'Nazi Puncher' Comic From Space Goat Inspired by Richard Spencer

It’s one of the most iconic comic book covers of all time: Captain America punching out Hitler, a full year before Pearl Harbor catapulted the United States into World War II. Now, an indie comics publisher is releasing an entire book featuring heroes laying the smack down on Nazis and other nasty fascists.

Space Goat Productions announced on Tuesday that it was soliciting submissions for Nazi Puncher, an anthology of comics, posters, and one-sheets that depict the fascist baddies “getting punched, smacked, kicked, or generally beat down on.” All proceeds from the book will go to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks and combats hate crimes across the country, notably through its “hate map.”

“This has been in the works ever since we saw the Richard Spencer video,” J.D. Boucher, the company’s director of marketing and sales, as well as an editor of the book, tells Inverse. “In the office, we were watching all the remixes and the whole nine yards, and thought it would make a good comic.”

Already, Space Goat has lined up some big-name contributors. The list includes artists who have worked for both major label and indie comics: Bill Sienkiewicz (Elektra: Assassin, The New Mutants), Ted Naifeh (“Courtney Crumrin”, Princess Ugg, Heroines), Aaron Alexovich (Serenity Rose, Invader Zim), and Ty Templeton (Batman ‘66, Batman Adventures, Spider-man).

The company is also making room for up to 80 pages of submissions from artists and fans, who are invited to depict any and all fascists being punched, kicked, and otherwise being beaten to a pulp.

“I’m pretty sure Trump is going to get some punches in there,” Boucher says. “I wouldn’t be surprised to see some Putin. Obviously Hitler; he’s the greatest hits of fascists. Maybe a little Stalin, too. You’ve got your old hits and new hits of the fascists, and in this case, the hits are punches to fascists.”

The book, which will be physically smaller than standard issue comics, will be available for pre-order by retailers in July, with an expected September release date. And the digital version of the book will be available in June — “right as a certain big event from another publisher is coming out,” Boucher says.

It was a reference to the Marvel event Secret Empire, which continues the controversial storyline that has turned Captain America into a Nazi, not a Nazi-puncher.

“There are a couple of projects we’ve seen from other publishers that are more supportive of Nazis and Nazi imagery than we at Space Goat would really like,” Boucher says. “We wanted to make a statement of where we stand on the subject. And we think Nazis should be punched.”

The physical book — with cover art by Jok — will be able to take up to two page submissions, but the digital version might carry a ten page story, if Boucher and his co-editors like it enough. And should the project prove popular enough, and there’s an opportunity to raise more money for the SPLC, Space Goat has the flexibility as a publisher to print new and different editions.

“If there’s a huge demand, we might do a larger trade paperback,” he says. “If people want a hardcover of people punching Nazis, and we can make the numbers work, we’ll do it.”