In 2010, an obscure, 32-year-old socially awkward, unemployed African American Army veteran, who had been kicked out of the service and was living with his father in the South Carolina countryside while facing federal pornography charges, spent a significant portion of his life’s savings on the filing fee to run for U.S. Senate in the Democratic primary to challenge incumbent Tea Party kingmaker Jim DeMint. Alvin didn’t campaign, he didn’t even have a Website and no one knew who he was. Until — and exactly how is still being disputed — he won.

Alvin Greene lost the general election against DeMint, but not without becoming a household name. In a way, his story highlights everything that’s right and wrong with American politics today. On one hand, he’s proof that there’s a place for the everyman at the center of political power in the free world. On the other, his win is evidence of the mass apathy, confusion and ignorance coursing through the American electorate.

It’s a story that has everything: A man against the odds, accusations of election rigging, federal investigations into bank accounts, sex, the social stigma of mental health and political intrigue all amid swirling racial undertones and a Deep South setting. THE ACCIDENTAL CANDIDATE: THE RISE AND FALL OF ALVIN GREENE, a serial Web comic and graphic novel written by reporters David Axe and Corey Hutchins and drawn by Blue Delliquanti, will appear online and in print in 2012.