Artists no problem, but I’m ashamed to say I’m struggling to find 10 writers. Especially ashamed that I can’t think of anyone from the UK* or Europe! Anyone got any links beyond the very helpful ComicVine Brian provided?

*Just for general interest, Black History month in the UK is in October. Got to keep our differences on this side of the pond!

Is it 50 as in 50 of each, or 50 as in 25 artists and 25 writers?

Gotta vote for the “Irreverent” Billy Graham as my favorite African-American artist. His work on “Luke Cage, Hero For Hire” and “Jungle Action, featuring the Black Panther” was some of the best comic book art of the ’70s. Great stuff. Wish he’d’ve done more for Marvel.

I am ashamed to say that my first thought in reading the headline was to wonder if there are enough black creators in the industry to make narrowing down a list of 50 a meaningful exercise. I will not be able to participate, because even if I could name ten black creators (let alone 20), I haven’t read enough of most of them to give them a relative ranking.

I look forward to learning from the upcoming list about new creators.

Thanks for the link to the ComicVine list; it was very helpful…there are many creators listed there whose ethnicity I was completely unaware of.

Just thought I’d mention a couple of creators who weren’t mentioned on that list: Tom Artis and Kyle Baker.

Hmm. Apparently Dwayne McDuffie is goose enough to make that list twice. Loads of good people on that list who I had no idea were black. TBH I prefer it that way. I like to take creators on the merits of their work rather than their skin.

I had similar qualms about the “”top 50 women” list a few months ago and got shouted down so I won’t push it.

Gonna have to look this up and have a serious think because I am terrible at knowing the ethnicity of creators. Until about a year ago I assumed Christopher Priest was the same British Science Fiction writer that wrote The Prestige!

In honor of Black History Month, we will be segregating comic creators by their skin color and judging them. Next month, Gay Comic Writers that are Tops and Gay Comic Artists that are Bottoms! If you don’t know if your favorite Gay Comic Creator is a Top or Bottom you are a homophobe, but we will make a list of who is what anyway.

Man, even mention Black History Month and these types come out of the woodwork, don’t they?

Yeah. And calling it “segregating” is disingenious at best, offensive at worst.

No one complains when they do a Top Captain America stories to celebrate the character’s anniversary. Hey, isn’t that segregation and offensive to Cap, isn’t he good enough to have his stories showing up in the Top 100 comic book storylines or what?

(I’m a little dubitative too, but leaving it at that…)

The ComicVine list is nice, but unfortunately very lacking in credits to jog memories: they have Jamal Igle sans MOLLY DANGER, Mat Johnson sans INCOGNEGRO or DARK RAIN or RIGHT STATE, Keith Knight sans THE K CHRONICLES, Fred Perry sans GOLD DIGGER or TIME LINCOLN, Jimmie Robinson sans AVIGON or BOMB QUEEN…

Some creators they miss:

* Marguerite Abouet (w: AYA OF YOP CITY)

* Ho Che Anderson (wa: KING, POP LIFE, WISE SON)

* Kyle Baker (wa: COWBOY WALLY SHOW, WHY I HATE SATURN, YOU ARE HERE, KING DAVID, NAT TURNER, PLASTIC MAN / a: CAPTAIN AMERICA: TRUTH)

* Ezra Claytan Daniels (wa: THE CHANGERS)

* Robert Morales (w: CAPTAIN AMERICA: TRUTH)

* Jackie Ormes (wa: TORCHY BROWN, PATTY-JO ‘N’ GINGER)

* David F. Walker (w: TOKYO TRIBES, SHAFT, CYBORG)

* Doselle Young (w: THE AUTHORITY, THE MONARCHY)

There’s also the “Black Women in Comics” list (though mostly little-know webcomics) archived at http://wayback.archive.org/web/20150206085724/http://theormessociety.com/creators

I take no umbrage with this list, and look forward to seeing the results. Nevertheless, I am reminded of Countee Cullen (my favorite poet) and his resentment at being labelled a great Black poet. He felt that, if people regarded him as truly great, they would list him simply as a great poet, and not have to be named on a special list in order to be recognized.

The counterpoint that I would make is that these authors and artist are great, and would show up on a list of great creators without any additional filtering. it’s like how Gail Simone would go on a list of great female comic book writers, but she doesn’t have to be consigned to such a list in order to be recognized–she’s also simply a great writer.

My real qualm with such a list is a matter of definition. Are the artists and authors in question people who identify as Black, or prefer some other label, or no label at all? An example, my second cousin, an artist named Roger Shimomura, was once placed on a list of great Asian artists–a label he resented because he was born and raised in the US. He wanted to be listed, if he were to be so recognized, on a list of great American artists.

Also potentially useful here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:African-American_comics_creators

I’ve updated the comments on the ComicVine article with a LOT more writers and artists.

Plus:

* Valentine De Landro / Valentine DeLandro (p: X-FACTOR)

* Khari Evans (wa: CARBON GREY / a: HARBINGER, IMPERIUM)

* Don Hillsman II (wp: BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF MALCOLM X / p: STREET FIGHTER)

* Jeremy Love (wa: BAYOU)

* Rick Mays (a: KABUKI: SCARAB / p: NOMAD, ARSENAL, ULTIMATE MARVEL TEAM-UP)

* Jay Potts (wa: webcomics WORLD OF HURT, ATOMECH)

* Brandon Thomas (w: MIRANDA MERCURY, SPIDER-MAN UNLIMITED, ROBIN, VOLTRON)

* LeSean Thomas (wa: CANNON BUSTERS / a: TMNT 2003 / p: ARKANIUM)

* Ronald Wimberly / Ron Wimberly / D-Pi (wa: PROPHET #42, OCCUPY COMICS #1 / w: STRANGE SPORTS STORIES #2)

Also, there’s apparently a ton to parse in the comments under http://www.comicsbeat.com/why-arent-there-more-black-writers-in-the-comics-industry/

This will be tough because I really have no idea the ethnicity of most of the creators I like. I’m even usually iffy on their sex as well.

My dissembling the premise was worth it for the priceless and hilarious comment that seeing the word segregating (defined as separating or dividing people along racial, sexual or religious lines) is more offensive than segregating them. Be change. Don’t pander.

Oh, I remembered Adam Hines (creator of DUNCAN THE WONDER DOG).

Also, Spike Trotman (TEMPLAR, AZ and POORCRAFT)

I wish he would write more comics (or I wish Marvel or DC would ask him to write more comics), but John Ridley is a darn good writer who seemed to be just hitting his stride with “The American Way” before finding more success in film and TV.

@Erich
I would second Tom Artis as a glaring omission, though an understandable one. Artis doesn’t have a ton of high profile credits to his name. He had a tremendous talent; but, he also had problems meeting deadlines, which didn’t help his professional reputation. I know he had health problems later in his life, which ultimately lead to his passing in 2007, which also helps to leave him out of the mix. His biggest profile works were probably The WEB, for DC’s Impact line (featuring the Archie/MLJ heroes) and Tailgunner Jo, for DC. He was supposed to launch a book at Image, with Doug Rice, which at least had a “coming soon” ad. Unfortunately, that coincided with Image cutting part of their line, in response to threats from Diamond and Capital, over their late books. I met Doug Rice a couple of times and he said they didn’t even have an issue ready, when the ad appeared. He did put out a self-published Black Terror comic book, which had fully finished art for about a third to a half of the book, then got very sketchy for the rest of the story. It looked like either he rushed it to publication before giving it proper attention or he got someone to help him, who didn’t have the same level of talent.

Whatever the reason behind his deadline problems, he had tremendous talent and could have been a huge name. He had a dynamic style and creative designs. I met him at a local convention and a few times, at the Barnes & Noble, where I worked. he seemed like a nice enough guy, if a bit eccentric. I bought some sketchbook pages which had some interesting imagery. I would have loved to have seen any of them in a comic.

Marco Rudy is one of the best young artists in the business, and African!

Is it 50 as in 50 of each, or 50 as in 25 artists and 25 writers?

25 of each, 50 total.

(“Yogi”: 4chan commenters are sooo funny in adding to the conversation. They rulez! Psst— the HUGO nominations are out, there might be a Terrapin station for bears to bring you there…)

No offense to Reginald Hudson… but Dwayne McDuffie should be #1 for his comics and DC Animated works?

I don’t know what either 4chan or Hugo are. Here’s my larger point: I have no idea what half my favorite creators look like. Until the mid to late 90s, when Wizard posted pics of creators, I probably hadn’t seen any but Stan Lee. Maybe a few caricatures in weird issues, gave me a glimpse of what Hembeck or Byrne looked like. If people have to look up what race these creators are, that seems to invalidate the results. It’s a fine thing, I suppose. I’ll continue to care not what the authors and artists I enjoy look like.

Being a white, straight male myself, I can’t really relate to feeling like people similar to me are ignored or overlooked in the comic industry (or any industry, really). Whenever I see celebrations of comics creators, they’re dominated by folks who look like the people I grew up with. I don’t really know what it’s like to be unrepresented.

Given that, who am I to judge if underrepresented people want a little separate recognition? If that helps people, I support it. It’s no skin off my nose.

Everyone needs to vote for Matt Baker in the artist’s poll.