Captain Thunder and Superman 276

[Permanus]

I love that song !   Bam A Lam...by Wham Jam  from an old Leadbelly song.......now that song COOKS !

Oh Black Betty, bam a lam  !

Me too! All together now!

[TELLE]

Both versions are awesome.  I'd love to see a superhero comics about Leadbelly --kind of like Luke Cage but with a guitar, and set in the 1930s!

[Super Monkey]

The old comics did have a black hero, but he has be mostly forgotten. Mostly due to how he was drawn, he was called Steamboat. Think Ebony in Will Eisner's "Spirit".

His best story appeared in Captain Marvel Adventures No. 13 in a story called "The King of Storms", he got to kick some butt and even save Billy and the day in that one.

[TELLE]

Very sad.



http://www.supermanartists.comics.org/fawcett/steamboat.JPG

From a CC Beck interview:

Steamboat was created to capture the affection of negro readers. Unfortunately he offended them instead and was unceremoniously killed off after a delegation of blacks visited the editor's office protesting because he was a servant, because he had huge lips and kinky hair and because he spoke in a dialect. He was always a cartoon character, not intended to be realistic at all, but he was taken seriously by some, sadly enough.

http://cagle.msnbc.com/hogan/interviews/beck4.asp

[Super Monkey]

Also read this:

http://www.blacksuperhero.com/history.html

[jamespup]

What's sad is that he seriously thought that black people would LIKE this portrayal ?

and in spite of some overt racist depictions in The Little Rascals, they were all poor, they were all friends, and they were all equal

Interesting Wikipedia article on Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, specifically Jack Benny's conscious decision to steer away from the stereotypical:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_%27Rochester%27_Anderson

[Johnny Nevada]

Very sad.



http://www.supermanartists.comics.org/fawcett/steamboat.JPG

From a CC Beck interview:

Steamboat was created to capture the affection of negro readers. Unfortunately he offended them instead and was unceremoniously killed off after a delegation of blacks visited the editor's office protesting because he was a servant, because he had huge lips and kinky hair and because he spoke in a dialect. He was always a cartoon character, not intended to be realistic at all, but he was taken seriously by some, sadly enough.

Yes, sad, but not uncommon for the time-era it was written in. Pretty much all entertainment of the time (radio, movies, comics) seemed to feature such ethnic stereotypes of Black people. Needless to say, *this* "Negro" reader isn't exactly mourning "Steamboat"'s death...  :-p

[Super Monkey]

What's sad is that he seriously thought that black people would LIKE this portrayal ?

I don't know, it sounds like a sheepish cop-out to me.

Jack Kirby also created a similar character in Whitewash during the same time period. see here: http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/y/youngallies.htm

Sadly it was far too common at the time.

Considering how Asians were shown in Superman comics of the time, I think we are all better off that there weren't a black characters during the same time.

see here: http://comics.org/coverview.lasso?id=2764&zoom=4