Description: Examines contemporary African American artistic production through the lens of Coates's groundbreaking entry into the comic book industry.
Brief description: Howard Rambsy II is Distinguished Research Professor of Literature at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, USA, where he specializes in African American fiction, poetry, and comic books. He is the author of The Black Arts Enterprise (2011), Bad Men: Creative Touchstones of Black Writers (2020), and One Black Writer at a Time: How Literary Coverage Shapes Reception (with Kenton Rambsy; forthcoming from Bloomsbury in 2026). He is the creator of Remarkable Receptions, a podcast series on African American literature.
Review Quotes:
"Using Ta-Nehisi Coates and his tenure penning comics as an extended case study, Howard Rambsy II employs meticulous research, impressive detail, and a constant awareness of the issues surrounding representation and diversity to offer literary scholars, comic book readers, writers and journalists, and anyone else interested in heroes and history a transformational scholarly examination of the intricacies
of creative success - or not - in a divided America. Writing Black Panther is an informative, delightful, and engagingly haunting exploration." --Trudier Harris, J. Carlyle Sitterson Distinguished Professor of English, Emerita, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA