Background

In July 2025, Representative Mr. Garcia (California) submitted a resolution (H.R. 599 IH) to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, 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.

The resolution highlighted that nearly 5 million Americans work in the arts and cultural production industry, contributing approximately 4.4 percent of the gross domestic product of the United States, with annual revenues of over $1 trillion.

Impact on Society

The resolution also noted that:

• Nearly 90 billion viewers annually watch television and home videos globally, generating over $90 billion in revenue.
• The global comic book industry is valued at more than $9.2 billion annually.
• The gaming industry exceeds $300 billion in value, with approximately 3 billion people worldwide playing video games, and the global Esports audience projected to surpass 640 million by 2025.
• Fantasy and science fiction books generate nearly $600 million in annual sales in the United States, and fantasy audiobooks remain the largest category among audiobook genres.
• Hundreds of Comic-Con conventions across the United States attract up to 250,000 attendees at the largest events and contribute over $100 million to local economies.

Additionally, the resolution highlighted that:

• The lineage of comics and other visual popular arts can be traced back to ancient word-image texts, including cave paintings, Egyptian hieroglyphs, Mayan carvings, illuminated manuscripts, the Bayeux Tapestry, early woodcut printing, the serial illustrations of William Hogarth and Rodolphe Töpffer, and the engravings of William Blake.
• Superheroes entered the comic book medium in 1938 with the release of Action Comics No. 1 and the debut of Superman.

Notable works such as Art Spiegelman’s Maus (1980–1986), which won the Pulitzer Prize, and civil rights hero the late Congressman John Lewis’ National Book Award-winning March trilogy, exemplify the power of the medium.

Conclusion

The resolution affirms that the popular arts deserve fair wages, representation, and dignity in their work. It also honors the unique impact of the popular arts on generations of Americans and the global community, and affirms the importance of promoting the popular arts to broader audiences and advancing increased representation within all forms of the popular arts.