Beyond the Secret Garden Drawn to the Stereotypes: Comics and Graphic Novels

In this issue’s Beyond the Secret Garden column, Darren Chetty and Karen Sands-O’Connor turn to comics and graphic novels.

From their beginnings in the late 19^th century, British comic makers published content with racist undertones, and continued to do so throughout the twentieth century in some of the most popular comics. Racist humour was present in the early era of The Beano, which was bannered by a watermelon-eating character called Peanut; British Empire-era comics such as Tiger Tim depicted people in the colonies as either backwards or treacherous; and war comics such as Commando vilified racialised minorities.

British readers also experienced common racism within American comics, from superheroes who fought caricatured versions of racialised minorities, to Disney comics that encouraged American imperialism in South America and the acceptance of the Jim Crow south. Racism present in comics has fueled one of the arguments against allowing children to read them. Margaret Marshall noted that while ‘serious readers’ of comics show evidence of analytical’ understanding of story and art (Libraries and Librarians for Teenagers p. 150), too often comics include ‘a high degree of exaggerated caricature’ (p. 151) in the depiction of racialised minorities. Gillian Klein argued in 1986 that racially minoritised characters were only included in comics if they were an ‘oddity, a “baddie” or as a buffoon’ (Reading into Racism p. 47). A rare exception perhaps was the character of Vernon Eliot who appeared in the Roy of the Rovers comic strip between 1969 and 1982.  Eliot was Melchester Rovers’ first Black player and made his fictional England debut before Viv Anderson became the first Black player to play for the England men’s team in real life. However, it is harder to make a case for Pak Soon, a Vietnamese refugee with a non-Vietnamese name that may well have been intended as humorous.

In the US, a countertradition grew up of Black-authored comics, often (as in the Golden Legacy comics of the 1960s and 70s) focusing on Black history; these appeared alongside the first mainstream American comic to feature a Black superhero, Black Panther (first issue 1966).

British comics also celebrated Black History, although much later in most cases than American ones, and generally through independent (and often Black-owned) presses. Nigerian-born Tayo Fatunla has been drawing a history comic, Black Roots, for Black British newspaper The Voice since 1989.  There have also been limited series put out in connection with events such as the Imperial War Museum’s 2010 exhibition, ‘Extraordinary Heroes, Incredible Acts of Valour’ or Newcastle’s ‘Freedom City’ celebrations in 2017.

In the short format of a comic strip or book, it is difficult to address nuances of racism, and this is often more easily—and sometimes more controversially—done in a graphic novel format.  Just a year before one of the first commercially successful graphic novels, Art Spiegelman’s Maus, came out, the Institute of Race Relations published a ‘cartoon book’, How Racism Came to Britain (1985) drawn by Christine Smith.  This examination of the history of racism used a comic style in the hopes that the book ‘will help to take the ideas beyond the classroom and make them accessible to a wider range of readers’ (p. iv).  Unfortunately, one of those readers included then-Education Secretary Kenneth Baker, who called on the Inner London Education Authority to have it removed from schools.

Mainstream comic shops in the UK are still often dominated by US publications. In 2013, London artist and designer Jon Daniel published Afro Supa Hero: African Diaspora Action Figures to accompany his exhibition, which opened at the Museum of Childhood in London before touring nationally. It featured Daniel’s collection of Black action figures and comics from the 1970s and 80s, mostly from the USA. While many of the comic storylines shared the tropes of Blaxploitation films of the era, themes of displacement, hybridity and double consciousness were often present in the comics in Daniel’s collection, which can be viewed as an example of what Paul Gilroy terms the ‘Black Atlantic’.

More recently, British graphic novels for older child readers have continued to tackle issues of prejudice and racism. Malorie Blackman’s Noughts and Crosses was adapted by Ian Edginton and illustrated by John Aggs in graphic novel format in 2015. Patrice Aggs and Joe Brady examine the experience of becoming a refugee and resistance to authoritarian rule in No Country (David Fickling, 2021), a story which originally appeared in The Phoenix comic. And this year’s Carnegie Shadowers’ Choice Award for Illustration, Theo Parish’s Home Body (Macmillan, 2024), chronicles the voyage of discovery for a young transgender person.

Other author-illustrators make use of the graphic format to reimagine the classics or highlight racial diversity that often goes unnoticed in textual form.  Isabel Greenberg, for example, brings the Brontë siblings’ juvenilia to life in Glasstown (Jonathan Cape, 2020) including the African characters the Brontë children imagined, and her Young Hag (Jonathan Cape, 2024) posits a multiracial Arthurian world.

Some recent YA publications have been closer to the anarchic style seen in many UK comics for adults. YA graphic novel Black Dolls, text by Rachel Faturoti and illustrations Flo Wooley (Orion, 2025), follows four Black teens who form a punk band and compete in Clash of the Bands. Like Shazeen Khan, Faturoti has cited Nida Mansoor’s We Are Lady Parts television series as an inspiration for her work. Aimed at 13-17-year-olds, My Dad Fights Demons (SelfMadeHero), written by Bobby Joseph and illustrated by Abbigayle Bircham, will be published September 2025. Rye is a non-binary teen with a Black mother and a demon-fighting Indian father with whom he is reunited after a decade. The story includes zero-hour contracts, influencers, and a satirical storyline of a white character telling Rye how to be a good antiracist. Joseph’s use of Multicultural London English, social satire and scatological humour retains elements of Skank, a Black British magazine often compared to Viz magazine that he created and edited between 1993-7. He developed one of his characters from the magazine for Scotland Yardie (Knockabout 2016), a graphic novel for adults.  Joseph is the fifth person and first person of colour to be the UK Comics Laureate (2023-5) and has been a prominent advocate for diversity in British comics.

