The following is a guest post by Regan Chambers-Kleiner who recently interned at the Library in the Serial and Government Publications Division as a part of the Archives, History and Heritage Advanced Internship Program (AHHA).
From September to November, I worked as an intern with the Library’s AHHA program. My project was to review and analyze representation of Black, Hispanic and Indigenous creators in the Library of Congress comic book collection, stressing the importance of minority comic creators and their presence in the library’s collection. Below you will find some representative examples of creators I found interesting during my internship, highlighting the creators’ unique character creations and art styles.
Comic Book Creators
Jon Proudstar is a citizen of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe and a comic book author. He is best known for his comic book “Tribal Force”. Originally published in 1996 by Mystic Comics with illustrations by Ryan Huna Smith, this one-shot was the first to feature a team of indigenous superheroes such as Thunder Eagle. Proudstar was one of the first creators to represent indigenous characters in comics. Jon has recently starred as Leon in 9 episodes of the FX series Reservation Dogs.
A more recent genre of comics, Haida Manga, combines the Indigenous Pacific Haida art form with the narrative structure of Manga. Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas is often credited as the father of the genre with the debut of the graphic novel “A Tale of Two Shamans”, published by Theytus Books in 2001. Yahgulanaas is an inspirational example of how creators can pioneer new styles of comics.
Jeffrey Veregge was (1974-2024) an Indigenous comic artist most known for his work at Marvel. He described his work as “Salish Geek” combining the aesthetics of Coast Salish (indigenous peoples of the American and Canadian Pacific northwest) with pop culture references. In 2016, he contributed to the relaunch of “Red Wolf”, Marvel’s first Native American superhero, originally debuting as a villain in 1970.
Jennifer Storm is an Ojibway comic artist. She completed her first graphic novel “Fire Starters” in 2016 and was included in the third volume of the indigenous comic anthology “Moonshot.” The comic story seen here, “Future World,” was illustrated by Kyle Charles, a member of the Whitefish Lake First Nation. This example demonstrates the creative possibilities of collaboration between creators.
George Pérez (1954-2022) was a comic book writer and illustrator of Puerto Rican descent. He co-created many characters in Marvel and DC comic series such as Maxima in “Action Comics” #645 in 1989 and characters from “The New Teen Titans” like Starfire and Deathstroke. From 1974-1976, he contributed to issues of the Marvel Comics series, “The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu.” This series was the origin of the character White Tiger, Marvel’s first Hispanic superhero, in the recurring comic “The Sons of the Tiger.”
Fabian Nicieza is an Argentine American comic author and artist. He is best known for his contribution to Marvel Modern Age titles throughout the late 1980s and 90s. He helped to create several characters from the “X-Force” series, including the character Domino from “X-Force” #8 in 1992. He also contributed to the final four issues of “New Mutants” that introduced Shatterstar and Deadpool. Nicieza and Rob Liefeld co-authored these issues and the consecutive series “X-Force”.
These are a few examples of over 1200 works by nearly 400 Black, Indigenous, and Hispanic creators that were discovered and documented during this internship project. Many of these comics and creators are not recognized in the mainstream, though they deserve further acknowledgement for their unique contributions to the comics landscape. These comic books can be found in the the Library of Congress collections, where there are plenty of fascinating stories and worlds for readers to delve into.
Additional Resources:
- Learn more about the comic book collections in the Newspaper & Current Periodical Reading Room.
- Read more blog posts about comic books from Headlines and Heroes.
- Search for index records of comic book issues and stories in Grand Comics Database.