Barbara Brandon-Croft Interview
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Barbara Brandon-Croft made history as the nation’s first Black woman cartoonist to break into mainstream press with her groundbreaking comic strip “Where I’m Coming From,” which debuted in the Detroit Free Press in 1989. By 1991, Universal Press Syndicate was distributing her work to more than sixty mainstream newspapers internationally, where it continued until 2005.
Brandon-Croft’s art gave voice to Black women’s thoughts, fears, and frustrations in a medium traditionally dominated by white men. Her work featured distinctive characters with unique personalities, creating a window through which readers could understand the Black female experience.
Tonya J. Williams for Rolling Out turns in a very good interview with cartoonist Barbara Brandon-Croft.
I was not the first Black woman in newspapers, I was the first Black woman in the mainstream press, and by mainstream, that is the white press. 30 years before me there was Jackie Ormes, who did a comic strip called “Torchy Brown.” She did several comic strips, she was great. But she was in the Black papers, which distinguishes me. So I crossed the color line, like Jackie Robinson, from the Negro League to the Major League.
How can people follow your work?
There’s a book out now, it’s been out for a couple of years now, but it’s a hardcover book. It tells my origin story, and it tells how I got to where I am. So it’s not only selected strips from the time when I was syndicated, it’s also stories about how I became syndicated, and this and that, but anywhere you get books, you can find it. It’s called “Where I’m Coming From.” [link added] So I would love for people to get it and read it, and it’s kind of like a history book honestly, but it’s got cartoons. It’s all cartoons, mostly cartoons.
I also have a website, it’s my name, barbarabrandoncroft.com, and I also am on Instagram, and I have the very creative handle of Barbara Brandon Croft, so that’s how you can also find me.
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