Black Comics and Graphic Novels: Black Cartoonists

In the United States at mid-century, in an era when there were few opportunities for women in general and even fewer for African American women, Jackie Ormes blazed a trail as a popular artist with the major black newspapers of the day. Jackie Ormes chronicles the life of this multiply talented, fascinating woman who became a successful commercial artist and cartoonist. Ormes's cartoon characters (including Torchy Brown, Candy, and Patty-Jo 'n' Ginger) delighted readers of newspapers such as the Pittsburgh Courier and Chicago Defender, and spawned other products, including fashionable paper dolls in the Sunday papers and a black doll with her own extensive and stylish wardrobe.

Relates how a talented black boy in California, encouraged by sympathetic teachers, turned his interest in drawing into a career as a successful and popular syndicated cartoonist.

Syndicated cartoonist and illustrator Tim Jackson offers an unprecedented look at the rich yet largely untold story of African American cartoon artists. This book provides a historical record of the men and women who created seventy-plus comic strips, many editorial cartoons, and illustrations for articles. The volume covers the mid-1880s, the early years of the self-proclaimed black press, to 1968, when African American cartoon artists were accepted in the so-called mainstream.

Aaron McGruder's hilariously offensive comic strip has never been afraid to tell it like it is. Now Huey, Riley and Granddad have their own hit animated series on the Cartoon Network's Adult Swim, the masses are praising McGruder's precocious preteens and their brilliant politically and racially charged humour. Also available are Public Enemy # 2, Birth of a Nation and A Right To Be Hostile.