[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 598 Introduced in House (IH)]

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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 
        well-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 Topffer, and the engravings of William Blake;
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
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
            (1) recognizes 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;
            (2) honors the unique impact of the popular arts on 
        generations of Americans and the broader global community; and
            (3) recognizes the importance of promoting the popular arts 
        to broader audiences and advancing increased representation 
        within all forms of the popular arts.
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