Noted African-American newspaper, the Chicago Defender, announced earlier this summer that it will cease print production. The weekly paper, founded in 1905, played a crucial role in providing news for scores of migrating African-Americans. With the rise of industrialization, job creation and seeking greater opportunities than in the South, migrants relocated to the North, especially […]
A Rare Hatless Herriman, with Scotties
George Herriman, creator of the newspaper strip “Krazy Kat,” is generally acknowledged as one of the true geniuses of the comics medium. The endless invention of his strip’s setting, Coconino County, combined with Krazy’s philosophical musings conveyed in a playfully creative language, led cultural critic Gilbert Seldes to devote a chapter to the strip in […]
Researcher Profile | Dana Williams on Toni Morrison’s Editorship
Editor’s note: A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of seeing a new documentary about Nobel laureate and novelist, Toni Morrison. In the film, The Pieces I Am, her editor, literary scholars and friends discussed Morrison’s unwavering commitment to writing about African-American life as quintessentially American life. Central to her writing life was not only […]
An unexpected task for Conservation
While going through the Mark Nevins minicomics collection–a deep dive into global cartooning!–we came across a seemingly innocuous anthology from CF, called Burning, with this lovely Ron Rege Jr cover: […]
An oddity in the comics collections
A true treasure trove of a gift has been coming over the past few years from Jens Robinson, the son of illustrator and Golden Age comics artist Jerry Robinson. In addition to all of Jerry’s Playbill art, his strips, his book illustration, and other materials, Jens has been giving us Jerry’s library. In preparation for […]