Interestingly, Jackson probably learned how to use science-fiction tropes to safely put that criticism into the remove of an alternative future because he was also the first black pulp artist to draw for the science fiction magazines, with four years of illustrations in Amazing Stories and Fantastic Adventures. Nothing in the Golden Age of comics is remotely comparable to this strip, to my knowledge, especially in the searingly critical denunciation of American racism. The entire length of the strip was one long condemnation of the way the black community endured endless prejudice and oppression even while they were being asked to help the war effort in the cause of freedom. Bungleton Green returned to the Chicago of 1945 and fought racism and gangsters preying on the black community. They died at the hands of Nazis, got revived and sent back through time to endure slavery in 1778 America, were whisked into the future of 2043 where America was a colorblind utopia but a new continent full of green people oppressed whites, and finally saw future scientists turn the title character into a super man. He turned it into, of all things, a science fiction adventure strip, having his characters travel through time and space. In 1942, Jay Jackson, head cartoonist of the historic black newspaper The Chicago Defender, revived the moribund Bungleton Green, the oldest continuously running black comic strip. Here’s some history that has been forgotten by virtually everyone including comics historians.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |