Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Minorities in Comics in a Segregated America: All-Negro Comics 1

 
Prior to the integration of African American characters into comic book universes in the 1960s, African Americans rarely appeared in American comic books. When they did, it was usually in the form of a stereotyped caricature, examples being Whitewash in the Young Allies (Timely) and Will Eisner's The Spirit's sidekick Ebony White. Otherwise, if you were an archaeologist in the future trying to piece together what was going on in mid-20th century America and all you had as evidence was a pile of comic books, you could be forgiven for concluding that everybody in those days was light-skinned. All-Negro Comics 1 (1947) is itself a segregated comic, kind of a comic book version of FUBU clothes. Its stated intended audience is African American, and it is written, drawn, and published entirely by African Americans. Detailed information on the publisher, Orrin C. Evans, can be found here on Tom Christopher's website. It clearly wasn't a commercial success, and perhaps the 15c cover price had something to do with that. The book is extremely rare (the highest graded copy, a 7.5, sold at auction on March 13, 2009, for $10,600) and I don't own a copy (!), although I wish I did. The scan that's 'out there' is incomplete but at least offers a glimpse of this important comic. A more detailed description of the contents is located on Scott Shaw's Oddball Comics website: http://www.oddballcomics.com/article.php?story=2007-02-26 which is where the scans I have appear to have come from.

There are four strips within the book. Ace Harlem is a detective story, and I'll include a few pages here. Lion Man and Bubba is kind of an early version of the Black Panther and set in Africa. In fact there's a detectable similarity or two between this strip and Lee and Kirby's Black Panther concept, at least from the few pages I can see. Dew Dillies is kind of a Water Babies fairy story. But I'll start with the single page that is in the scan available, of Sugarfoot and Snakeoil, the page having the potential at least of being part of a romance story. There's also a gorgeous page of Hep Chicks On Parade, kind of like those one page features in romance comics that Jacque Nodell writes about on her Sequential Crush blog. I just wish the interior scans of this book were higher resolution. The male character anticipating a good meal is Sugarfoot.

 
You have to love those 1947 fashions. And here's a few pages from the Ace Harlem story. The first couple show the crime being committed and then Ace Harlem showing up at the crime scene:
The next couple of pages show the crooks who committed the crime sharing their spoils, and then Ace Harlem sleuthing them down:

 
More pages are missing but the end of the story is pretty gruesome:

 
And here's the back cover with a little more visual information about some of the characters in the book.

 
Besides All-Negro Comics 1, there are three issues of Fawcett's Negro Romance in 1950, then a single issue of Charlton's Negro Romances 4 (1955), which I believe reprints the second Fawcett issue. These are all segregated comics, however. It isn't until war comics of the early 1950s and then early 1960s that actual integration begins. Finally I'm adding three pages of the Lion Man story to the post to augment Aaron's feature on the history of black superheroes over on his blog Silver Age Gold. Note the idea of Lion Man being a scientist, the treasures of his people's mountain, and the white guy coming to steal it. Besides being an obvious reference to European imperialism, there's a strong parallel with Lee/Kirby's T'Challa (Black Panther), his land Wakanda, and the valuable mineral Vibranium that the explorer Ulysses Klaw comes in search of (he becomes the villain Klaw), as told in the pages of the now legendary Fantastic Four 52-53 and 56. I haven't read the Black Panther predecessor, Waku, Prince of the Jungle, in Atlas's Jungle Tales of the 1950s, so I don't know if there's a parallel there also. I did come across what appears to be the first solo African American hero in comics beyond ANC#1, and that was the western hero Lobo (Dell, December 1965), so I swiped the image from the Wikipedia page it was on and put it here for reference. Lobo is also covered by Aaron in his series on black heroes in comics.

19 comments:

  1. wowie. What I wouldn't give to see this whole comic and any of the other "negro" comics. What an opportunity to glimpse the past. Even in that one page featuring Sugarfoot, the clues are many. Look at the furnishings, the wall decorations; the sense of poverty the artist wanted to communicate with that cracked plaster of the wall. Amazing. That last scan is just so damn cool. I love how beautifully dressed the sport is reading the comic. What a gorgeous blue suit, that fits perfectly, and what a wonderful yellow raincoat! Style! -- Mykal

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  2. Mykal: I'm working on a presentation I'm making at a conference at the University of Florida towards the end of March. The title of the presentation is "The Military Vanguard for Desegregation: Civil Rights Era War Comics and Integration" and my main focus is on the early issues of Sgt. Fury (issue #1 is May 1963), as well as Our Army at War 160 "What's the Color of Your Blood?" (Nov 1965), and the Captain America story in Tales of Suspense 61 "The Strength of the Sumo" (Jan 1965). With your knowledge of war comics, are you aware of any other early to mid 60s or even any 50s or 40s war comics or stories that feature African American characters, even just support or background characters?

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    1. There are some Sargent Rock comics with Tuskeegee airmen or black angels and those I think are the early seventies.

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    2. Hi Justice4all - those books you mention are actually from the eighties - there are two issues: Sgt Rock 405 & 406

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  3. Wow, is that a tough one. Off the top of my head, I can't think of any comic or story in my collection, nor stuff I have seen anthologized, that has an African American in a central role from the eras of interest you mention (other than those stories and comics you mention). The only character I can remember seeing in a war comic from that vintage was a story in EC's Frontline Combat No. 9, November/December 1952. It was named Abe Lincoln, and it was written by Harvey Kurtzman and drawn (with incredible beauty) by Jack Davis. It was a story related by what appears to be an ex-slave, living in a small cabin and watching troops marching off to the Civil War after the bombing of Fort Sumter. the heart of the story is the black character telling the story of Lincoln; ending with the black man, with tears in his eyes, praying for the safety of Lincoln as troops march past his cabin. I don't have the original comic. I have the story from the complete EC library (oversized hardbacks). The story sticks in my mind for the flabbergasting art of Davis.

    Meager offerings, I know. If I can think of anything else I'll drop you a line. -- Mykal

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  4. Mykal: Thanks for that one. Now you mention it I know I have read that story in the past but I don't have any version of it right now. I think that's an important one for me to talk about (and to try and get hold of before the conference).

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  5. Mykal: regarding ANC#1, I'm adding the inside front cover scan to the post so readers can see the company president's message to the readers. I also found a couple more pages of the Ace Harlem story on another blog:

    http://obensonreport.blogspot.com/2009/03/print-all-negro-comics.html

    and that blog page links to this cool but heavy recently written graphic novel, "Bayou":

    http://www.zudacomics.com/bayou

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  6. KB: I never even knew this existed! And, I am intrigued by your mention of "Lion Man and Bubba" as I've been trying to (in nothing approaching an in-depth fashion) cover the history of Black superheroes this month over at Silver Age Gold. Thank you for bringing this to my attention.

    --Aaron

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  7. Aaron: I'm adding the only three pages of Lion Man that are in the cbz file to the post so you can see them. Give me a minute or two to straighten them up.

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  8. KB: Thanks for adding the Lion Man pages. The "Zulu Hotfoot" is hilarious! As to Lobo, I would love to read the two issues that were published. I covered Lobo as the third post of my Black History Month posts.

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  9. Aaron: Thanks for sending me over to your blog. Terrific idea to do a series on black superheroes in comics. I've linked to your blog and to the Lobo post in my post now so that readers are directed over there. I don't know whether you've seen it but there's a nice book by Jeffrey Brown about the black superheroes in Milestone Comics. It is published by the University Press of Mississippi in their series Studies in Popular Culture. The full title is: Black Superheroes, milestone Comics, and Their Fans and it's available on Amazon.

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  10. KB: Thanks for the follow! I just threw up a post directing folks to come and check out your blog. I've had you on my blogroll for a while, and My wife, Spectergirl and I read your posts regularly.

    As to Milestone, I think I have an issue of Xombi around here somewhere...

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  11. Mykal: If you have Our Army At War 120 (July 1962), I would really appreciate you posting scans of the Sgt. Rock & Easy Co. story as it features the black member of Easy Co., Jackie Johnson, and looks to me to be one of the earliest African American integrated depictions in comics (#113 of which I have a scan also features Jackie Johnson and is from December 1961). Jackie Johnson appears to have been the inspiration for Gabriel Jones, the character in the Howling Commandos. They are kind of crucial for my presentation. I'm off to eBay just in case!

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  12. "Mykal: If you have Our Army At War 120 (July 1962), I would really appreciate you posting scans of the Sgt. Rock & Easy Co. story as it features the black member of Easy Co., Jackie Johnson" . . .

    KB. This is quite the coincidence: I have just purchased that comic (among many others)in a recent collection of comics. I was interested in a Russ Heath story contained therein called "The Fort Had a Heart." Is that the story you are interested in? If not, I will have that issue very soon. If you can hold on a bit, I'll post the entire comic on my blog and send you desired scans. – Mykal

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  13. Mykal: Fantastic! The conference is on March 26 so I have some time. I look forward to seeing those scans. The story I'm looking for is the Sgt. Rock & Easy Co. "Battle Tags For Easy" by Kanigher & Kubert. And thanks! I'll credit you in the acknowledgments of my presentation and if it gets into ImageText the online journal published by the conference organizers. The story in issue 113 was a gem (as many of those Kanigher/Kubert stories are). I think I'll post that one and the others I'm working with and get some input from y'all!

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  14. Aaron: Thanks for the post on your blog. Much appreciated!

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  15. Gee, would I love to have a copy of this someday! Hep Chicks on Parade is great -- the last gag is my favorite... and the shoes!

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  16. Hi KB.
    The complete scan of this very rare comic is now up on the Digital Comic Museum at this link -
    http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/index.php?dlid=22625
    You should know it was your blog here that inspired DCM to hunt down this very unique comic for scanning. Our thanks to you for getting the ball rolling.
    -Yoc
    Admin, DCM

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  17. Thanks Yoc - although my meagre blog is really insignificant to the incredible work you guys are doing at the Digital Comics Museum. I try to upload when I have the chnace to scan - still have a lot of public domain old stuff that's not in the Museum yet. Finding the time to scan is so hard for me - makes me appreciate the work of your contributors that much more. I really appreciate the acknowledgement you gave me on the ANC#1 Museum page :)

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