Comics by, for and about People of Color
In recognition of the gaps in reference work that is created by and speaks to the lived experience of People of Color, SAW has started a list of work that includes comics by, for and about People of Color.
This list is made for a world where diverse experiences represented by the people who lived them are often missing from the mainstream. It’s assembled in the hopes of making a world where these creators and their work are always included (if you want to read more about what we mean start with this essay ‘I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream’ by Tochi Onyebuchi).
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This list was created with the help of existing resources assembled by People of Color including:
The Cartoonists of Color database, built by artist of color MariNaomi (who also built two the sibling sites, Queer Cartoonists and Disabled Cartoonists);
The Women in Comics Collective, founded by black comics creator, Regine Sawyer;
The African American Literature Book Club (who have a series of great lists of comics made by African Americans, telling African American stories, which are broken into genre’s including Superhero, Graphic Novels and Non-fiction, Young Adult, and Graphic Novels and Historical Fiction);
A range of existing lists including this one from Good Reads which collates 58 Black Comic Book Writers;
And also our online community over at The Mighty Network where members shared their resources.
PLEASE NOTE
This list will be updated on an ongoing basis. If you’re aware of any kind of misrepresentation or creators and their comics that you think should be included, please email the artists name and title of their work to our admin account with the subject line ‘Creators of color‘.
EDIT: In response to a call from the community to use this list to focus on black comics creators at this time, the list has been changed to include only black artists and stories. The full list will be republished at a later date or in another form.
The many creators included here are predominately available in English and are centered in the United States with a number of exceptions. It by no means represents the complete works available by creators of color but it is a good place for people to start. There is a variety of genres and publication forms found here, from work that has been self-published online to super hero comics through mainstream publishers like Marvel.
In many places, we’ve only included one title by any one artist but you can assume they have more both online and in print, every artist is worth investigating more.
Many of these books are adult reading titles so please be conscious when choosing work for kids. For lists that are specific to children’s books look to the Medium article ‘75 Things White People Can Do For Racial Justice’ (check out number 4 for links to various lists of children’s books).
SUPPORT THE ARTISTS
If possible, we encourage you to show your support for these artists directly through Patreon. Buy their work from your local, independent book store. Better yet, support your local black-owned businesses. You can find a list of black-owned bookstores from around the United States (both online and bricks-and-mortar), here.
Don’t forget that your local library will often order titles upon request. Some of these books are available on the free digital literature app, Hoopla, which you can access if your local library subscribes to it. There is a large catalog of comics there, although they’re not always easy to find so put some time aside to search through it.
PASS IT ON
Help us help educators (and comics lovers) by passing this on to an educator in your life.
Try supporting someone in your life to decolonize their bookshelves and reading lists by giving the gift of comics the next time the opportunity arises.
COMICS AND CREATORS
(In alphabetical order by first name, links to the titles and the artists individual information are still being updated).
A.K. Lovelace and Shaun Noel, ‘City of Walls’
Angela Robinson, ‘The Web Vol. 1: Spinning the Future’
Ashanti Fortson (various online but ‘Smallness’ is a pretty good place to start)
Avy Jetter, ‘Nuthin’ Good ever Happens at 4 A.M.’
