#black comics

Inspired by @creatingblackcharacters post here, here's a list of Black creators to check out and support this month & beyond, as well as places you can support them:

@rockybloo(creator of the webcomics "Beanstalked" and "Glitter and Guilt"): I've been following them across many social media sites, beginning on Deviantart in 2018-ish, on Twitter, Tumblr and Bluesky. I have seen their work grow and flourish over the years, becoming more self-indulgent with their characters and stories, and their care and devotion for both of that shines through in their art. Their work has really inspired me as I've seen them grow as a creator through their art. Go support them through their Patreon & Ko-fi!

@btrcp(creator of the webcomic "UM"): I came across their work around 2020/2021, and have enjoyed witnessing their creative process and expressing their opinions regarding storytelling, philosophy, and a variety of other subjects. Go support them through Patreon, follow them on Twitch where they stream their work, and pick up a copy of UM: Volume 1!

@simplynovology(creator of #IndigeNovember): an amazing artist & character designer, showcasing much variety and range within their original artwork and fan creations. I'm so lucky to have first commissioned them years ago and see all the little details and things they put into their art, which makes it so uniquely theirs. Check out his Commission page and other links, and check out this link for ways to assist them financially.

@theawesomeadventurer(creator of @cryptidzdotorg): A multifaceted artist and crafter who has made many wonderful things, from paintings to jewelry, T-shirts to music. I am grateful to have gotten to have known them through their creativity and vibrancy, seieng how they move within the world as an artist and a person. Go check out their store at cryptidz.org and their linktree for more info!

@genkibutch(illustrator & fan artist): a bright and talented artist whose specialties are vivid colors, painterly rendering, and a semi realistic art style. I am blessed to consider them my creative peer and mutual; from their innovative redesigns of popular characters to their in-depth analyses of Mitski lyrics, it's been so incredible to see what they're working on and how they want to continue improving as an artist. Check out their carrd and follow them on Bluesky!

Also~

Shoutout to Micah(known as @/micah_ers on Instagram), creator of the comic "Dark Zone" on Webtoon, as well as the animated shorts "Can I Please Have A Waffle" and "Coulda Dropped My Croissant"!

Their work fits within speculative fiction, mainly science fiction and fantasy, primarily centering Black characters within the setting of Earth and the fictional planet of Danyella(the aliens are unmistakably Black coded)

Micah recently created a Patreon page where they post behind-the-scenes work connected to the world of DZ and other projects they're working on; go on & check it out!!

I'm so lucky to have witnessed the beauty, talent, passion and ingenuity of all these wonderful people I listed here!

Go check out these amazing artists, follow them, and support them year-round, not just in February!!

Happy Black History Month y'all!

Comic books only care about money it's 6 dollars but any and all support is important

Jackie Ormes, the first Black American woman cartoonist

When the 14-year-old Black American boy Emmett Till was lynched in 1955, one cartoonist responded in a single-panel comic. It showed one Black girl telling another: "I don't want to seem touchy on the subject... but that new little white tea-kettle just whistled at me!"

It may not seem radical today, but penning such a political cartoon was a bold and brave statement for its time — especially for the artist who was behind it. This cartoon was drawn by Jackie Ormes, the first syndicated Black American woman cartoonist to be published in a newspaper. Ormes, who grew up in Pittsburgh, got her first break as cartoonist as a teenager. She started working for the Pittsburgh Courier as a sports reporter, then editor, then cartoonist who penned her first comic, Torchy Brown in Dixie to Harlem, in 1937. It followed a Mississippi teen who becomes a famous singer at the famed Harlem jazz club, The Cotton Club.

In 1942, Ormes moved to Chicago, where she drew her most popular cartoon, Patty-Jo 'n' Ginger, which followed two sisters who made sharp political commentary on Black American life. 

In 1947, Ormes created the Patty-Jo doll, the first Black doll that wasn't a mammy doll or a Topsy-Turvy doll. In production for a decade, it was a role model for young black girls. "The doll was a fashionable, beautiful character," says Daniel Schulman, who curated one of the dolls into a recent Chicago exhibition. "It had an extraordinary presence and power — they're collected today and have important place in American doll-making in the U.S."

