IV 

118TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. RES. 598 

Recognizing the immense capacity of the popular arts to bring people together, 

inspire creativity and imagination, promote critical thinking, and instill 

the universal values of truth, justice, and equality. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JULY 18, 2023 

Mr. ROBERT GARCIA of California submitted the following resolution; which 

was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Accountability 

RESOLUTION 

Recognizing the immense capacity of the popular arts to 

bring people together, inspire creativity and imagination, 

promote critical thinking, and instill the universal values 

of truth, justice, and equality. 

Whereas nearly 5,000,000 Americans work in the arts and 

cultural production industry; 

Whereas the overall arts economy represents approximately 

4.5 percent of the gross domestic product of the United 

States, or just over $1,000,000,000,000; 

Whereas both creation and production of new content across 

every sphere of the popular arts industry would not be 

possible without union labor and every artist, creator, 

and worker in the popular arts industry deserves wellVerDate Sep 11 2014 00:29 Jul 19, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR598.IH HR598

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•HRES 598 IH 

paying wages, representation, and to have the dignity of 

their work protected; 

Whereas, since the debut of the television industry, the number of traditional television and home video viewers has 

grown over time to 5,400,000,000 in 2022 and has created $94,000,000,000 in global revenue; 

Whereas the global comic book industry today is worth more 

than $9,210,000,000; 

Whereas the gaming industry is worth more than 

$300,000,000,000 with approximately 3,000,000,000 

people worldwide playing video games and the global 

Esports audience set to rise above half a billion by 2024; 

Whereas fantasy books, along with science fiction, generate 

nearly $600,000,000 in sales each year in the United 

States and fantasy audiobooks hold the largest share of 

sales among all audiobook categories; 

Whereas hundreds of annual Comic Cons all across the 

United States have attracted upwards of 250,000 visitors 

to individual conventions; 

Whereas Comic Cons inject tourism and foster enormous 

growth, with the largest conventions injecting upwards of 

$100,000,000 into their local economies; 

Whereas the lineage of comics and other visual popular arts 

has been traced by academics to word-image texts that 

evolved from cave paintings, Egyptian hieroglyphs, 

Mayan carvings, illuminated manuscripts, the Bayeux 

Tapestry, early woodcut printing, the serial illustrations 

of William Hogarth and Rodolphe To ̈pffer, and the 

engravings of William Blake; 


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•HRES 598 IH 

Whereas superheroes entered the world of comic books in 

1938 with the release of ‘‘Action Comics No. 1’’ and the 

debut of ‘‘Superman’’; 

Whereas works include Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel, 

‘‘Maus’’ (1980–1986), which won the Pulitzer Prize and 

Congressman and civil rights hero John Lewis’ National 

Book Award-winning ‘‘March’’ which was, itself, inspired 

by a 1958 comic ‘‘Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story’’; 

Whereas the most valuable comic book to-date remains the 

first edition of ‘‘Action Comics’’, considered by many to 

be the first proper comic book to come into existence, 

which was sold for $3,200,000 in 2022 after going for 10 

cents a piece in 1938; 

Whereas, in 2020, graphic novels made up 67 percent of the 

children’s book market in the United States; 

Whereas comic books and the popular arts are a valuable literary tool for helping educate millions of children allowing them to learn English and other languages; and 

Whereas the Library of Congress has more than 140,000 

issues of about 13,000 comic-book titles and is the largest comic book collection in the world: Now, therefore, be 

it 

1 Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 

2 (1) recognizes the immense capacity of the pop3 ular arts to bring people together, inspire creativity 

4 and imagination, promote critical thinking, and in5 still the universal values of truth, justice, and equal6 ity; 


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•HRES 598 IH 

1 (2) honors the unique impact of the popular 

2 arts on generations of Americans and the broader 

3 global community; and 

4 (3) recognizes the importance of promoting the 

5 popular arts to broader audiences and advancing in6 creased representation within all forms of the pop7 ular arts. 

Æ 


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