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Tuesday, July 12, 2011

"Negro Romance" from Fawcett Comics on PBS tonight

On PBS tonight, the show "History Detectives" investigated a coverless copy of a Fawcett comic, "Negro Romance." They talked with Dr. William Foster at the Museum of Comic and Cartoon art, went to Geppi's Entertainment museum, then went to a historian who has been tracking down old comics creators.

It was he who had been in contact with Roy Ald, the editor listen in the front page. It turns out that he had written the book, and the artist was a black man named Alvin Hollingsworth, who went on to a significant art career after leaving comics in 1955.

Negro Romance was apparently an experiment by Fawcett in creating a comic with realistically written and drawn black characters in a mainstream genre. It lasted for three issues in 1952.

The segment and related info can be seen at PBS.org