In 1950, Ormes drew her final strip, Torchy in Heartbeats, which followed an independent, stylish black woman on the quest for love — who commented on racism in the South. "Torchy was adventurous, we never saw that with an Black American female figure," says Beauchamp-Byrd. "And remember, this is the 1950s." Ormes was the first to portray black women as intellectual and socially-aware in a time when they were depicted in a derogatory way.

One common mistake that erased Ormes from history is mis-crediting Barbara Brandon-Croft as the first nationally syndicated Black American female cartoonist. "I'm just the first mainstream cartoonist, I'm not the first at all," says Brandon-Croft, who published her cartoons in the Detroit Free Press in the 1990s. "So much of Black history has been ignored, it's a reminder that Black history shouldn't just be celebrated in February."

THANKS SO MUCH BACKERS!!

Next up is BOOKMARKS! Can we do it???? 👀🙏🏾

CALLING ALL BLACK COMIC ARTISTS, WRITERS, AND ALL-AROUND CARTOONISTS!

Been meaning to do something like this for a while and it was on my mind, so... since it seems like a lot of people have trouble finding indie comics outside the Big Six, here's a handful of the Black-led and often Black-owned indie comics I've picked up over the years:

Iron Circus Comics (https://ironcircus.com/) was originally founded to publish the founder’s webcomic and now publishes a whole range of diverse titles. You might know them for Kim Hyun Sook’s autobiography Banned Book Club; their anthologies of stories based in various mythologies, like The Woman in the Woods and Other North American Stories and  The Night Marchers and Other Oceanian Stories; or their Smut Peddler anthologies of woman-created and -centric erotica. And they’ve got a Pride sale on right now!

FairSquare Graphics (https://fairsquaregraphics.com/) describes itself a family, immigrant and minority-owned company who might be best known for their 1920s-era queer graphic novel A Boy Named Rose, which got nominated for an Eisner in 2024. For the purposes of this list I specifically want to highlight their Mutiny: Black Girl Magic series, which is currently in preorder, and their “Noir is the New Black” line, especially Watson and Holmes, which I sadly cannot find on their website anymore but I love and desperately want the next volume for. It’s Sherlock and Watson as modern-day Black men in Harlem, and features one of my favorite Holmes designs literally ever.  

I’m pretty sure Stranger Comics (https://www.strangercomics.com/) exists first and foremost to publish their World of Asunda Afro-fantasy series, though the also have other titles like Jaycen Wise, who appears to be the reverse Indiana Jones (stealing artifacts from museums to return them to their points of origin) and Defiant: the Story of Robert Smalls, a Black hero of the American Civil War.

Etan Comics (https://etancomics.com/) is a Pan-African company that releases their comics (or at least some of them) in both English and Amharic. Their titles include Tokoloshe Hunters, a shonen manga style anthology of Southern African mythology (that features some of the most harrowing sample pages I’ve ever seen); Jember, a superhero comic drawing in part on the history of Punt; Hawi, a mythology-based superheroine story at least partially based in a sci-fi version of the Axumite Empire; and their current headliner offering, Zufan, an epic sci-fi retelling of the 1896 Italian invasion of Ethiopia.

Honorable mention to Tuskegee Heirs: Flames of Destiny (https://tuskegeeheirs.com/), a futuristic sci-fi action-adventure comic that casts the titular teenaged heirs of the Tuskegee Airmen in giant robot battles against invading A.I. villains, and The Lie Behind the Star (https://www.indiegogo.com/en/projects/quinnhoward-22779913/the-lie-behind-the-star-graphic-novel), a sweeping bio-technology based sci-fi epic, which are both self-published by their creators. The Lie Behind the Star has unfortunately had a lot of production chaos since its IndieGoGo campaign wrapped, but the writer and project manager has some of the best sci-fi takes on YouTube so I’m still rooting for him to get it done.

My comic Black Arms to Hold You Up got nominated for an Eisner Award! It’s an industry award, so if you’re a comics maker you can vote.

You can go here to register: