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Female costars in "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" next to a picture of Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins.

The Pioneering Black Sci-Fi Writer Behind the Original Wakanda

Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins invented the setting that eventually became Wakanda in her science fiction, but her name isn't widely known.

Mocking the Klan

Was cartoonist Billy Ireland’s pen really mightier than the burning crosses of the KKK?
Paul Peter Porges with self-portrait, during his time in the US army, 1951-52.

‘They Were Survivors’: The Jewish Cartoonists Who Fled the Nazis

A new exhibition celebrates the work of three Austrian artists who escaped their country as Nazis took over and created daring work in the years after.
A graphic featuring illustrations of Stan Lee.

The Unheroic Life of Stan Lee

In a career of many flops, he laid claim to the outsized success of Marvel Comics.
Carvings on two whaleteeth (scrimshaw)

The Pleasure Crafts

Everyday people's creation of porn and erotic objects over the centuries.

In the Time of Monsters

Watchmen is a sophisticated inquiry into the ethical implications of its own form—the flash and bang, the prurience and violence of comic books.

Comic Gold

The Gold Rush introduced a new figure into the American imagination – the effete Eastern urbanite who travels to the Wild West in quest of his fortune.
Superman comic illustration

Why Superheroes Are the Shape of Tech Things to Come

Superman et al were invented amid feverish eugenic speculation: what does the superhero craze say about our own times?

Original Catfluencer: How a Victorian Artist’s Feline Fixation Gave Us the Internet Cat

A story of how Louis Wain single handedly made cats adored by Victorian society through to modern day.
"Black Panther" comic book cover.

Black Panther and the Black Panthers

Much is at stake in understanding the history and relationship between black superheroes and black revolutionaries.
Still from Black Panther film.

'Black Panther' and the Invention of 'Africa'

The film's hero and antagonist represent dueling responses to five centuries of African exploitation at the hands of the West.
Still from Black Panther

How 'Black Panther' Taps Into 500 Years of History

The film draws on centuries of black dreams of independence to create Wakanda.
Uranium-rich ore sample from the Shinkolobwe Mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Searching for Wakanda

The African roots of the Black Panther story.

How the KKK Shaped Modern Comic Book Superheroes

Masked men who take the law into their own hands.

How a Magazine Cover From the '70s Helped Wonder Woman Win Over Feminists

Nearly 45 years after they put the female superhero on the cover of Ms. magazine's first issue, the players behind the cover consider its impact.
A drawing of a skeletal hand erupting from the ground and separating a house with a Harris/Walz sign and a house with a Trump/Vance sign. Face masks float in the wind.

There’s a Very Specific Issue Haunting This Election. No One Is Talking About It.

You can bury it. But you can’t escape it.
Cover of "Suffrage Song" on left, featuring three suffragists. On right, cartoonist Caitlin Cass.

This Cartoonist Wants to Tell the Complicated History of Women’s Voting Rights

A new graphic book unpacks the role that some White women played in suppressing voting rights for all — and the lessons today in the fight for universal ballot access.
Peanuts' Franklin as a flat two-dimensional character.

It’s Flagrant Tokenism, Charlie Brown!

Peanuts’ Franklin has been a controversial character for decades. A new special attempts reparations.
Parental advisory sticker warning of explicit content.
partner

Who Gets to Regulate #*%&? Free Speech in Popular Culture

When speech offends, who decides where boundaries should be drawn?
Sonny Rollins playing saxophone.

The Monumental Improvisations of Sonny Rollins

Rollins never wavered in his determination to get things right, and often that meant reinventing himself and, along the way, jazz as well.
Marsha P. Johnson and others at Pride march, with large fan.

Beyond the Binary

The long history of trans.
A line of G.I. Joe action figures, in various military-style uniforms as well as scuba gear.

How G.I. Joe Jump-Started the Action Figure Craze

In the late 1970s, smaller 'Star Wars' action figures took over.
The writer (seen here in a picture from the eighteen-eighties) hid his own life story.

Are All Short Stories O. Henry Stories?

The writer’s signature style of ending—a final, thrilling note—has the touch of magic that distinguishes the form at its best.
Lawd, Mah Man's Leavin' by Archibald Motley Jr.

How Should We Understand the Shocking Use of Stereotypes in the Work of Black Artists?

It's about the satirical tradition of 'going there.'

What Ever Happened to Chicken Fat?

Comedy from Mad Magazine to The Simpsons.
Illustration taken from The Great Gatsby, The Graphic Novel

Greil Marcus Takes a Deep Dive Into "the Stubborn Myth of The Great Gatsby"

An insightful exploration of the ways America has read ‘the Great American Novel.’

The Decade Comic Book Nerds Became Our Cultural Overlords

Why do they have to be such sore winners?

How Horror Changed After WWI

The war created a new world, an alternate reality distinct from what most people before 1914 expected their lives to be.

5 Facts That Help Us Understand the World of Early American Yoga

100 years ago, it was associated more with the mystical practices of the Orient than with middle-class women in stretchy pants.
Collage by pop artist Tom Wesselmann depicting a kitchen table with food

Pop Art in the US

A primary source set and teaching guide created by educators.

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