Buuza!! by London-based writer, illustrator and designer Shazleen Khan, is described as a slice-of-life comic set in a sprawling, urban fantasy Middle East and features Zach, a trans man who works as a sex line operator. The series is independently published, having won the 2024 Ignatz Award for Best Web Comic, with a hardcover version published by Abrams scheduled for May 2026. Khan’s Brown Girls Are Everything is, in their own words ‘a collection of illustrations and short essays about the Black, Asian, Indigenous and ambiguously Brown characters I fixated on as a little brown muslim kid’! The comic includes art and writing from Khan’s girlfriend, now wife, Ishaani.

Comics for younger readers have become more diverse this century. The Guardian began publishing Donny Digits by Woodrow Phoenix in its comic inset in 2008. Donny is a young Black boy, seemingly able to fix anything but harbouring a secret of his annoying twin brother Dylan. A book of the strip was published by Bog Eyed Books in 2021. Recent graphic novels for younger readers draw on the wide range of traditions in comic culture. Deploying a bright visual style reminiscent of Disney, Brielle and Bear (Harper Fire, 2024) is an uplifting university romance story with a racially diverse cast and allusions to Beauty and the Beast. References to rugby and cheerleaders combine elements of US and UK culture. Chanté Timothy’s Supa Nova (Nosy Crow, 2025) is a science-themed superhero story with a Black middle-class family at its centre. Nova also has a secret underground lab in which she invents a creature in order to deal with the problem of plastic. Timothy’s artwork is bright and bold in keeping with the pacey plotting. The story is led by the visuals with words used sparingly after the opening section. A short section after the story has Chanté in comic book form informing readers of the science behind the story, plus pages helping readers to draw their own Supa Nova.

Newer graphic novels for younger readers demonstrate an ability to address serious issues in compelling visual storytelling. As well as illustrating her own writing, Shazleen Khan illustrated Saving Sunshine written by Pakistan-born and US-based writer Saadia Faruqi (First Second, 2023). This middle grade graphic novel follows quarrelling twins Zara and Zeshan on a family trip to Key West and explores sibling rivalry, animal welfare, and anti-Muslim racism in the USA. London-based Indian creator Debasmita Dasgupta has produced a number of highly original graphic novels for primary school aged children. In Faiza is a Fighter (Soaring Kite Books, 2025), the title character is a young girl living in the Himalayas who decides to take up boxing, inspired by Mary Kom and supported by her father and grandmother. In Dasgupta’s Terminal 3 (Penguin, 2019), Khwab Nazir, a young jiu-jitsu competitor from Kashmir, waits to board a plane at New Delhi International Airport.

While non-fiction graphic books have been very popular for adult audiences, there are fewer for young readers. One of the best is The Power of Welcome by Marie Bamyani, Ada Jusic, Nadine Kaadan, Ramzee, and Sonya Zhurenko and illustrated by Ada Jusic (Scholastic, 2023) recounts stories of real-life refugees and migrants to the UK. Each story is preceded by a history of the country that the writer left, giving readers a broader context than often seen in newspaper coverage about refugees moving to Britain.

Thanks to Ramzee for more recommendations than we were able to cover in this column.

Dr Darren Chetty is a writer and a lecturer at UCL with research interests in education, philosophy, racism, children’s literature and hip-hop culture. He contributed to The Good Immigrant, edited by Nikesh Shukla, and has since published five books as co-author and co-editor. He tweets at @rapclassroom.

Karen Sands-O’Connor is a Visiting Professor of Education at the University of Sheffield. Her book British Activist Authors Addressing Children of Colour (Bloomsbury 2022) won the 2024 Children’s Literature Association Honor Book Award.

Darren and Karen’s book Beyond the Secret Garden: Racially Minoritised People in British Children’s Books is out now, published by English Media Centre.

Books Mentioned

Reading into Racism: Gillian Klein , Routledge, 978-1138163218  £145

The Complete Maus, Art Spiegelman, Penguin, 9780141014081, £16.99

Noughts and Crosses Graphic Novel: Malorie Blackman, illus John Aggs, Doubleday, 978-0857531957, £14.99

Home Body: Theo Parish, Macmillan, 978-1035017621, £14.99

Glass Town , Isabel Greenberg, Jonathan Cape, ‎ 978-1787330832, £22.00

Young Hag: Isabel Greenberg, Jonathan Cape, 978-1787334052, £20.00

Black Dolls: Rachel Faturoti, Flo Wooley, Orion, 978-1510113084, £12.99

My Dad Fights Demons: Bobby Joseph, Abbigayle Bircham SelfmadeHero, ‎ 978-1914224348 £14.99

Scotland Yardie: Bobby Joseph, Knockabout, 978-0861662517, £10.99

Buuza!!: Shazleen Khan, Self published 2019

Brown Girls Are Everything:  Shazleen Khan

Donny Digits: Woodrow Phoenix, Bog Eyed Books, 978-1916311800, £9.99

Brielle and Bear, Salome Doku, Harper Fire, 978-0008617561, £12.99

Supa Nova, Chanté Timothy, Nosy Crow, 978-1805130666, £8.99 pbk

Saving Sunshine: Saadia Faruqi, St Martin’s Press, 978-1250793812, £6.95pbk

Faiza is a Fighter Debasmita Dasgupta, Soaring Kite Books, 978-1958372821

Terminal 3 Debasmita Dagupta, Penguin RandomHouse, 978-0143452706, £12.99

The Power of Welcome Marie Bamyani, Ada Jusic, Ramzee, Sonya Zhurenko Nadine Kaadan Scholastic, 978-0702319167 , £10.99 pbk