{"id":323869,"date":"2026-11-08T22:40:08","date_gmt":"2026-11-08T22:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/323869\/"},"modified":"2026-11-08T22:40:08","modified_gmt":"2026-11-08T22:40:08","slug":"new-upenn-exhibit-spotlights-black-comic-book-heroes-and-creators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/323869\/","title":{"rendered":"New UPenn exhibit spotlights Black comic book heroes and creators"},"content":{"rendered":"

PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) \u2014 A new exhibit at the University of Pennsylvania highlights Black comic book heroes, their creators and communities.<\/p>\n

Curated by Penn Associate Vice Provost Sean Quimby and Curator of Civic Engagement Samantha Hill, The Black Hero\u2019s Journey<\/a> aims to tell the origin stories of popular heroes like Black Panther, Miles Morales, Storm and Luke Cage, among others.<\/p>\n

The history of Black comic book heroes traces its roots to Philadelphia in 1947, when Philadelphia Record writer Orrin Evans created Lion Man for All-Negro Comics. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe staff of the Record went on strike,\u201d Quimby explained, showing off a copy of the super-rare comic. \u201cAnd so\u2026 Orrin and his brother and several other individuals created what is effectively the first Black comic book.\u201d<\/p>\n

By extension, making Philadelphia home to the very first Black comic book superhero. <\/p>\n

Hill says the exhibit also profiles pioneering Black comic creators like Dwayne McDuffie, co-creator of Static Shock, as well as Philly\u2019s own Guy and Dawud Anyabwile Sims, the brothers behind Big City Comics and Brotherman: Dictator of Discipline. <\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing we wanted people to think about is not just the comic, but also the creator,\u201d she explained. \u201c\u2018Who are the people who created these stories and why are they significant?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The Black Hero\u2019s Journey is currently on display at Penn\u2019s Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center at 34th Street and Walnut Street. The free exhibit is open to the public and runs through May 13, 2027, with the gallery open between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) \u2014 A new exhibit at the University of Pennsylvania highlights Black comic book heroes, their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323870,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[52007,118359,14228,69,71,70,93252,4347],"class_list":["post-323869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-black-artists","tag-comic-books","tag-exhibit","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-superheroes","tag-university-of-pennsylvania"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323869\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}