Luther (comic strip)

Last updated

Luther
Author(s) Brumsic Brandon Jr.
Current status/scheduleConcluded
Launch date1968
End date1986
Syndicate(s) Newsday Specials (1968–1970)
Los Angeles Times Syndicate (1970–1986)
Publisher(s)Paul S. Eriksson
Genre(s)comedy-drama

Luther is an American syndicated newspaper comic strip published from 1968 to 1986, created and produced by cartoonist Brumsic Brandon Jr. The series, about an African-American elementary-school child, was the second mainstream comic strip to star an African-American in the lead role, following Dateline: Danger! (1968-1974), the first to do so. Another predecessor, Wee Pals (1965-2014), featured an African-American among an ensemble cast of different races and ethnicities.

Contents

Publication history

A Luther strip (date n.a.) with an example of cartoonist Brumsic Brandon's satirical, race-based humor Luther comic strip.jpg
A Luther strip (date n.a.) with an example of cartoonist Brumsic Brandon's satirical, race-based humor

Brumsic Brandon Jr., who published his first cartoon in 1945, did editorial cartoons before conceiving of a comic strip about inner-city African-American children and a gently satirical theme about the struggle for racial equality. [1] [2] He named his title character, a third-grader, after Civil Rights activist the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. [3]

In 1968, the Long Island newspaper Newsday [4] began syndicating Luther through its own small syndicate, Newsday Specials, [5] in conjunction with Reporters' News Syndicate, an initiative designed to increase minority participation in journalism, [2] [6] In 1970, following the purchase of Newsday by the Times Mirror, the strip became syndicated widely through the corporation's the Los Angeles Times Syndicate. [2] [5]

Brumsic's daughter, Barbara Brandon, who would grow up to become the first nationally syndicated female African-American cartoonist, [2] sometimes assisted her father with such tasks as applying Letratone, a transparent sheet with dots that read in print as African-American skin tone. [7]

Cast

Source: [2]

The children attended the Alabaster Avenue Elementary School. [8]

Critical analysis

Cartoon historian Maurice Horn wrote that, "Although his gags were often about racism, Brandon was also successful in using his nicely designed urban inner-city kids to get his message of racial equality across." [2]

The African-American artist and essayist Oliver W. Harrington wrote in 1976 [8] that with Luther,

The cartoonist is actually violating what has always been an American taboo, and that is to create non-white characters or even poor white characters who are human, sympathetic and even lovable. Brandon employs his irresistible humor to level the walls of racism. And what better stage setting could he devise than the schools and the kids they're trying to educate. [9]

Luther collections

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Comic strip</span> Short serialized comics

A comic strip is a sequence of cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st century, these have been published in newspapers and magazines, with daily horizontal strips printed in black-and-white in newspapers, while Sunday papers offered longer sequences in special color comics sections. With the advent of the internet, online comic strips began to appear as webcomics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cartoon</span> Type of two-dimensional visual art

A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently animated, in an unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or series of images intended for satire, caricature, or humor; or a motion picture that relies on a sequence of illustrations for its animation. Someone who creates cartoons in the first sense is called a cartoonist, and in the second sense they are usually called an animator.

Chester Gould was an American cartoonist, best known as the creator of the Dick Tracy comic strip, which he wrote and drew from 1931 to 1977, incorporating numerous colorful and monstrous villains.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aaron McGruder</span> American writer and cartoonist (born 1974)

Aaron Vincent McGruder is an American writer, cartoonist, and producer best known for creating The Boondocks, a Universal Press Syndicate comic strip and its animated TV series adaptation.

<i>Henry</i> (comics) Comic strip created by Carl Anderson

Henry is a comic strip created in 1932 by Carl Thomas Anderson. The title character is a young bald boy who is mostly mute in the comics. Except in a few early episodes, when the comic strip character communicates, he does so largely but not entirely through pantomime. He also spoke in a comic book series of 1946–1961 and in at least one Betty Boop cartoon from 1935 in which Betty Boop has a pet shop and Henry speaks to a dog in the window.

<i>Mallard Fillmore</i> Right-wing comic strip

Mallard Fillmore is a comic strip written and illustrated by Bruce Tinsley until 2019 and Loren Fishman since 2020. It has been syndicated by King Features Syndicate since June 6, 1994. The strip follows the exploits of its title character, an anthropomorphic green-plumaged duck who works as a politically conservative reporter at fictional television station WFDR in Washington, D.C. Mallard's name is a pun on the name of the 13th president of the United States, Millard Fillmore.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Morrie Turner</span> American cartoonist

Morris Nolton Turner was an American cartoonist. He was creator of the strip Wee Pals, the first American syndicated strip with a racially integrated cast of characters.

Darrin Bell is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American editorial cartoonist and comic strip creator known for the syndicated comic strips Candorville and Rudy Park. He is a syndicated editorial cartoonist with King Features.

