Vintage Black Heroes – Mark Hunt

Mark Hunt was the first Black Private Detective to be featured in a comic strip.

Mark Hunt #5

Mark Hunt was also one of the first Black heroes to appear in a comic strip.

The Mark Hunt comic strip did not start with the new color comic section in the Pittsburgh Courier, but shortly thereafter it was added, sometime in 1950. Mark Hunt outlived the color section, demoted to black and white, and ran until October 22, 1955.

Our next page of the Pittsburgh Courier features Mark Hunt, another adventure strip. The strip’s continuity was told in the first person by our hero, and so the only credit it ever carried was to Mark Hunt himself. However, in the E&P syndicate directory credit was given to a Michael Tam, and comics historian Paul Leiffer tells me that the strip was actually done by Edd Ashe. Oh, what a tangled web we weave…

The Mark Hunt Story:

• Solves crime in the big city

The Museum Of UnCut Funk sends out a special thank you to Allan Holtz at the Stripper’s Guide for allowing us to repost his articles on the Smith-Mann Syndicate.

Source: Allan Holtz; Copyright  Allan Holtz 2013 The Strippers Guide http://strippersguide.blogspot.com