Current status / schedule Concluded Genre(s) comedy-drama End date 1986 | Launch date 1969 | |
Syndicate Los Angeles Times Syndicate | ||
Luther comic relief
Luther is an American syndicated newspaper comic strip published from 1969 to 1986, created and produced by cartoonist Brumsic Brandon Jr. The series, about an African-American elementary-school child, was the second mainstream comic strip to star an African-American in the lead role, following Dateline: Danger! (1968-1974), the first to do so. Another predecessor, Wee Pals (1965- ), features an African-American among an ensemble cast of different races and ethnicities.
Contents
The comic strip 4 8 15 the legacy of luther strode
Publication history
Brumsic Brandon Jr., who published his first cartoon in 1945, did editorial cartoons before conceiving of a comic strip about inner-city African-American children and a gently satirical theme about the struggle for racial equality. He named his title character, a third-grader, after Civil Rights activist the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
In 1968, the Long Island newspaper Newsday, began syndicating Luther through its own small syndicate, Newsday Specials, in conjunction Reporters' News Syndicate, an initiative designed to increase minority participation in journalism, In 1970, following the purchase of Newsday by the Times Mirror, the strip became syndicated widely through the corporation's the Los Angeles Times Syndicate.
Brumsic's daughter, Barbara Brandon, who would grow up to become the first nationally syndicated female African-American cartoonist, sometimes assisted her father with such tasks as applying Letratone, a transparent sheet with dots that read in print as African-American skin tone.
Cast
Source:
The children attended the Alabaster Avenue Elementary School.
Critical analysis
Cartoon historian Maurice Horn wrote that, "Although his gags were often about racism, Brandon was also successful in using his nicely designed urban inner-city kids to get his message of racial equality across."
The African-American artist and essayist Oliver W. Harrington wrote in 1976 that with Luther,
The cartoonist is actually violating what has always been an American taboo, and that is to create non-white characters or even poor white characters who are human, sympathetic and even lovable. Brandon employs his irresistible humor to level the walls of racism. And what better stage setting could he devise than the schools and the kids they're trying to educate.