Wee Pals is an American syndicated comic strip about a diverse group of children, created and produced by Morrie Turner. It was the first comic strip syndicated in the United States to have a cast of diverse ethnicity, dubbed the "Rainbow Gang".

The Los Angeles Times Syndicate was a print syndication service that operated from c. 1949 to 2000. Owned by the Times Mirror Company, it also operated the Los Angeles Times Syndicate International; together the two divisions sold more than 140 features in more than 100 countries around the world. Syndicated features included Pulitzer Prize-winning commentators and columnists, full news and feature services, editorial cartoons and comic strips, online products and photo and graphics packages.

Raymond Curtis Billingsley is an African American cartoonist, best known for creating the comic strip Curtis. It is distributed by King Features Syndicate and printed in more than 250 newspapers nationwide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jackie Ormes</span> American cartoonist

Jackie Ormes was an American cartoonist. She is known as the first African-American woman cartoonist and creator of the Torchy Brown comic strip and the Patty-Jo 'n' Ginger panel.

A comic strip syndicate functions as an agent for cartoonists and comic strip creators, placing the cartoons and strips in as many newspapers as possible on behalf of the artist. A syndicate can annually receive thousands of submissions, from which only two or three might be selected for representation. In some cases, the work will be owned by the syndicate as opposed to the creator. The Guinness World Record for the world's most syndicated strip belongs to Jim Davis' Garfield, which at that point (2002) appeared in 2,570 newspapers, with 263 million readers worldwide.

Charles Boyce, is an American cartoonist known for his syndicated comic panel Compu-toon. Boyce is also known for creating the KeyPad Kid, a cartoon character used in public affairs awareness programs for training within the telecommunication industry.

Barbara Brandon-Croft is an American cartoonist, best known for creating the comic strip Where I'm Coming From, and for being the first nationally syndicated African-American female cartoonist.

Quincy is an American syndicated newspaper comic strip published from July 13, 1970 to October 4, 1986, created and produced by cartoonist Ted Shearer. The series, about an African-American boy being raised by his grandmother in Harlem, was one of the earliest mainstream comic strips to star an African American in the lead role, following Dateline: Danger! (1968-1974) and Luther (1969-1986). Another predecessor, Wee Pals, features an African-American among an ensemble cast of different races and ethnicities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ted Shearer</span> American cartoonist (1919–1992)

Thaddeus Shearer was an African-American advertising art director and cartoonist whose 1970–1986 Quincy was one of the earliest mainstream comic strips to star an African American in the lead role.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brumsic Brandon Jr.</span> American newspaper cartoonist

Brumsic Brandon Jr. was an African-American cartoonist whose 1969-1986 Luther was one of the earliest mainstream comic strips to feature an African American in the lead role.

J.P. Alley (1885–1934) was an editorial cartoonist whose work attacking the Ku Klux Klan brought his employer, the Memphis Commercial Appeal newspaper, the 1923 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. He was best known for his Hambone's Meditations, a syndicated comic strip featuring a racist, Jim Crow caricature of an African American man.

References

  1. ↑ Brumsic Brandon Jr. at the Lambiek Comiclopedia. Archived from the original on May 1, 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Horn, Maurice, ed. (1996). 100 Years of American Newspaper Comics. New York York: Gramercy Books. pp. 190–191. ISBN   0-517-12447-5.
  3. ↑ McGrath, Ben (April 19, 2004). "The Radical: Why do editors keep throwing 'The Boondocks' off the funnies page?". The New Yorker . Archived from the original on November 5, 2012. Retrieved 2014-05-01.
  4. ↑ Vitellodec, Paul (December 2, 2014). "Brumsic Brandon Jr., Creator of 'Luther' Strip, Dies at 87". The New York Times . Retrieved June 20, 2015.
  5. 1 2 "'Coloring Outside the Lines: Black Cartoonists as Social Commentators' exhibit to open at Laney". Oakland Local. August 6, 2010. Archived from the original on August 23, 2010. Retrieved February 23, 2014.
  6. ↑ "Robert G. Spivack Papers: A Finding Aid to the Collection in the Library of Congress" (PDF). Washington, D.C.: Manuscript Division, Library of Congress. 2012. p. 5. Retrieved June 20, 2015. ... Spivack's late 1960s initiative, Reporters' News Syndicate, a program designed to give minority candidates practical training in journalism. ...
  7. ↑ Jones, Lisa (2010). Bulletproof Diva. Anchor Books. p.  89. ISBN   978-0-307-77381-4.
  8. 1 2 Johnson, Charles Richard; Byrd, Rudolph P., ed. (1999). I Call Myself an Artist: Writings by and about Charles Johnson. Indiana University Press. p.  208. ISBN   978-0253335418.{{cite book}}: |first2= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  9. ↑ Harrington, Oliver W. (1993). Why I Left America, and Other Essays . University Press of Mississippi. p.  87. ISBN   978-0878056552.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.