The Mysteries of the Red Mask, the First Black Masked Comics Hero
Call him Schrödinger’s Black Superhero. The Red Mask, the star of a nationally syndicated newspaper strip published in 1936, two years before Superman appeared, was either a black man or a white man that everyone thought was black. We will never know because his strip was canceled before the answer was revealed. No matter what his race was meant to be, the Red Mask is a fascinating figure in the history of race and comics—especially considering that he appeared while Jim Crow still ruled the American South. In 1939, The Adventures of the Red Mask were reprinted in four issues of Best Comics . I love the first cover—it may be the first example of a black hero hitting a white villain to protect a white love interest. But after the first issue, the company decided a black hero on the cover was not a good commercial choice—it’s possible some distributors in the South refused to carry the book. So Best Comics made the Red Mask white on the covers and left him black insi...