The Content of Our Caricature: African American Comic Art and Political Belonging

Postmillenial Pop

by Rebecca Wanzo

Revealing the long aesthetic tradition of African American cartoonists who have made use of racist caricature as a black diasporic art practice, Rebecca Wanzo demonstrates how these artists have resisted histories of visual imperialism and their legacies. Moving beyond binaries of positive and negative representation, many black cartoonists have used caricatures to criticize constructions of ideal citizenship in the United States, as well as the alienation of African Americans from such imaginaries. The Content of Our Caricature urges readers to recognize how the wide circulation of comic and cartoon art contributes to a common language of both national belonging and exclusion in the United States.

Historically, white artists have rendered white caricatures as virtuous representations of American identity, while their caricatures of African Americans are excluded from these kinds of idealized discourses. Employing a rich illustration program of color and black-and-white reproductions, Wanzo explores the works of artists such as Sam Milai, Larry Fuller, Richard “Grass” Green, Brumsic Brandon Jr., Jennifer Cruté, Aaron McGruder, Kyle Baker, Ollie Harrington, and George Herriman, all of whom negotiate and navigate this troublesome history of caricature. The Content of Our Caricature arrives at a gateway to understanding how a visual grammar of citizenship, and hence American identity itself, has been constructed.

Genres: Graphic Novels, History, Comics, Nonfiction, Race, Politics

256 pages, Hardcover

Published April 1, 2020

Reviews

[J. Brendan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wanzo has a vast archive here of comics and editorial cartoons stretching back to the days of the Civil War and ending with the Black Panther film - she brings white authored cartoons into conversation with those Black cartoonists who engage in caricature as a way to make a call for political belonging. While I am not a comics scholar, the broader conversation about the need to move beyond a binary of "good" and "bad" representation and the ways in which representation is always fantastic are definitely things I want to incorporate into my own research. Wanzo writes deftly with humor, a deep intelligence, and blends in personal experience when appropriate without distracting from her thoughtful arguments. As she says in the closing, the book aims also to introduce readers to new comics and I definitely want to read several of the titles she discusses. This is definitely an academic work but I loved it.

[Karis · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was really fun*

*as in: provocative! inventive! uncomfortable! bold!

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

An engaging look at how illustration relates to society's perception of the self--specifically the African American self in America. Starting with political cartoons and then traveling into the funny pages into comic books and beyond even delving a little into advertising, the question became: what is the perception of Black bodies by American society and how does that play into their acceptance or non-acceptance as citizens of the United States?

The idea of citizenship, of personhood inside of a nation-state and using art to prove its tenuous nature is fascinating to me and I loved the ease with which Wanzo proved her point through amazing scholarship into cartoons, comics and more. Many of these artists' names she shared are new to me and breaking down the nature of editorial cartoons in such easy to understand terms helped me a lot when it came to the analysis and breakdown of the other comics she showed further on.

I can see the importance of chapter 5 and how it represents to objectification and othering of the Black body but it did not manage to fully integrate that point into the idea of art as it expresses citizenship. So much time is spent focused on Crumb and the idea of a transgressive joke that it felt less like a capstone piece to a book than a middle transitional chapter. I understand that the explicit imagery and text of the art along with the timeline of the progression in art meant it should be the last chapter but I think it would have worked better earlier in the work.

Overall, I found this book a really excellent read that has given me a lot to think about when it comes to comics, art styles, provenance and what that means for how we perceive ourselves and others. It's a great read.