Black Comics

Smith, Juliana,

This unflinching visual and literary tour-de-force tackles the most pressing issues of the day--including racism, patriarchy, gentrification, police violence, and the housing crisis--with humor and biting satire. When gentrification strikes the neighborhood surrounding Ronald Reagan University, Naima Pepper recruits a group of disgruntled undergrads of color to launch the first and only anti-gentrification social networking site, mydiaspora.com. The motley crew is poised to fight back against expensive avocado toast, muted Prius cars, exorbitant rent, and cultural appropriation. Whether Naima and the gang are transforming social media, leading protests, fighting rent hikes, or working as "Racial Translators," the students at Ronald Reagan University combine their technically savvy and Black Millennial sensibilities with their individual backgrounds, goals, and aspirations.

Gillman, Melanie, author, artist.

When thirteen year-old lesbian African American Charlie questions her belief in God, she spends a week at an all-white Christian youth camp for some soul searching.

Abouet, Marguerite, 1971-

Offers the first three volumes of the fictional graphic memoir of nineteen-year-old Aya, her easy-going friends Adjoua and Bintou, and their meddling neighbors and relatives, all caught up in the simple pleasures of everyday life in Yop City.

Howard, Sheena C. (EDT)/ Jackson, Ronald L., II (EDT)

Isabella, Tony author, creator.

Black Lightning's first solo series and origin story! With the power to generate electricity from within, Jefferson Pierce has donned a colorful costume and the secret identity of Black Lightning! However, it will take all of his abilities to protect his Metropolis neighborhood of Suicide Slum from those who seek to destroy it. With guest appearances by Superman and some familiar villains, Black Lightning makes DC Comics history. Collecting for the first time Black Lightning #1-11 and World's Finest Comics #260, featuring work by creators Tony Isabella and Trevor Von Eeden, along with veteran inkers Frank Springer and Vince Colletta!

Coates, Ta-Nehisi

Written by MacArthur Genius and National Book Award winner Ta-Nehisi Coates (“Between the World and Me”) and illustrated by living legend Brian Stelfreeze, “A Nation Under Our Feet” is a story about dramatic upheaval in Wakanda and the Black Panther's struggle to do right by his people as their ruler. The indomitable will of Wakanda--the famed African nation known for its vast wealth, advanced technology, and warrior traditions--has long been reflected in the will of its monarchs, the Black Panthers. But now the current Black Panther, T'Challa, finds that will tested by a superhuman terrorist group called the People that has sparked a violent uprising among the citizens of Wakanda. T'Challa knows the country must change to survive--the question is, will the Black Panther survive the change?

Brown, Jeffrey A.

Whaley, Deborah Elizabeth

Black Women in Sequence takes readers on a search for women of African descent in comics subculture. From the 1971 appearance of the Skywald Publications character "the Butterfly"--The first Black female superheroine in a comic book--to contemporary comic books, graphic novels, film, manga, and video gaming, a growing number of Black women are becoming producers, viewers, and subjects of sequential art. As the first detailed investigation of Black women's participation in comic art, Black Women in Sequence examines the representation, production, and transnational circulation of women of African descent in the sequential art world. In this groundbreaking study, which includes interviews with artists and writers, Deborah Whaley suggests that the treatment of the Black female subject in sequential art says much about the place of people of African descent in national ideology in the United States and abroad.

Howard, Sheena C. author.

The Encyclopedia of Black Comics, focuses on people of African descent who have published significant works in the United States or have worked across various aspects of the comics industry. The book focuses on creators in the field of comics: inkers, illustrators, artists, writers, editors, Black comic historians, Black comic convention creators, website creators, archivists and academics--as well as individuals who may not fit into any category but have made notable achievements within and/or across Black comic culture

Bagge, Peter

Peter Bagge has defied the expectations of the comics industry by changing gears from his famous slacker hero Buddy Bradley to documenting the life and times of historical 20th century trailblazers. If Bagge had not already had a New York Times bestseller with his biography of Margaret Sanger, his newest biography, Fire!!: The Zora Neale Hurston Story, would seem to be an unfathomable pairing of author and subject. Yet through Bagge's skilled cartooning, he turns what could be a rote biography into a bold and dazzling graphic novel, creating a story as brilliant as the life itself. Hurston challenged the norms of what was expected of an African American woman in early 20th century society. The fifth of eight kids from a Baptist family in Alabama, Hurston's writing prowess blossomed at Howard University, and then Barnard College, where she was the sole black student. She arrived in NYC at the height of the Harlem Renaissance and quickly found herself surrounded by peers such as Langston Hughes and Wallace Thurman. Hurston went on to become a noted folklorist and critically acclaimed novelist, including her most provocative work Their Eyes Were Watching God. Despite these landmark achievements, personal tragedies and shifting political winds in the midcentury rendered her almost forgotten by the end of her life. With admiration and respect, Bagge reconstructs her vivid life in resounding full-color.

McDuffie, Dwayne

Inventor/engineer Curt Metcalf breaks free of his employer, businessman Edwin Alva, who refused to share the profits from Metcalf's many creations. Discovering that Alva is tied to organized crime, and learning that no law enforcement agency would touch him, Metcalf creats the high tech Hardware armor that enabled him to work against Alva.

Goldstein, Nancy, 1942-

Lewis, John, 1940 February 21-

A first-hand account of the author's lifelong struggle for civil and human rights spans his youth in rural Alabama, his life-changing meeting with Martin Luther King, Jr., and the birth of the Nashville Student Movement.

Hassler, Alfred, 1910-1991

Sturm, James, 1965-

Satchel Paige began his baseball career in the Negro Leagues in Alabama in the 1920s. For years, Jim Crow laws, which segregated blacks and whites, kept him out of the major leagues. But they couldn't stop him from becoming a world-class athlete. This is a fictionalized account of a real-life sports hero.

Gateward, Frances (EDT)/ Jennings, John (EDT)