American comic strips have been around for just over a century. From the very beginning, artists of color have been involved with-and even shaped-comics as we know them. Like all media, cartoons and comics reflect society.
In the early 1900s, when comic strips became a mass medium, Black cartoonists flourished in Black-owned newspapers. There were 2,700 of these papers in the United States in 1900, and by the middle of the decade, many carried their own strips.
Many professionally trained Black painters drew comics to earn a living in the white press. These comics often provided a unique opportunity to chart the evolution of the Black comic self-image, reflecting life experiences, often in humorous ways. The reality of what it meant to be Black in America were many times just below the surface of the humor.
However, Black people have been portrayed in comics since the medium's beginning, with their portrayals often the subject of controversy. Mainstream comic publishing companies have had a historical trend of being predominantly white and male, reflecting the lack of representation and inaccurate depictions of Black people in comics.
The Dark History of Cartoons: Addressing Racial Stereotypes
Early Representations and Stereotypes
Similar to the portrayals of African Americans in the earliest days of television and film, early Black characters in comics were largely relegated to background roles or were characterized by racist stereotypes.
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Early graphic art of various kinds often depicted black characters in a stylized fashion, emphasizing certain physical features to form a recognizable racial caricature of black faces. These features often included long unkempt hair, broad noses, enormous, red-tinted lips, dark skin and ragged clothing reminiscent of those worn by African American slaves. These characters were also depicted as speaking accented English.
Examples of early strips include:
- Pore Lil’ Mose (1900) by Richard F. Outcault: A strip about a Black child in New York City that lives in a section known as Coon Town.
- Musical Mose (1902) by George Herriman: A strip about a Black musician who dresses up as other nationalities but is ultimately discovered and run out of town.
- Sambo And His Funny Noises (1905) by William Marriner: A strip about the adventures of Sammie “Sambo” Johnsin and his dealings with two little white boys.
In Frank King's Bobby Make-Believe the African-American housemaid Rachel made her debut, whom he would later reintroduce in his more famous comic strip Gasoline Alley. While Rachel was a stereotypical Mammy archetype character she was still portrayed as an intelligent and self-assured character with just as much backstory as all the other (white) characters.
The first black character to be incorporated into a syndicated comic strip was Lothar who appeared in Mandrake the Magician in the 1930s. He was Mandrake's sidekick: the circus strongman, who wore a Tarzan-style costume, was drawn in the Sambo-style of the time and was poor, and uneducated.
Writer-artist Will Eisner was sometimes criticized for his depiction of Ebony White, the young African American sidekick of Eisner's 1940s and 1950s character The Spirit. Eisner later admitted to consciously stereotyping the character, but said he tried to do so with "responsibility," and argued that "at the time humor consisted in our society of bad English and physical difference in identity".
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Pioneering Black Cartoonists
Despite the challenges, Black cartoonists made significant strides. Perhaps the best known of these was Bungleton Green, started by Leslie Malcolm Rogers in the Chicago Defender in 1920. What began as a slice-of-life gag strip shifted to a soap opera-style serial in 1929, when creator Henry Brown took over, and then to a sci-fi/superhero strip after Jay Jackson became the writer and artist in 1934.
Jackie Ormes, the first Black woman cartoonist to have a nationally distributed comic strip, also found a path to publication in the Black press. She made her mark with Torchy Brown, which debuted in the Pittsburgh Courier. Her first strip, “Torchy Brown in Dixie to Harlem,” was published in 1937 in The Pittsburgh Courier and The Chicago Defender, and her comics appeared in African American newspapers until 1956.
Jackie Ormes (1911-1985) was the first African American female syndicated cartoonist to be published in a newspaper. Eschewing racial stereotypes like the mammy and pickaninny, Ormes created a space for original, carefree, and dynamic Black comic characters and stories like “Torchy Brown in Dixie to Harlem” and “Patty-Jo ‘n’ Ginger.”
Jackie Ormes
In 1944, Jerry Iger hired Matt Baker to the previously all-white Iger Studios, which produced comics for numerous publishers.
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Emergence of Black Superheroes
The integration of black characters in mainstream and superhero comics has endured various obstacles and challenges.
The next Black superhero, Lion Man, debuted in All-Negro Comics #1 in 1947. The comic was edited by Orrin C. Evans, a journalist who wanted to showcase work by Black creators, entertain Black readers, and counter racist depictions in mass media. The comic was well received and got a favorable review from First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.
All-Negro Comics No. 1 (June 1947). All-Negro Comics No. 1, published out of Philadelphia in mid-1947, was the first known comics magazine written and drawn solely by African-American writers and artists. In it we find what some comic book historians consider the first black "super hero" Lion Man, which pre-dated Marvel's Black Panther by almost 20 years.
In 1966, The Black Panther superhero stepped out in Fantastic Four #52. The first black superhero in mainstream American comic books is Marvel's the Black Panther, an African who first appeared in Fantastic Four No. 52 (July 1966). He was originally conceived by Jack Kirby as a character named "Coal Tiger".
Civil Rights and Social Commentary
A 1957 comic played a key part in the civil rights movement: Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story told of the Montgomery bus boycott and outlined the basic principles of nonviolent protest. The comic was produced by the studio of Li’l Abner creator Al Capp and distributed by churches, schools, and activists, though there were attempts to suppress it in the South.
In the early 1960s, some newspapers would still cancel a strip if it introduced a Black character, but in 1965, cartoonist Morrie Turner prevailed with Wee Pals, the first nationally syndicated strip with a multiracial cast. In 1968, Turner’s friend Charles Schulz introduced Franklin, the first Black Peanuts character.
Milestone Media and Modern Achievements
In 1993, four Black creators, Dwayne McDuffie, Denys Cowan, Michael Davis, and Derek T. Dingle, formed Milestone Media, which published several series distributed through DC. Milestone Media negotiated a publishing agreement with DC Comics where they retained the rights over their comic book series and DC Comics distributed the comic books to its already-large audience.
Since the rise of graphic novels in the 2000s, Black creators have established several milestones: In 2016, the third volume of Lewis’s memoir, “March,” was the first graphic novel to win a National Book Award, and in 2020, Jerry Craft’s New Kid won the Newbery Award, another first for the medium.
Black people have been portrayed in comics since the medium's beginning, with their portrayals often the subject of controversy. Mainstream comic publishing companies have had a historical trend of being predominantly white and male, reflecting the lack of representation and inaccurate depictions of Black people in comics.
| Comic Strip/Book | Creator(s) | Year | Significance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bungleton Green | Leslie Malcolm Rogers, Henry Brown, Jay Jackson | 1920 | One of the earliest and longest-running Black comic strips |
| Torchy Brown | Jackie Ormes | 1937 | First nationally distributed comic strip by a Black woman |
| All-Negro Comics #1 | Orrin C. Evans (Editor) | 1947 | First comic book by Black creators featuring an all-Black cast |
| Fantastic Four #52 | Stan Lee and Jack Kirby | 1966 | Debut of the Black Panther, one of the first Black superheroes in mainstream comics |
| Wee Pals | Morrie Turner | 1965 | First nationally syndicated comic strip with a multiracial cast |
| March (Book Three) | John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, Nate Powell | 2016 | First graphic novel to win a National Book Award |
| New Kid | Jerry Craft | 2020 | Won the Newbery Award |
