The first and only issue of All-Negro Comics was published in Philadelphia, and a free Black Superhero Exhibit at the University of Pennsylvania now puts its characters back in front of the public. The exhibit, titled The Black Hero’s Journey, traces how Black comic book heroes and creators moved from exclusion and harmful stereotypes to groundbreaking protagonists, with the city’s own artists in the story.

The exhibit opened October 15 and runs through May 13, 2027, in the Goldstein Gallery on the 6th floor of the Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center. It is free and open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, except holidays and times when the library is closed. Penn students, faculty and staff swipe their PennCard. Everyone else needs a current government or school-issued photo ID with an expiration date.

What the Black Superhero Exhibit Covers

The show features Lion Man, Black Panther and Storm, among other characters, and asks who gets to be a hero. A replica 1940s newsstand shows how comics and print culture worked in that era. Other sections cover underground comix, the Afrofuturism movement and the links between the X-Men and the Civil Rights Movement. The curators make the case that Black comic heroes descend from centuries of storytelling.

It also follows the people who made the books: Dawud Anyabwile, Orrin C. Evans, Sheena Howard, Dwayne McDuffie, Jackie Ormes, E.C. Stoner, Qiana Whitted and co-curator Eric Battle. The Black Superhero Exhibit treats their careers as a second story running beside the heroes on the page.

^{(L-R) “It’s New!” promotional advertisement, last page of All-Negro Comics, no. 1 (June 1947). All-Negro Comics, Inc. Public domain. Digitized from a copy held by Penn Libraries.
Cover of Negro Heroes, no. 2 (Summer 1948). Published by the National Urban League in cooperation with Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. Public domain. Digitized from a copy held by Penn Libraries.
Cover art for Superhero City, designed by Eric Battle for use in The Black Hero’s Journey exhibit.}

Where Philadelphia Shows Up in the Black Superhero Exhibit

Battle is a West Philadelphia resident who has illustrated characters for DC Comics and Marvel Comics. For this show he made custom artwork of real-life heroes from the city, including Paul Robeson, Sadie Alexander, W.E.B. DuBois and Orrin C. Evans, alongside fictional characters from All-Negro Comics. He hopes visitors leave excited about the city they live in and recalls being told that “creativity just will not be denied in the end.”

The series Brotherman: Disciple of Discipline is also part of the exhibit. It was published by brothers and Philadelphians Dawud Anyabwile and Guy A. Sims. Between the newsstand, the custom portraits and the local publishers, the Black Superhero Exhibit keeps pointing back to the neighborhoods around campus.

Who Built the Black Superhero Exhibit

Samantha Hill and Sean Quimby of Penn’s Kislak Center co-curated the show with University Chaplain Chaz Howard and Battle. The comics come from Howard’s and Battle’s personal collections, the Kislak Center’s Gary Prebula Collection of Comic Books, and loans from other institutions, including the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum at The Ohio State University.

Hill hopes visitors feel pride, excitement or wonder, and says comics let readers imagine themselves inside the story: “You become the hero.” Quimby argues that comics are too often undervalued as cultural artifacts, and Howard points out that a university does its teaching well beyond the classroom. Those ideas run through the Black Superhero Exhibit from the first case to the last.

Family and Community Day is Saturday, October 31, from noon to 3 p.m. on the 6th floor. It has a comics newsstand and an Imagination Station for making your own pages, plus tours led by Battle and Quimby at 1 and 2 p.m., first come, first served. Costumes inspired by comics are encouraged, and RSVP is encouraged but not required.

On November 18, from 6 to 8 p.m., the Kislak Center hosts a book launch for Framing Emmett Till: Exposing Dark Fear in the Orrery Pavilion. On December 11 at noon, Quimby and collector Gary Prebula talk comics in a virtual lecture, and the link goes to registrants. West Philadelphia high school students begin giving tours in 2027.

Bring your photo ID, bring a kid or a friend who still has a box of comics in the closet, and give yourself an hour. The exhibit is free, it stays through May, and there is a good chance you will walk out wanting to read something.

Images: Kait Privitera

About Post Author

Allan Lane

Philadelphia born and bred, Allan Lane is the Publisher and Editor in Chief of digital magazines. He launched his first publication, SportBikes Inc Magazine in 2010, followed by dosage MAGAZINE in 2019. Recently, Allan launched his third online publication, Club For Man. As a journalist, Allan covers fashion, lifestyle, culture, art, and motorcycles.

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