Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T10:09:28.405Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 10 - Racialines

Interrogating Stereotypes in Comics

from Part II - Readings

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 August 2023

Maaheen Ahmed
Affiliation:
Universiteit Gent, Belgium
Get access

Summary

This chapter assesses a pivotal moment in the formation of racial stereotypes in comics in the 1890s and 1900s, when racialized caricature became a foundational element of newspaper comics in the United States. Combining theoretical reflections on stereotypes and on the stereotypical structures of comics, the chapter offers exemplary analyses of E.W. Kemble’s, Richard F. Outcault’s, Rudolph Dirks’s, and Winsor McCay’s ongoing investments in what I call racialines: the broadly entertaining and increasingly popular confluence of the drawn line and the blackened spaces it encapsulates in the graphic rendition of stereotypical “blackness.” The chapter argues that these often conflicted investments in racist visual culture at the turn of the twentieth century facilitated the emergence of new visions of “blackness,” giving rise to a print world of stereotypical depiction where comics offered a playing field for the racialized visual imagination and taught Americans to indulge in images and narratives of “race” in ways that habitually solidified yet also, at times, irritated more conventional notions of normative “whiteness.”

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Primary Sources

Rudolph, Dirks. “The Katzenjammer Kids Change Clothes with the Blackberry Brothers.” Chicago American Comic Supplement. 2 September, 1900.Google Scholar
Kemble, Edward W. Comical Coons. R.H. Russell, 1898.Google Scholar
Kemble, Edward W. Kemble’s Coons: A Collection of Southern Sketches. R.H. Russell, 1897.Google Scholar
McCay, Winsor. “Little Nemo in Slumberland”. New York Herald, August, 1908.Google Scholar
Outcault, R.F. Pore Lil Mose: His Letters to His Mammy. Grand Union Tea Company, 1902.Google Scholar
Outcault, R.F. “Poor Lil’ Mose on the 7 Ages.” New York Herald Comic Supplement. February 3, 1901.Google Scholar
Outcault, R.F. “A True Ghost Story.” New York Herald. April 28, 1901.Google Scholar

