Golden Legacy #2: The Saga of Harriet Tubman
Written by Joan Baccus. May be first recognized Black female author/artist in comic books. Published by Fitzgerald Publishing Co., the most successful Black owned comic book publisher of the Bronze Age.
Writers
Joan Baccus
Artists
Various
Era
Bronze
Publisher
Fitzgerald Publishing Company
Publication Date
1966
Synopsis
Golden Legacy was the umbrella title for a line of educational black history comic books published by Fitzgerald Publishing Co. from 1966 to 1976. Golden Legacy published comic book biographies of such notable figures as Toussaint Louverture, Harriet Tubman, Crispus Attucks, Benjamin Banneker, Matthew Henson, Alexandre Dumas, Frederick Douglass, Robert Smalls, Joseph Cinqué, Walter F. White, Roy Wilkins, Thurgood Marshall, Martin Luther King Jr., Alexander Pushkin, Lewis Howard Latimer, and Granville Woods. (via Wikipedia)
Notes
Here we have another comic book that may be dismissed by the average comic book collector but is extremely important to the Black Comic Book Collector.
The Golden Legacy series was published by the Fitzgerald Publishing Company. Until the 90s brought Milestone, Brother Man and Tribe, Fitzgerald was arguably the most successful Black Comic Book publisher in history.
I recall first seeing Golden Legacy comics not in comic shops but in Black schools, churches and libraries. It felt like they were always around. They aren’t hard to find. In fact, my local shop came across a full set.
This particular issue came up in conversation as I was researching who is considered the first Black woman author and/or artist in comic books. I’m familiar with Jackie Ormes, the first Black woman cartoonist, but I was looking for a creator involved in the comic book industry. (This distinction between comic strips and comic books needs further discussion.)
Joan Baccus (Maynard), the author of Golden Legacy #2 and several other volumes of the series, is the first name to pop up since Ormes. That’s an 11 year stretch. And Black female authors and artists are still very rare in comics. Major publishers like Marvel and DC didn’t have a Black woman writer until the early 2000s (more to come on this point)!
Needless to say I’m still diligently looking for other names of Black women in comics. I encourage the Black comic collectors community to weigh in on this conversation.
