Profiles In Black Cartooning: Kyle Baker

In celebration of Black History Month, CBLDF has partnered with Black Nerd Problems to spotlight Black comics creators and cartoonists who made significant contributions to free expression. Visit CBLDF.org throughout the month of February to learn more! Over a more than 30-year career, Kyle Baker has seemingly made his mark in every corner of mass media, from Cartoon Network to The New York Times. But it’s in the comics world that his boundless creative energy has truly taken flight, whether he’s re-imagining existing characters or creating them new. Growing up in New York City in the 1970s, Baker was an avid fan of comics of all sorts, but particularly newspaper strips and Mad Magazine. He honed his own cartooning skills by sketching characters from the Muppets and Disney movies, and experimented with animation through homemade flip books and stop-motion films. As a senior in high school, Baker landed an internship at Marvel Comics, where his duties initially entailed filing fan mail and making photocopies. Before long, though, his obvious interest and talent in the field led to a job inking backgrounds in Marvel superhero comics. Since his first love was humor, he continued to draw original gag comics and shop them around to publishers and newspaper syndicates. He finally got a bite with his character Cowboy Wally, described as “an obnoxious, not-very-bright entertainer who nevertheless rises to fame and power as a TV host and executive, thanks to some underhanded schemes.”…