic novel as “the
comic book with a brain . . . It is its own thing: an integrated whole, of words and
images both, where the pictures don’t just depict the story; they’re part of the telling”
(30).
12. There is also a “Cyrus” (Cyrus Smith) in Jules Verne’s similarly titled book
The Mysterious Island (1875), and a similarly heroic historical figure, the Persian king
Cyrus, who was greeted as a liberator in ancient Babylonia, and who allowed 40,000
Jews to return to Palestine in 537 B.C.E. Thanks to Joseph Maurone for these points.
13. Leonard Peikoff tells us too that, as a child, he had a “mammoth collection
of comic books. . . . I was on that intellectual level. I had every Captain Marvel,
Superman, and Batman . . .” See Little 2004.
14. On “outsider” and “insider” perspectives in Rand’s fiction, see Cox 1999.
15. One geographic parallel between many of the classic superheroes and
Rand’s protagonists should be noted: Kidd (2002) points out that Superman,
Batman, and Spider-Man each occupied New York (though the first two portray the
city as Metropolis and Gotham City, respectively). See also Hermann 2004. Rand’s
characters in both The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged act out many of their dramas
with New York as backdrop.
16. Branden notes too (in Hagen 1992, 43) that most superheroes, even Roark
and Galt, are orphans, expressing a “very, very American . . . idea,” even if some of
these characteristics transcend American culture. “Part of the American vision is that
the individual can create himself, can invent himself. And I think that the way that
you dramatize independence is by showing the lack of the usual external resources or
sources of help that average people have. So what you do is, you dramatize self-
sufficiency and independence and self-invention.” Branden admits he doesn’t “know
enough” to support one further contention, but he thinks that the “emphasis on
aloneness” might even be “part of our frontier heritage,” partially derivable from
Native American Indians, “[b]ecause I suspect that a lot of what we call ‘uniquely
American’ is fed by kind of subterranean waters by at least some aspects of Indian
culture.” Branden also has this to say about the power of comics: “If they inspire
you—if you use it as energy to live more heroically in real-life, adult terms—then they
have performed one of the most important services of romantic art. But if instead
they become merely a kind of alternative reality, where in your dreams you’re
somebody daring and brave and courageous, but in your actual life you are a
mediocrity who never aspires to anything at all challenging . . . [t]hen the problem is
that they helped you stay passive, rather than inspire you to become active. . . . It all
depends on the context, and it all depends on what the individual makes of the
experience of reading the stories” (41).
17. It should be noted that the Japanese translation of The Fountainhead,
published in July 2004, has a cover illustration by Nobuyuki Ohnishi, an artist famous
Sciabarra — The Illustrated Rand
15
for that classic form of Japanese animation, anime. Ohnishi’s Fountainhead cover is
from an oil painting of the New York skyline (he is equally famous for his paintings
and drawings of the skyscrapers of New York, post-9/11).
In addition to its illustrated version, The Fountainhead was also adapted for the
screen by Ayn Rand in 1949, a film version starring Gary Cooper and Patricia Neal.
Discussions about a remake have been bandied about for years, with both director
Oliver Stone and actor Brad Pitt expressing interest. See <http://www.
theatlasphere.com/metablog/000131.php>.
Other Rand works have had successful film adaptations. An acclaimed Italian
film version of We the Living made its debut in 1942. The film rights to Anthem have
been purchased by Jim Snider and Kevin O’Quinn (see <http://www.theatlasphere.
com/metablog/000027.php>), while film rights to Atlas Shrugged have been acquired
by Crusader Entertainment, LLC (see <http://www.objectivistcenter.org/articles/
annc_atlas-shrugged-film.asp>).
18. It has also been reported that Rudolph Nureyev expressed interest in doing
a ballet on the story. And writer Joan Kennedy Taylor tells me that Rand had even
approached her father, celebrated composer Deems Taylor, to write an opera based
on Anthem. For a variety of reasons, the project never came to fruition.
19. Though there is no evidence in Rand’s published letters or journals that she
authorized the Anthem adaptation, the illustrated version clearly states, on page 12,
“Copyright 1946 by Ayn Rand,” and, on page 13, “Reprinted by permission of the
author.” The issue of this magazine that featured Anthem also included a short story
by Ray Bradbury and Henry Hasse entitled “Pendulum,” as well as an illustrated
version of Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis. It is all the more ironic that this latter work
was included alongside Anthem, considering Rand’s own repudiation of “the [James]
Joyce-Kafka amendment,” which sullied literary romanticism (Rand 1975b, 141).
