Today MazeToons celebrates Black History Month with a tribute to Matt Baker.
Matt Baker was a legendary comic book artist. He was also the first African American comic artist to find main stream success.
Matt Baker is perhaps best known for his work on Phantom Lady.
He was born in North Carolina but moved to Pittsburgh, PA at a young age. His formative years were spent in Pittsburgh, and he moved to Washington D.C after graduating.
Pittsburgh, my hometown, is in many ways the birth place of African American Cartooning and comics. Not only was it home to Matt Baker, but it was also home to Jackie Ormes, the first African American woman cartoonist as well as many other very talented creators who worked for the iconic Pittsburgh Courier.
You can learn more about Matt Baker and other black Pittsburgh cartoonists through this interview I did with WESA radio a few years ago.
http://wesa.fm/post/beyond-funny-pages-rich-history-pittsburgh-african-american-cartoonists#stream/0
