Image Source: DC Comics
The graphic novel industry is still a major force to be reckoned with. In 2014, more than $800 million worth of graphic novels sold around the world. And while these works may be successful, just like television and film, diversity remains a major issue within the comic book world.
We all may be familiar with Green Lantern, The Boondocks, Storm from X-Men, Black Panther, and Luke Cage, but there are a number of other lesser-known graphic novels featuring people of color that are worth picking up, and characters of color worth paying attention to who have come and gone. We take a look at 10 Black graphic novels that you may not have known about and should pick up (links provided!).
Image Source: New Paradigm Studios
Watson and Holmes: A Study In Black
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson re-envisioned as Black men living in Harlem? We’re here for it! Watson and Holmes is an ode to modern-day detective work and the classic Sir Arthur Conan Doyle characters. In this issue, Watson and Holmes meet and partner up to navigate through a maze of drugs, guns, gangs, and conspiracies.
Image Source: IFW Publishing
Blaze Brothers Vol 1.
This graphic novel is a must-read. This story follows two orphaned half-brothers, raised by a Chinese martial arts master, and trained by a secret US Black Ops force to kick butt as lethal assassins. Blaze is action-packed, suspenseful, and hella fun!
Image Source: Top Shelf Productions
March
In an effort to get the story out to future generations, Congressman John Lewis decided to tell his tale of fighting for civil rights in the form of a graphic novel. In Book One of March, we get Lewis’ first-hand account of his upbringing, the meeting with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that would change his life, and the civil rights movement as a whole.
Image Source: Jemir Johnson
Street Sweeper (A 5 Shots Prequel)
This dark detective tale focuses on the origin of Jay Nova, a private eye who is a martial artist and a mind reader. Jay Nova is a layered character who sometimes has to do shady things in order to get to the truth. This urban mystery features sci-fi elements that twist and turn throughout this exciting adventure.
Image Source: Image Comics
Crimson Avenger
She’s Black, she can teleport, phase through buildings, she never runs out of ammunition, and she is a minor Spirit of Vengeance. Jill Carlyle is a badass. But she didn’t start off that way.
Carlyle initially was a successful lawyer. But when a defendant who was clearly guilty isn’t held accountable for his crimes, she makes it her mission to take him and other criminals out with her trusty Colt pistols.
Image Source: Cory Thomas
Watch Your Head
Watch Your Head started in Howard University’s newspaper, The Hilltop. It went on to become a nationally distributed comic strip featured in papers across the country. It is currently online.
The comic follows a handful of diverse characters who all intend a fictional HBCU. Brilliant but socially awkward, the students find themselves in a slew of situations that navigate issues like race relations, natural hair debates, breaking down stereotypes, and police profiling. The best of the strip has been put in an anthology called Watch Your Head. Fans of BThe Boondocks will love this one!
Image Source: Image Comics
Mayhem
Graphic novel Mayhem is a three-part series by singer Tyrese, writers Mike Le, Will Wilson, and artist Tone Rodriguez. The comic is set in Los Angeles during a crime wave brought on by a kingpin named Big X. This crime wave can only be stopped by one man: Enter Mayhem, a vigilante whose dark past pushes him to help his city.
Image Source: BOOM! Studios
Cold Space
Actor Samuel L. Jackson is no stranger to the comic book world. He has portrayed many characters in films that were adapted from comic books, and he provided the voice for Afro Samurai, a popular anime series adapted into a TV show. A few years ago, Jackson partnered with writer and producer Eric Calderon and artist Jeremy Rock to create his own comic book.
Cold Space follows an on-the-run outlaw who has crash landed on a hostile planet that is on the brink of civil war. He finds himself trying to survive in the crossfire between the two groups ready to do battle.
Malice in Ovenland
This kiddie comic focuses on the adventures of a young girl named Lily Brown from Queens, New York. She is stuck at home doing chores while her friends are away having fun at camp. Surprisingly, Lily finds herself at the center of her own adventure when she discovers a secret world inside of her mother’s stove. A great comic for young kids with big imaginations.
Legend of the Mantamaji Book One
This three-part series follows Elijah Alexander, a cocky assistant DA, who discovers that he is not human after all. He’s the last of the Mantamaji, a long-lost race of fighters who once protected humanity. When a fellow Mantamaji returns in the hopes of wreaking havoc, Elijah is forced to embrace his family history and fight to save humanity.