Thanks to Robert Campbell for reminding me of this.
Other libertarians have had their work illustrated for popular consumption. See,
for example, a condensed version of Friedrich Hayek’s book, The Road to Serfdom,
which appeared in Look magazine (“The Road to Serfdom in Cartoons,” in Hayek
1999, 63–81).
20. There is also a comic called “Scoop Smith” <http://www.paprikash.
com/lou/galt.jpg>, which includes a character, “Dr. John Galt,” but I’ve been unable
to substantiate any influence—either way—between the artist, Charles Clarence “C.
C.” Beck, and Ayn Rand. Of course, there was a Scottish poet named John Galt.
21. See <http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=010115&mode=weekly>.
22. See <http://www.angryflower.com/atlass.gif>.
23. On this topic, see also Price 2003. I invited Steve Ditko to participate in this
Journal of Ayn Rand Studies symposium; he respectfully declined for the same reason
that he once articulated publicly: “I never talk about myself. My work is me. I do
my best, and if I like it, I hope somebody else likes it, too” (Ditko 1985, iv).
24. On Ditko’s “Static,” see Ditko 1989; Schroeter 1998. Also see Schroeter
1987, which surveys Ditko’s work from his ’50s horror and science fiction to today.
As my colleague Aeon Skoble reminds me, Static is filled with Fountainhead-ish
themes on the nature of the self and of love and relationships.
25. In The Dark Knight Strikes Again, Miller resurrects “The Question” and
returns the character to its Randian roots: “I’m gonna use The Question, and it’s
gonna be Steve Ditko’s Question,” not some pale version thereof, he explained. “I
want to have Ditko’s Ayn Randian point of view as part of my story” (see Brownstein
2000). And so, in that work, The Question engages in a debate with the Green
Arrow, who derides him as “Mr. Atlas-Shrugged-Is-The-Word-of-God.” The
Question retorts: “I’m no Ayn Rander! She didn’t go nearly far enough!” (Miller and
Varley 2002, 246). The Question has also made a 2004 television debut in a new
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Cartoon Network series, “Justice League Unlimited.”
26. Ditko’s artistry is outside the scope of the current paper. But it has had a
wide impact, extending even to “psychedelic art,” which was influenced by Ditko’s
late ’50s illustrations for “Dr. Strange.” Strausbaugh (2003) remarks (in his review of
Schumer 2003): “Isolated and enlarged, a single tiny panel by Steve Ditko from a
1964 issue of ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ approaches the gloomy monumentalism of
a Rothko.” By contrast, Schroeter (1987, 52) extols the virtues of “Ditko’s art” for
“its use of expressive anatomy . . . grace . . . suppleness . . . Ditko’s figures are both
strong and graceful, a combination found in classical Greek sculpture.”
27. Skoble (2003, 186) emphasizes the reciprocal connection between popular
culture and social change. He writes that “all social problems depend for their
successful resolution on grassroots-level changes in people’s thinking, a shift in
general perception from the bottom up, as opposed to edicts from the top down. . . .
Comic books both reflect trends in social change and help foster social change.”
28. Of course, “right-wing” here does not mean “conservative.” Politically,
however, Ditko is closer to libertarianism—though Schroeter (1987) makes the
bizarre claim that both Ditko’s and Rand’s ideologies are “definitely not libertarian-
ism” (52); I suspect that Schroeter is working with Schwartz’s (1986) view of
libertarianism as “the perversion of liberty,” rather than as the modern manifestation
of classical liberalism, the political ideology of voluntarism.
29. For a look at Rand’s corpus within its specific historical context, see
Sciabarra 1995.
30. A whole study of the Randian and libertarian tendencies in “Batman” would
take us well beyond our current scope. But the subject is fascinating. Roderick Long
points out (in a personal correspondence, 11 October 2003) that the explicitly
Randian and libertarian tendencies in Miller’s “Batman” work (see the various “Dark
Knight” series: Miller 1989; Miller and Varley 2002) have extended to other Batman
contributors. Mike Barr ([1987] 2002, 47), for example, puts Francisco d’Anconia-like
words in the mouth of Batman (who is speaking to Commissioner Gordon):
“Commissioner, very soon now you’re going to curse my name. Order my capture.
