How many Black comic book superheroes can you name? Black Panther immediately comes to mind, as well as Sam Wilson, who has gone by the moniker of both the Falcon and Captain America. Storm from the X-Men is another obvious choice, as well as newer twenty-first century additions such as the Spider-Man of Miles Morales and Ironheart of Riri Williams.
But the list is incomplete. What about John Stewart, for instance, one of the more popular Green Lanterns of DC Comics, which also serves as the homebase for Black Lightning? On the Marvel side of the comic divide, one can add Luke Cage, Iron Patriot, Moon Girl, and Misty Knight. Even then, the list is short, as Black superheroes have continually been introduced onto the pages of DC and Marvel since the introduction of the Black Panther in 1966.
That’s only half the story, however, as African American artists have also played significant roles within the comic book industry, although their contributions are arguably less celebrated than those of the Black superheroes. In 2024, Pittsburgh-based DJ Phillip Thompson set out to change that fact with Collections in Black: A Celebration of Black Comic Book Culture, an exhibit at the August Wilson Center solely focused on African American comic books and artists.
“We have a heavy impact,” Thompson told the Pittsburgh City Paper regarding African Americans. “There are so many unsung heroes in the comic industry, and there are some that have been pushed to the side, and there are some you don’t know because you just don’t know. During the Golden, Bronze Age, and Silver Age, before the internet, sometimes these guys didn’t even go to the office, so you didn’t even know these guys were Black.”
Ironically, two of the most prominent Black pioneers in the comic industry were from the Steel City – Jackie Ormes and Matt Baker. Ormes has the distinction of being the first female African American cartoonist in the United States, creating the comic strip Torchy Brown in “Dixie to Harlem” in 1937 for the Pittsburgh Courier, an African American newspaper that had national reach at the time.
Torchy Brown only lasted one year, and Ormes relocated to Chicago shortly afterwards. She maintained ties with the Pittsburgh Courier, however, resulting in her most famous and longest running comic strip being picked up in 1945, Patty-Jo ’n’ Ginger, which continued to be featured in the Courier until 1956.
While Jackie Ormes was both an artist and creator in the medium of comic strips, Matt Baker was exclusively an artist in the realm of comic books during the 1940s and 1950s, a time that is referred to as the Golden Age of Comic Books. Likewise relocating from Pittsburgh – in Baker’s case, to New York City, the epicenter of the comic book industry – the dapperly-dressed African American was initially hired as an illustrator at the S. M. Iger Studio. The lone sketch in his portfolio was a drawing of an attractive woman but it was good enough to secure a position.
Beautiful women soon became Matt Baker’s forte, working on such female-themed comic books as Phantom Lady, Canteen Kate, the zebra-skin wearing jungle queen Camilla, and Romanian gypsy Flamingo. He was also a trailblazer within the industry.
“Matt was a black man,” Al Feldstein, who likewise worked at Iger Studios, explained in Matt Baker: The Art of Glamour, published in 2012. “He was a rare phenomenon in an industry almost totally dominated by white males. However, he was extremely talented, and it was his talent that overcame any resistance to his presence based on racial bias.”
Baker wasn’t alone in being an African American with artistic talent. The Collections in Black exhibit spotlighted a number of other Black artists, with entire walls lined with their original artwork. Larry Strohman, for instance, started his career working for both DC and Marvel Comics before co-creating Tribe for Image Comics, which – according to Collections in Black – is the biggest selling African American comic book series of all time.
Billy Graham, meanwhile, has the distinction of being the first African American artist hired by legendary Marvel editor Stan Lee, contributing to both the Black Panter and Luke Cage: Hero for Hire comic book series. Shawn Martinbrough has likewise drawn Black Panther and Luke Cage, as well as Batman and Hellboy. In 2021, Martinbrough received an Eisner Award nomination – the comic industry’s equivalent of the Oscars – for the digital comic Promethee 13:13.
Another wall within Collections in Black was likewise filled with original artwork by African American artists, only this one contained images of arguably the most famous Black superhero of them all – T’Challa, the Black Panter.
“Black Panter is a cultural icon,” the exhibit explained. “His influence extends beyond comics and film, inspiring merchandise, academic discussions, and artistic interpretations. Looking forward, Black Panther’s impact will continue to grow, with future narratives exploring Wakanda’s rich mythology and T’Challa’s complexities. The character’s legacy will inspire new generations, exemplifying the power of representation and diverse voices in shaping our cultural narrative.”
The same could be said for Collections in Black. The exhibit was more than a collection of original comic book art but a testament to the contributions of an untold number of African Americans who have added their talent to the medium. It may have taken close to thirty years after the appearance of the first superhero – Superman in 1938 – for the first Black superhero to grace the pages of a comic book in the form of Black Panther, but in the years since, even more have donned a cape and become part of our collective culture.
But as Phillip Thompson and the exhibit makes clear, that culture is also Black culture, which was one of the reasons Thompson brought Collections in Black: A Celebration of Black Comic Book Culture to life at the August Wilson Center in 2024.
“I needed people to understand our cultural history in this art form, and I think it’s been overlooked for too long,” he told radio station WESA. “My whole thing is, if not me, who?”
Anthony Letizia