Luther (comic strip)

Luther is an American syndicated newspaper comic strip published from 1968 to 1986, created and produced by cartoonist Brumsic Brandon Jr.

Another predecessor, Wee Pals (1965-2014), featured an African-American among an ensemble cast of different races and ethnicities.

[2][5] Brumsic's daughter, Barbara Brandon, who would grow up to become the first nationally syndicated female African-American cartoonist,[2] sometimes assisted her father with such tasks as applying Letratone, a transparent sheet with dots that read in print as African-American skin tone.

[8] 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.

"[2] The African-American artist and essayist Oliver W. Harrington wrote in 1976[8] 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.