Congressman Robert Garcia, D-Calif., made a splash this week when he helped secure enough votes in a House Oversight subcommittee meeting to subpoena the Justice Department for its files on Jeffrey Epstein.

This weekend, Garcia is planning a different form of “oversight.”

The newly minted ranking member of the powerful House committee, who also chairs the Congressional Popular Arts Caucus, is heading to Comic-Con Saturday to host a panel about the Library of Congress’ comic book collection, the importance of protecting creators’ rights, and the threads that link comics and politics. 

“Comic-Con is something I try to do every year, if I’m able,” Garcia said in a phone interview Friday. “People at Comic-Con are very invested in social justice, in comics as a political art form, and it’s good to connect with these folks.”

Garcia says comic books have played a vital role in shaping who he is today. Arriving in America at age five, Garcia learned to read and write English with the help of comic books that he read at a drug store when he shopped with his mom.

“I would just sit in the store and read them because we couldn’t afford all the comics, but every once in a while, I’d buy a couple, my mom would get me some,” Garcia recalled last year during a trip to a Washington, D.C. comic book store with Spectrum News. “I still have the very first comic I ever purchased at that Thrifty — I still have in my collection. It’s an old Action Comics comic book, and I have been collecting ever since.”

Comics, he reasoned, are a way for young readers to learn good values and develop a sense of what social justice actually means. And he’s attempted to bring that attitude to Capitol Hill.

In 2023, Garcia launched the Popular Arts Caucus, a bipartisan group of lawmakers that focuses on issues such as copyright protections, piracy, artificial intelligence and supporting artists. When he was sworn into office earlier that year, Garcia took his oath with his hand placed on a copy of the U.S. Constitution and a Superman #1 from 1939 that was loaned to him by the Library of Congress. 

He says he is excited to share his love for the art form with others who share that interest, particularly by bringing the Library of Congress’ collection with him.

“I think characters like Superman really speak to values, and I’m grateful that I grew up reading really good American fiction about characters that try to do the most good and that stood up to the powerful— that focused on truth and justice,” Garcia said.

But perhaps even Garcia couldn’t have expected how politics would play into this month’s release of the summer blockbuster Superman. The film, directed by James Gunn, has been criticized by conservatives for being “super woke” when it comes to discussions around immigration. 

Garcia called those criticisms “misguided and really unfortunate.”

“Superman has always been a character that’s been portrayed as an immigrant, as an outsider, that’s focused on kindness, that kind of takes on corporate billionaires,” Garcia explained. “It’s bizarre that [the] far-right MAGA world is so upset at a very well-loved character in American fiction.”

Garcia’s panel is scheduled for Saturday, July 26, at 12:30 p.m. PT.