Secondary Sources

Ahmed, Maaheen. “Black Boys and Black Girls in Comics: An Affective and Historical Mapping of Intertwined Stereotypes.” The Routledge Companion to Gender and Sexuality in Comic Book Studies. Edited by Aldama, Frederick Luis. Routledge, 2021, pp. 2841.Google Scholar
Ahmed, Sara. The Cultural Politics of Emotion. 2004. Edinburgh University Press, 2014.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aldama, Frederick Luis, ed. Multicultural Comics: From Zap to Blue Beetle. University of Texas Press, 2010.Google Scholar
Aldama, Frederick Luis Aldama, “Unmasking Whiteness: Re-Spacing the Speculative in Superhero Comics.” Unstable Masks: Whiteness and American Superhero Comics. Edited by Guynes, Sean and Lund, Martin. Ohio State University Press, 2020. xixvi.Google Scholar
Amiran, Eyal. “George Herriman’s Black Sentence: The Legibility of Race in ‘Krazy Kat.’Mosaic vol. 33, no. 3, 2000, pp. 5779.Google Scholar
Austin, Allan W., and Hamilton, Patrick L.. All New, All Different? A History of Race and the American Superhero. University of Texas Press, 2019.Google Scholar
Ayaka, Carolene, and Hague, Ian, ed. Representing Multiculturalism in Comics and Graphic Novels. Routledge, 2015.Google Scholar
Banta, Martha. Barbaric Intercourse: Caricature and the Culture of Conduct, 1841–1936. University of Chicago Press, 2003.Google Scholar
Barker, Martin. Comics: Ideology, Power, and the Critics. Manchester University Press, 1989.Google Scholar
Chute, Hillary L. Disaster Drawn: Visual Witness, Comics, and Documentary Form. Harvard University Press, 2016.Google Scholar
Cole, Jean Lee. How the Other Half Laughs: The Comic Sensibility in American Culture, 1895–1920. University Press of Mississippi, 2020.Google Scholar
Creekmur, Corey E.Multiculturalism Meets the Counterculture: Representing Racial Difference in Robert Crumb’s Underground Comics.” Representing Multiculturalism in Comics and Graphic Novels, edited by Ayaka, Carolene and Hague, Ian. Routledge, 2015, pp. 1933.Google Scholar
Cremins, Brian. “Bumbazine, Blackness, and the Myth of the Redemptive South in Walt Kelley’s Pogo.” Comics and the U.S. South, edited by Costello, Brannon and Whitted, Qiana J.. University Press of Mississippi, 2012, pp. 2961.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Du Bois, W.E.B.The Souls of Black Folk.” [1903]. The Oxford W.E.B. Du Bois Reader, edited by Sundquist, Eric J.. Oxford University Press, 1996. 97240.Google Scholar
Eisner, Will. Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative. [1996]. New York: Norton, 2008.Google Scholar
Gambone, Robert L. Life on the Press: The Popular Art and Illustrations of George Benjamin Luks. University Press of Mississippi, 2009.Google Scholar
Gardner, Jared. Projections: Comics and the History of Twenty-First-Century Storytelling. Stanford University Press, 2012.Google Scholar
Gardner, Jared. “Same Difference: Graphic Alterity in the Work of Gene Luen Yang, Adrian Tomine, and Derek Kirk Kim.” Multicultural Comics: From Zap to Blue Beetle, edited by , Frederick Luis Aldama. University of Texas Press, 2010, pp. 132147.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gardner, Jared. “Storylines.” SubStance, vol 40, no. 1, 2011, pp. 5369.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gateward, Frances, and Jennings, John. “Introduction: The Sweeter the Christmas.” The Blacker the Ink: Constructions of Black Identity in Comics & Sequential Art, edited by Gateward, Frances and Jennings, John. Rutgers University Press, 2015, pp. 115.Google Scholar
Gilman, Sander L. Difference and Pathology: Stereotypes of Sexuality, Race, and Madness. Cornell University Press, 1985.Google Scholar
Gordon, Ian. Comics Strips and Consumer Culture 1890–1945. Smithsonian Institution Press, 1998.Google Scholar
Hayes, David. “Rethinking Ebony White: Race and Representation in Will Eisner’s The Spirit.” Journal of Popular Culture vol. 48, no. 2, 2015, pp. 296312.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Havig, Alan. “Richard F. Outcault’s ‘Poor Lil’ Mose’: Variations on the Black Stereotype in American Comic Art.” Journal of American Culture vol. 11, no. 1, 1988, pp. 3341.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heer, Jeet. “Racism as a Stylistic Choice and Other Notes.” The Comics Journal 14 March 2011. www.tcj.com/racism-as-a-stylistic-choice-and-other-notes/.Google Scholar
Howard, Sheena C.Brief History of the Black Comic Strip: Past and Present.” Black Comics: Politics of Race and Representation, edited by Howard, Sheena C. and Jackson II, Ronald L.. Bloomsbury, 2013, pp. 1122.Google Scholar
Kunka, Andrew J.Comics, Race, and Ethnicity.” The Routledge Companion to Comics, edited by Bramlett, Frank, Cook, Roy T., and Meskin, Aaron. Routledge, 2017, pp. 275284.Google Scholar
Lemons, J. Stanley. “Black Stereotypes as Reflected in Popular Culture, 1880–1920.” American Quarterly vol. 29, no. 1, 1977, pp. 102116.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. [1993]. HarperCollins, 1994.Google Scholar
Meyer, Christina. Producing Mass Entertainment: The Serial Life of the Yellow Kid. Ohio State University Press, 2019.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mitchell, W.J.T. What Do Pictures Want? The Lives and Loves of Images. University of Chicago Press, 2005.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Molotiu, Andrei. “Cartooning.” Comics Studies: A Guidebook, edited by Hatfield, Charles and Beaty, Bart. Rutgers University Press, 2020, pp. 153171.Google Scholar
Nama, Adilifu. Super Black: American Pop Culture and Black Superheroes. University of Texas Press, 2011.Google Scholar
Rifas, Leonard. “Race and Comix.” Multicultural Comics: From Zap to Blue Beetle, edited by Frederick Luis Aldama. University of Texas Press, 2010, pp. 27–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saguisag, Lara. Incorrigibles and Innocents: Constructing Childhood and Citizenship in Progressive Era Comics. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2018.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spiegelman, Art. “Little Orphan Annie’s Eyeballs.” Comix, Essays, Graphics and Scraps: From MAUS to Now. Raw Books & Graphics, 1999, pp. 1718.Google Scholar
Stein, Daniel. “The Comic Modernism of George Herriman.” Crossing Boundaries in Graphic Narrative: Essays on Forms, Series and Genres. Edited by Jake Jakaitis and James F. Wurtz. Jefferson: McFarland, 2012. 4070.Google Scholar
Strömberg, Fredrik. Black Images in the Comics: A Visual History. Fantagraphics, 2003.Google Scholar
Tensuan, Theresa. “Difference.” Comics Studies: A Guidebook, edited by Hatfield, Charles and Beaty, Bart. Rutgers University Press, 2020, pp. 138150.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wanzo, Rebecca. The Content of Our Caricature: African American Comic Art and Political Belonging. New York University Press, 2020.Google Scholar
Whaley, Deborah Elizabeth. Black Women in Sequence: Re-inking Comics, Graphic Novels, and Anime. University of Washington Press, 2016.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Racialines
  • Edited by Maaheen Ahmed, Universiteit Gent, Belgium
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to Comics
  • Online publication: 17 August 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009255653.014
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Racialines
  • Edited by Maaheen Ahmed, Universiteit Gent, Belgium
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to Comics
  • Online publication: 17 August 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009255653.014
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Racialines
  • Edited by Maaheen Ahmed, Universiteit Gent, Belgium
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to Comics
  • Online publication: 17 August 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009255653.014
Available formats
×