Diversity

It seems that the Festival of Comics of Angoulême is grudgingly going to add more names to it's Grand Prix list after a growing number of cartoonists have withdrawn in protest over the lack...

As reported yesterday, there has been international consternation over the 016 list of nominees for the Grand Prix, the lifetime achievement awards for cartoonists presented each year at the FIBD in Angoulême. While it...

The long list for the 2016 Grand Prix at Angoulême was announced today—this is a kind of lifetime achivemenet award, and arguably the greatest honor a cartoonist can receive. It's also been the center of much...

Update: I've written to Hasbro reps several times about these issues and never gotten an answer, however when Entertainment Weekly writes, they DO respond and here's what they said: Reached for comment, a Hasbro spokesperson...

Based on the astounding social media attention to my last post about Ariell R. Johnson and her Amalgam Comics & Coffeehouse in Philadelphia, it seems you want more Ariell. So I am very happy to oblige with the above video of Johnson talking at the Ignite Philly event last fall. Johnson talks about her own life as a nerd, who was the black Thundercat and her discovery of Storm, the first black superheroine she encountered: "When I found out about Storm I gripped on tight to her and never let her go."

I can't think of a better story to end this year with than that of Ariell R. Johnson, reportedly the East coasts first black female comics shop owner. Amalgam Comics & Coffeehouse opens in...

And by few I mean a handful. Michael Cavna reports on this in a powerful piece called Why are there no staff black cartoonists at a time when we need them most? He spotlights a few of the black cartoonist who have a voice, including Keith Knight, Darrin Bell, and, Congressman John Lewism who thought not actually a cartoonist has certainly become a voice in comics. But the numbers are still awful:

If there was a tidal wave that swept over the comics world in 2015 it was diversity. Great strides were made, though more needs to be done. And here here's an award to recognize come of what's going on, under the auspices of the Virginia Library Association. Publishers take note; more info here.

The McDuffie Award for Diversity in Comics was established last year to recognize comics work that promotes the spirit of diversity. (I was honored to be on the inaugural judging panel.) Submissions for the...

by Thaddeus Howze My relationship with this show is over. I wanted to love it, but it kept telling me by virtue of its depiction of Black men, I wasn’t its “target” audience. I am...

Mental illness has been a trope in comics-related properties ranging from Peanuts to Gotham, but do new sensitivities to mental health issues mean that it's time for this to change? At this year's San Diego...

Last week, the cartoonist Julia Wertz wrote about the street and online harassment she's received in recent years, and the disparate response to it: A lot of men responded by asking me if I was...