Winner of the Comics Studies Society Edited Book Prize

Shortlisted for the Best Academic / Scholarly Work Eisner Award

Honorable Mention for the Harry Shaw and Katrina Hazzard-Donald Award for Outstanding Work in African-American Popular Culture Studies from the Popular Culture Association

Some comics fans view the industry's Golden Age (1930s-1950s) as a challenging time when it comes to representations of race, an era when the few Black characters appeared as brutal savages, devious witch doctors, or unintelligible minstrels. Yet the true portrait is more complex and reveals that even as caricatures predominated, some Golden Age comics creators offered more progressive and nuanced depictions of Black people.

Desegregating Comics assembles a team of leading scholars to explore how debates about the representation of Blackness shaped both the production and reception of Golden Age comics. Some essays showcase rare titles like Negro Romance and consider the formal innovations introduced by Black comics creators like Matt Baker and Alvin Hollingsworth, while others examine the treatment of race in the work of such canonical cartoonists as George Herriman and Will Eisner. The collection also investigates how Black fans read and loved comics, but implored publishers to stop including hurtful stereotypes. As this book shows, Golden Age comics artists, writers, editors, distributors, and readers engaged in heated negotiations over how Blackness should be portrayed, and the outcomes of those debates continue to shape popular culture today.

• We started tracking this book on January 3, 2023.
• This book was $34.95 when we started tracking it.
• The price of this book has changed 83 times in the past 1,005 days.
• The current price of this book is $29.86 last checked 2 days ago.
• This lowest price this book has been offered at in the past 90 days is $25.95.
• This lowest price this book has been offered at in the past six months is $23.84.
• This lowest price this book has been offered at in the past year is $22.61.
• The lowest price to date was $22.61 last reached on December 5, 2024.
• This book has been $22.61 one time since we started tracking it.
• The highest price to date was $37.95 last reached on September 16, 2025.
• This book has been $37.95 13 times since we started tracking it.

• Literature & FictionLiterary CriticismRegionsUnited StatesBlack & African American
• Literature & FictionLiterary CriticismSubjects & ThemesComics & Graphic Novels

• Publication Date: May 12, 2023
• Text-to-Speech: Disabled
• Lending: Disabled
• Print Length: 343 Pages
• File Size: 423 KB