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GREENSBORO - Though some of his supporters may like to think so, Barack Obama cannot outrun a locomotive. John McCain may have been a flyboy in his earlier life, but he cannot leap tall buildings in a single bound.

But they are, for the moment at least, outselling Superman, Batman and pretty much every other caped hero.

Two new comics titled "Presidential Material" offer 28-page visual profiles of each of the candidates.

Put out by IDW Publishing, the books have become a hot commodity, surprising local shop owners who report having trouble keeping them in stock.

"I didn't have any faith in them at first," said John Hitchcock, owner of Parts Unknown on Spring Garden Street. "There's always been a history of gimmicks in the comic world, and they've never really done well. But this has really captured a lot of people's attention."

As of Monday, Acme Comics on Lawndale Drive had sold more than 300 copies since the books were released on Oct. 8. An additional 43 were on reserve.

The shop's first order was conservative (no pun intended), assistant manager Stephen Mayer said, because of worries of getting "stuck with whatever we had left over of the books."

But Obama sold out the first day, McCain in two days.

The store has been trying to keep up with demand ever since.

In recent years, comics have been trending toward nonfiction subjects, such as 2006's comic-book version of the 9/11 Commission Report. Comics have long flirted with political themes, though, and Hitchcock remembers a Captain America book from the 1970s that featured Richard Nixon as a bad guy.

"Presidential Material," however, has been the most prominent and, by far, best selling effort to mix politics and comics.

The books, which cost $3.99 each, offer a mostly positive view of the candidates but also touch on matters such as Obama's ties to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, his former pastor, and McCain's involvement with the Keating Five, an ethics scandal.

In telephone interviews, McCain comic author Andy Helfer and Obama author Jeff Mariotte said the greatest challenge was condensing their subjects' lives into so few pages.

"John McCain is 72 years old," Helfer said from his home in New York. "Seventy-two years, 28 pages, you do the math. It doesn't leave a lot per year. And he's had a very full life. You have to figure out what material is better realized with illustrations. Clearly in McCain's life, that's his 51/2 years as a POW."

Mariotte said among the guidelines they were given was to not editorialize on the candidates' political views. That prevented the writers, for the most part, from focusing on where Obama and McCain stand on the issues. But he said he believes the books offer a clear view of the candidates' backgrounds.

Thus far, the Obama book has been the most popular of the two, outselling the McCain comic by a margin of about 4 to 1 at Parts Unknown.

"I've had a couple of Obama supporters come in and actually insinuate that I must be voting for McCain, because I have McCain comics but I don't have any Obama comics," Hitchcock said. "I tell them, 'You don't understand. I sold out of the Obama comics.'"

At Acme Comics, the Obama books have also done very well, outselling McCain by about 2 to 1, Mayer said.

Last week, N.C. A&T senior Norman Mitchell bought 17 Obama and two McCain books.

"My mother wanted some, couldn't find any selling in Charlotte (where she lives)," he said. "And then my mother's co-worker wanted some, my dad wanted some and I wanted some to keep for myself. I'll probably go back to get some more."

Acme owner Jermaine Exum said that in 12 years, the only other time he had to start a reserve list to meet demand for a comic was when Captain America was killed in 2007.

"We actually had to generate two waiting lists for (the Obama and McCain books)," he said. "We've had a lot of people buying for relatives and friends. I think some people are doing this for potential collectability. ... And it's been a lot of brand new faces. A few of our regular customers have responded to this, but this is mostly been driven by the general public."

Contact Robert C. Lopez at 691-5091 or robert.lopez@news-record.com