An Interview with Karen D. Brame
The joys [of comics] are many...preserving history, supporting writers and illustrators, and promoting legacies to future readers...all for the glory of sharing the myriad aspects of Black culture!
In 2025, Nora met multi-hyphenate Karen D. Brame, an Information Services Librarian at the Dayton Metro Library’s Special Collections with an emphasis on Africana Archives. They became acquainted as Nora tracked down a little known greeting card creator (and illustrator/cartoonist) Nellie Jones, as outlined in a previous post (and potential subject of a future library exhibition). Conversing with Karen revealed many comic connections—from collecting to archival work, and more. When we spoke (over Zoom), her breadth of knowledge was evident, and she showed me a number of comic titles I hadn't known before, like All Negro Comics, which has recently been reissued by Image.
In all her work, Karen aims to preserve and present Black history and culture. Karen is an artist herself, with a piece up in the Springfield Art Museum (see photo at the end!), in Springfield, OH. She also consults for Gem City Vibes to help create digital stories on African-American culture in Dayton, OH.
In the hopes of expanding our scope of comics folk in 2026, Autobiographix asked Karen to share her background and thoughts on the medium, which we are pleased to share with you here:
Describe your comics journey—how did you get into comics—both reading and research?
My journey into comics, as a reader, began early when I was about six years old. I will be 56 on March 12th, so that’s almost fifty years!
Because I am descended from ancestors of African descent who had been enslaved, literacy was critical. That significance and accompanying passion were passed down, generation to generation. A voracious reader, I was exposed to comics, such as The Phantom, Patsy and Hedy, which were vintage, as well as Archie, and Richie Rich, which were modern at that time. Both of those are primarily White-cultured and viewed by many as “mainstream”.
However, my family most certainly provided me and my brothers, Kevin, Ronald and Kerry, with Black culture items, such as Ebony Jr!, published by Johnson Publishing Company, whose products included Ebony, Jet and Negro Digest, which later became Black World; and Golden Legacy Comics, published by Bertram A. Fitzgerald. While it is presently more difficult to obtain Ebony Jr!, one can still purchase Golden Legacy issues and I still have my original copies of Mr. Fitzgerald’s Black History comics from my childhood!
As a researcher, my journey began more from an educator vantage. I would use various comics to teach particular themes of history in the classroom. It was also the basis for developing educational concepts for the pioneering Black, independent comic series, Brotherman: Dictator of Discipline, of brothers, EMMY Award-winning artist Dawud O.K. Anyabwile and celebrated author Dr. Guy A. Sims. I am incredibly proud of and happy for them and the brilliant work they have created. The artwork and memorabilia of Brotherman is actually included in the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture!
What specific areas do you focus on as a comics scholar, curator and archivist? How did you utilize comics in your work?
As a lover of comics, my specific areas of collecting and research are centered on Black culture. It ranges from themes of Afro-futurism to a parallel universe of possibilities. They can include mass-produced comics like Marvel’s Black Panther and DC’s Django Unchained by Quentin Tarantino to Bitter Root series by Sanford Greene, Chuck Brown and David F. Walker; graphic novels such as Incognegro by Mat Johnson and Warren Pleece, Octavia Butler’s Kindred adapted by Damian Duffy and John Jennings, and The Harlem Hellfighters by Max Brooks and Canaan White; and coffee-table books such as the two Black Comix volumes curated by Duffy and Jennings.
I, as the inaugural Information Services Librarian, Africana Archives of Special Collections at Dayton Metro Library, have rare opportunities to share on Black comics but am working to soon have programming focused on it.
What are the joys and challenges of curating and working with comics?
The challenges in curating and working with comics are several, including cost, existing and/or valid provenance, storage space and conservation issues. To counter these, I am incredibly grateful and honored to have been able to build with local comic shops and experts such as Greg, Kevin and Ian Bonnett of Bonnett’s Books here in Dayton and Tony Barry and Jared Whittaker of Super-Fly Comics and Games in Yellow Springs, Ohio for decades!
The joys are many, such as reading amazing plotlines, viewing attractive art (I showcase comics in my decor!), preserving history, supporting writers and illustrators, and promoting legacies to future readers ... all for the glory of sharing the myriad aspects of Black culture! Entrenched racism has hit every part of society, and the comic world is not excluded; when African-Americans are featured, most often up until recent times, you see that they are those negative or neutral stereotypes—from being the villain or the sidekick that is just waiting for the person who does have all the thoughts, and the life that is fleshed out. You are really almost sequestered as a footnote when it comes to comics. The kind of work I do at the library asks, how can we preserve our stories? Conserve our stories? How do we place it out in the public?
Are you working on something now?
For the Dayton Library, I will be a guest panelist for Ohio Goes to the Movies in February 2026, in which The Buckeye State will be celebrating what would be the 95th birth year of African-American Pulitzer Prize-winning author and editor, Toni Morrison. I will also be a part of The HistoryMakers Digital Archive: A Perfect Tool for These Times event. The archive is the largest in the country that is focused on oral histories of African Americans and The HistoryMakers is a “research and educational institution committed to preserving and making widely accessible the untold personal stories of both well-known and unsung African Americans.”
Yay! A librarian! I would love to host/attend a Black comics program in my own library system. Another great interview :)