Wednesday, July 8 @ 8pm EST:
BLACK SUPERHEROES OF THE SILVER AGE OF COMICS webinar via NY Adventure Club!
The Silver Age of Comics (circa 1956-70) not only birthed a new generation of superheroes but for the first time in comic book history, black superheroes!
The decade of the 1960s was one of the most turbulent in American-and world-history, sparking revolutions of all kinds in the political, socio-economic, cultural, and artistic spheres. The field of comic books went through perhaps its most vibrant era of change and rebirth, as industry giant DC Comics rebooted its old superheroes from The Golden Age of the 1940s into new, sleeker, streamlined versions that, in turn, spawned the “counter-revolution” of upstart Marvel Comics and their super anti-heroes.
But those superheroes were all white men (and some women). Until the white artist/storyteller behind the newfound success of Marvel, Jack Kirby decided to create the first black superhero, The Black Panther, in 1965 (but published in the spring of ’66-six months before The Black Panther Party was even formed!).
But Kirby’s Panther was not an African-American, but an African Prince (of Kirby’s fictional nation of Wakanda).
Even Marvel’s next black superhero, The Falcon (created in 1969 by the white artist Gene Colan), though indeed an African-American, was an expatriate living in Haiti.
It wasn’t until the tail end of The Silver Age, in 1971, that an African-American from “the streets” became a superhero when white artist Neal Adams came up with the first black Green Lantern, John Stewart (an out-of-work architect).
So come join New York Adventure Club and comic book art historian Arlen Schumer (author/designer, The Silver Age of Comic Book Art) as he presents an overview of the development of all three black superheroes of The Silver Age of Comics!
TIX: nyadventureclub.com
*And if you can't make the webinar LIVE, buying a ticket allows you to watch a recording of it AFTER!