Wish me dead. Against that, I can only say . . . I swear to you—by the cause I love—
that I am your friend.”
The Batman comics have also given birth to the anarchistic character, Anarky
(whose “real” name is Lonnie Machin), created by Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle.
Grant and Breyfogle were inspired by Alan Moore and David Lloyd’s fascist-fighting
hero, whose independence of spirit fuels a left-anarchist antistatist revolt in V for
Vendetta. Anarky’s Randian-like dialogue is evident, however:
Cast your mind back to when you were a child. Remember how life shone
out from within? How everything was new and full of golden hope? And
then “they” got to you. The politicians—the priests—the philosophers—
the parasites! This is politics: “Do what you’re told or we’ll punish you.”
This is religion: “Suffer misery now so you can be happy after death.”
This is philosophy: “The universe came from nothing and will one day
return to it.” None of these doctrines stands up to rational analysis.
(“Metamorphosis, Part 1: Does a Dog Have a Buddha Nature?,” Anarky
Miniseries #1 [May 1997], reprinted in Grant 1999, 118–19)
Quoting Einstein out of context, they say that good and evil are relative;
that there are no moral absolutes. They lie. Only two laws are needed to
change the entire universe: Never use initiatory force, and never cheat.
The people who run our world constantly break both. (“Metamorphosis,
Part 2: Revolution Number 9,” Anarky Miniseries #2 [June 1997], reprinted
Sciabarra — The Illustrated Rand
17
in Grant 1999, 142)
Aristotle believed that man is basically good, decent and noble. If left to
his own devices he’ll seek individual happiness within an orderly society.
For Aristotle, human life and sovereign consciousness were the universe’s
greatest values. But Plato believed man is a wild and savage beast,
incapable of self-discipline. To manage him for his own best ends, man
needs rulers—kings, governments, priests, presidents. For Plato, human
life is worthless, to be endlessly sacrificed to “higher” causes and ideals.
Which one do you think the world followed . . .? (“Metamorphosis, Part
2: Revolution Number 9,” Anarky Miniseries #2 [June 1997], reprinted in
Grant 1999, 150)
In harsh economic terms, there are only two kinds of people in the world:
those who produce goods, services and values . . . and those who don’t. . . .
Intentional non-producers are parasites. To hide their parasitism, they
employ the techniques of deception, coercion, and naked force. Parasites
can never create. They can only destroy. (“Metamorphosis, Part 3: The
Economics of the Madhouse,” Anarky Miniseries #3 [July 1997], reprinted
in Grant 1999, 173)
And here’s a quotation from Anarky’s father:
He’s fifteen years old, for pity’s sake! Look at these books—! He should
be sneaking copies of Playboy around, not Bakunin and Marx and Ayn
Rand! (“Anarkist Manifesto,” in Batman: Shadow of the Bat #41 [August
1995], reprinted in Grant 1999, 93)
Thanks to Long for these references. See also Long’s “Anarky” page: <http://
praxeology.net/anarky.htm>.
Rand is, of course, not the only libertarian to be found in Batman comics. See,
for example, Pope 1998, 4–5, which discusses the Nazi confiscation of “the property
of a certain economist, Ludwig von Mises, an Austrian Jew from Vienna.” A Nazi
character derides Mises for being “critical” of policy; he will “personally oversee
inspection of the contents of the seized library,” because “it is believed [Mises] is
working on a new book which hopefully we can prevent,” part of the goal of
“keep[ing] unpopular ideas out of the hands of the people.” (On the Nazi looting,
Soviet capture, and eventual rediscovery of the Mises library, see Ebeling 2004.)
31. On Rand’s fiction, Miller (in Hagen 1992a, 22) has argued “that The
Fountainhead may have been her finest work, because I think Atlas Shrugged tended to
collapse under its own weight.” Given the weightiness of the John Galt speech,
Miller thinks that Rand didn’t understand “how well her ideas were getting across in
Atlas Shrugged. She was almost like a comic-book writer who uses too many captions
. . . when the pictures are already doing the job.” Miller notes too that he appreciates
Rand’s definition of humor, where, as Hagen puts it, “you laugh with the hero, and
not at him” (22).
32. See also Miller and Gibbons 1990.
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Document Outline
