The “Red Mask” is an African prince who, for reasons never fully revealed, has taken a secret identity as the Red Mask, to fight evildoers. It was also the first time that any comic book featured a hero, let alone a costumed, hero, who was black. Star Comics #1 circa 1937 – The Cheerio Minstrels, a minstrel group that sang and told corny jokes to an unseen audience.īest Comics #1 – 4 circa 1939 – The 1 st black hero in comics. An African woman has been fished out of the ice by an Eskimo.įunny Picture Stories #7 circa 1937 – A tribe of African jungle warriors marks the second appearance of Black people More Fun Comics #18 circa 1937 – 1st black character on modern comic book cover.
Black book characters series#
Joe Louis, the Brown Bomber circa 1936 – This is not a comic book as it includes text and photographs, but it’s from the Big Little Books series which was a precursor to comic books. He was impervious to man-made weapons and invulnerable to fire. Lothar was not just strong but super strong. He had incredible powers, but worked as Mandrake’s chef. Despite being a Prince of the Seven Nations he was still a servant to Mandrake and spoke pidgin English.
Some historians like to point out that Lothar and Mandrake function as a team, but the book describes Lothar as Mandrake’s giant black slave. Mandrake the Magician Big Little Book circa 1935 – Lothar the first heroic African to appear in a book of comics, though he was only a sidekick andstereotypical in many ways. The rise of newspaper strips and syndicate-related comic books: He drew this comic gag, which is representative in its depiction of Blacks, often depicted as “uppity” former slaves in the late 19 th century. Opper was one of the main early figures of the art form. Puck original comic art by Fred Opper circa late 1800’s – The “Victorian Era” of comics began with the explosion of the popularity newspaper funnies.
Black book characters free#
Later cartoons, published during and after the war, run the gamut from thoughtful and sympathetic depictions of slaves to racist and alarmist images reflecting fears of what emancipation will lead to and then some comics begin to depict Blacks living as free people. Some published in the days leading up to the Civil War make it clear that threats of secession and the war itself, were about slavery. Some of the cartoons predate the Civil War and attempt to put life as a slave in a humorous light. The Pioneer era is reflected in this collection with a couple dozen “comic engravings” clipped from magazines like Punch and Harper’s Weekly and other publications that depict slaves and free Blacks. The Pioneer Era encompasses the final days of slavery and goes for more than a decade after its end, giving way to the “Victorian Era” of comics circa the late 1890s. The first American comics appeared in what cultural experts call the “Pioneer Era,” which began while slavery was still legal in many American states.
Includes USA Slave Era through Civil War and Reconstruction.
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