Barbara Brandon-Croft, ‘Where I’m Coming From’
Ben Passmore, ‘Your Black Friend’
Bianca Xunise (various online like this one for The Nib)
C. Spike Trotman, ‘Templar, Arizona: The Great Outdoors’ (Spike Trotman also founded Iron Circus Comics, a comics publisher)
Edited by C. Spike Trotman, ‘The Sleep of Reason: An Anthology of Horror’
Christina 'Steenz' Stewart and Ivy Noelle Weir, ‘Archival Quality’
Dale Deforest, ‘Hero Twins’
Damian Duffy, ‘Black Comix: African American Independent Comics, Art and Culture’
Damian Duffy, Octavia E. Butler and John Jennings, ‘Parable of the Sower’
David F. Walker, Sheena C. Howard, Ray-Anthony Height, Le Beau L. Underwood and Veronica Gandini, ‘Superb: Life After the Fallout’
Deborah Elizabeth Whaley, ‘Black Women in Sequence: Re-Inking Comics, Graphic Novels, and Anime’
Dwayne McDuffie, ‘The New Fantastic Four’
Ebony Flowers, ‘Hot Comb’
Erika Alexander, Tony Puryear, ‘Concrete Park’
Eve L. Ewing, Kevin Libranda, Amy Reed, ‘Ironheart’
Greg Anderson-Elysée, ‘Is-nana the Were-Spider’
Jazmin Truesdale, ‘The Keepers: Origins’
Jennifer Cruté, ‘Jennifer’s Journal: The Life of a Suburban Girl’
Jerry Craft, ‘New Kid’
Edited by Joamette Gil, ‘Power & Magic: The Queer Witch Comics Anthology’
Joel Christian Gill, ‘Strange Fruit: Uncelebrated Narrative from Black History’ (Series)
John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, Nate Powell, ‘March’ (Series) (This is followed by another series with artist Afua Richardson, titled ‘Run’ it continues to tell the story of Lewis’s involvement in the Civil Rights Movement)
Juliana ‘Jewels’ Smith, ‘(H)afrocentric Comics’
Julien Neel, ‘Secret Diary’
Kat Leyh, ‘Snapdragon’
Lawrence Lindell, ‘The Section’ (webcomic)
Lila Quintero Weaver, ‘Darkroom’
Marguerite Abouet, ‘Aya’
Mat Johnson and Warren Pleece, ‘Incognegro’
Melba Pattillo Beals, ‘March Forward, Girl: From Young Warrior to Little Rock Nine’
Micheline Hess, ‘Malice in Ovenland’
Mildred Louis, ‘Agents of the Realm’
Nalo Hopkinson, ‘House of Whisper Vol 1: The Power Divided’
Nancy Goldstein, ‘Jackie Ormes: The First African American Woman Cartoonist’
Ngozi Ukazu, ‘Check, Please!’
Nilah Magruder, ‘M.F.K.: Book One’
Nnedi Okorafor, ‘Black Panther: Long Live the King’
Octavia E. Butler, ‘Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation’
Regine L. Sawyer, ‘Eating Vampires: Blood, Bone & Sand’ (Series)
Roland Laird and Taneshia Nash Laird, ‘Still I Rise: A Graphic History of African Americans’
Ronald Wimberly, ‘Black History in its Own Words’
Roxane Gay, ‘The World of Wakanda’
Sharean Morishita, ‘Love! Love! Fighting!’
Shawnee Gibbs, ‘The Invention of E.J. Whitaker’
Edited by Sheena C. Howard, ‘Black Comics: Politics of Race and Representation’
Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colon, ‘Three Fifths a Man: A Graphic History of the African American Experience’
Sophia Chester, ‘Rocket Romance’
Sumiko Saulson, ‘Mauskaveli Comic’
Ta-Nehisi Coates, ‘Black Panther & the Crew: We are the Streets’
Edited by Taneka Stotts, ‘ELEMENTS: Fire A Comic Anthology by Creators of Color’
Tee Franklin, ‘Bingo Love’
Various artists, ‘The Girl Who Married a Skull and Other African Stories’
Todd Steven Burroughs, ‘Marvel’s Black Panther: A comic book biography, from Stan Lee to Ta-Nehisi coates’
Tony Weaver, ‘The Uncommons’ (you can read more about Weaver’s process and motivation, here)
Virginia and Prescella Monger, and Ashley Alcime, ‘Nia’s Sick Sense’
Vita Ayala, ‘The Wilds’
Whit Taylor, ‘Ghost Stories’
Edited by Whit Taylor, ‘Subcultures: A Comics Anthology’
Yvan Alagbe, ‘Yellow Negroes and Other Imaginary Creatures’