Mike Eakins
Image Comics is pleased to present a gorgeously remastered milestone in comic book history, the Eisner Award-winning All-Negro Comics: America’s First Black Comic Book. It will be curated by writer/editor Chris Robinson and feature bonus essays to provide historical and cultural background to this momentous publication, a discussion guide for educators, and new comics by some of today’s most notable Black comics creators. All-Negro Comics: America’s First Black Comic Book hits shelves in trade paperback this November.
This new paperback edition features essays, comics, and prose from Eisner Award-winner Dr. Qiana Whitted (EC Comics: Race, Shock, and Social Protest), David Brothers (Good Devils: Don’t Play Fair with Evil), Shawn Pryor (Fast Break), Micah Peters (The Ringer), Zipporah Smith (DC Power: Rise of the Power Company), Samantha Guzmán (short story writer of “Visibly Invisible” and more), Eisner, Harvey, and Ringo nominated letterer Deron Bennett (DC Power 2024), Jasmine Hatcher (Lady Nefertitii’s Kaleidoscope), Sharean Morishita (School Memories), Tony Washington (New York Times bestselling, Eisner Award-winning artist, lead illustrator for the ACLU of San Diego), Ray-Anthony Height (Midnight Tiger), Manny Edeko (Fiyah magazine), Domo Stanton (Sandman Universe: House of Whispers), Ryan Marlow, and Robinson himself.
It also features the unabridged and digitally remastered work of Orrin C. Evans, George J. Evans Jr., John H.Terrell, William H. Smith, and Leonard Cooper, which make up the original 1947 release.
In the Golden Age of Comic Books, pioneering journalist and publisher Orrin C. Evans led a team of Black cartoonists to create the first comic book anthology featuring original Black characters like Ace Harlem and Lion Man, with the expressed purpose of entertaining without harmful stereotypes, pushing boundaries in the industry. Evans went on to be honored posthumously with the ECBACC Pioneer Lifetime Achievement Award and was finally entered into the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 2014.
Published soon after the debuts of household names like Superman, Batman, and Captain America—even predating the debut of Black Panther—All-Negro Comics #1 should be among those revered moments of comic book history, but the original 1947 print run was quickly removed from newsstands and faded into obscurity…until now.
Robinson said about the project:
“I’m so proud to finally bring this award-winning collection to the widest possible audience with the help of Image Comics. How often do we get to spotlight a bonafide piece of American history like this?”
All-Negro Comics: America’s First Black Comic Book (ISBN: 9781534331150, Lunar Code 0825IM0457) will be available at local comic book shops on Wednesday, October 22 and independent bookstores, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, Indigo, and Waterstones on Tuesday, November 4.
