Desegregating Comics: Debating Blackness in the Golden Age of American Comics

This academic series from Rutgers University Press, launched in 2023, collects essays and primary sources that examine how Black characters and creators were represented—and often marginalized—during the Golden Age of American comics. Through a single issue, it brings together scholars to debate the complex history of race in early superhero, adventure, and humor strips, offering a corrective to the era's more sanitized narratives. Essential for understanding the foundations of diversity in the medium, it matters as a rigorous, overdue conversation about the industry's racial politics.