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Jackie Ormes: creating the powerful, fashionable, & modern African American female cartoon character

Jackie Ormes: creating the powerful, fashionable, & modern African American female cartoon character published on No Comments on Jackie Ormes: creating the powerful, fashionable, & modern African American female cartoon character

Jackie Ormes, born Zelda Mavin Jackson to parents William Winifield Jackson and Mary Brown Jackson in 1911, was an American cartoonist, journalist, editor, philanthropist, and ground-breaker . She was the first African American woman creator of a syndicated comic strip. Her comics, Torchy Brown and Patty-Jo ‘n’ Ginger, depicted strong, intelligent, and fashionable African American women, which was provocative on its own. Ever the innovator, Ormes would also often use her comics to comment on society as well, targeting racial issues and environmental pollution.

Just a year after launching her Patty-Jo ‘n’ Ginger strip, Ormes had a play doll of her Patty-Jo character produced by the Terri Lee doll company in 1947, just in time for Christmas. Like Torchy, whose comics would often be accompanied with paper doll style wardrobes, Patty-Jo had an upscale wardrobe, and is considered the first black doll on the market that did not depict and enforce racist stereotypes.

“No matter the strip, Ormes was presenting African American women in a way that no other cartoonist in the papers had done previously. Her characters were demure and dynamic, involved in and commenting on current events, sporting the latest fashions. They were upper class women. Torchy in Heartbeats was often accompanied by Torchy Togs, paper dolls of the character with a variety of high-end outfits.”

McGurk, Caitlin (2013) Found in the Collection: Jackie Ormes! (1911-1985).  Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum Blog.  https://library.osu.edu/site/cartoons/2013/02/22/found-in-the-collection-jackie-ormes-1911-1985/

Ormes continued making art after she retired from creating comics in 1956, and served on the founding board of directors of the DuSable Museum of African-American History and Art. In 2014, 29 years after her death, she was inducted into the National Association of Black Journalists Hall of Fame. In 2018 she was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Industry Eisner Award Hall of Fame.

Jackie Ormes’ “Torchy in Heartbeats”, September 22, 1951, from the Jackie Ormes biographical file, gift of Nancy Goldstein, The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum. McGurk, Caitlin (2013) Found in the Collection: Jackie Ormes! (1911-1985).  Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum Blog.  https://library.osu.edu/site/cartoons/2013/02/22/found-in-the-collection-jackie-ormes-1911-1985/

Jackie Ormes’ story enjoys plenty of documentation, and if you want to find more, I would highly recommend the post at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum Blog as a starting off point. There is also a biography available: Jackie Ormes:  The First African American Woman Cartoonist by Nancy Goldstein. I am currently on the hunt to see if I can get access to more of her Torchy strips; I love the art and melodrama of the samples I have been able to find so far.

References

  1. Holmes, Helen (2020) Cartoonist Jackie Ormes Made Groundbreaking Comics About Being a Black Woman.  NewsBreak.  https://www.newsbreak.com/news/2052156609162/cartoonist-jackie-ormes-made-groundbreaking-comics-about-being-a-black-woman
  2. Jackie Ormes (2020) Wikipedia.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Ormes
  3. Jettakd (2013) Black HERstory Month: Jackie Ormes, the first female African-American cartoonist.  ONTD Political.  https://ontd-political.livejournal.com/10396445.html
  4. McGurk, Caitlin (2013) Found in the Collection: Jackie Ormes! (1911-1985).  Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum Blog.  https://library.osu.edu/site/cartoons/2013/02/22/found-in-the-collection-jackie-ormes-1911-1985/

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