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) and Bad Men: Creative Touchstones of Black Writers (2020), and he is creator of Remarkable Receptions, a podcast series on African American literature.

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 intricaciesof creative success – or not – in a divided America. Writing Black Panther is an informative, delightful, and engagingly haunting exploration.

• Introduction 1. Representation Struggles in Comics2. Announcing a Leading Writer on Race 3. The Buzziest of Books 4. No One Man5. Women of Wakanda 6. Mapping an African Country7. A Breakthrough for Black People in Comics8. Diversity Doesn’t Sell 9. Diversity Sells 10. Star Wars for Black PeopleConclusionAcknowledgements Appendix: Coates Comics TreesNotesBibliographyIndex

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) and Bad Men: Creative Touchstones of Black Writers (2020), and he is creator of Remarkable Receptions, a podcast series on African American literature.

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 intricaciesof creative success – or not – in a divided America. Writing Black Panther is an informative, delightful, and engagingly haunting exploration.

• Introduction 1. Representation Struggles in Comics2. Announcing a Leading Writer on Race 3. The Buzziest of Books 4. No One Man5. Women of Wakanda 6. Mapping an African Country7. A Breakthrough for Black People in Comics8. Diversity Doesn’t Sell 9. Diversity Sells 10. Star Wars for Black PeopleConclusionAcknowledgements Appendix: Coates Comics TreesNotesBibliographyIndex

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) and Bad Men: Creative Touchstones of Black Writers (2020), and he is creator of Remarkable Receptions, a podcast series on African American literature.

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 intricaciesof creative success – or not – in a divided America. Writing Black Panther is an informative, delightful, and engagingly haunting exploration.

• Introduction 1. Representation Struggles in Comics2. Announcing a Leading Writer on Race 3. The Buzziest of Books 4. No One Man5. Women of Wakanda 6. Mapping an African Country7. A Breakthrough for Black People in Comics8. Diversity Doesn’t Sell 9. Diversity Sells 10. Star Wars for Black PeopleConclusionAcknowledgements Appendix: Coates Comics TreesNotesBibliographyIndex