Originally post here back in September:
Looking For A Face Like Mine
Bill Foster
$9.95 ($6.50 used on Amazon)
This collection of essays and interviews is a really useful resource for someone trying to get their footing in the realm of black comic books. Foster's essays deal with subjects as diverse as black superheroes, portrayal of blacks in underground comics from the '60s, the status of black woman superheroes and black musicians in comics, and African American trading cards. I found the book's ability to point me towards other source materials particularly valuable.
Two recurring arguments through out Foster's essays and interviews are that 1. We still need more diverse superheroes, but we could be doing a lot worse and 2. Despite myths to the contrary, black comics do sell. Both of these arguments are pretty sound, but the book's weakness is that through out many interviews and short articles it repeats them again and again without adding new depth to them.
I would suggest this book to two kinds of folks for two different purposes. 1. If you're a casual reader of comics who wants to have a better sense of how blacks have been portrayed over the years and maybe get some cool titles to look into, then this book is definitely for you. 2. As stated above, this book is useful to someone who wants a stepping off point for becoming more involved in the academic study of black comics but who doesn't know much yet. I would not advise coming to Foster's book looking for a rigorous academic study and criticism of black comic books. The book is less than 90 pages long and is cut up into 14 separate articles and interviews which, as stated above, tend to repeat themselves and as one can assume from their brevity don't delve very deep.
I'm really happy I read the book and get the sense that Dr. Foster is particularly knowledgable on his subject matter. However, it would seem that this particular book was intended for folks (like me) who don't know very much yet about the subject matter.
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