Ahmed Samuel Milai (March 23, 1908 – April 30, 1970), better known as Sam Milai, was an

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

editorial An editorial, or leading article (UK) or leader (UK), is an article or any other written document, often unsigned, written by the senior editorial people or publisher of a newspaper or magazine, that expresses the publication's opinion about ...

and

comic strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics terminology#Captio ...

cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comics illustrators/artists in that they produce both the litera ...

who drew for the ''

Pittsburgh Courier The ''Pittsburgh Courier'' was an African American weekly newspaper published in Pittsburgh from 1907 until October 22, 1966. By the 1930s, the ''Courier'' was one of the leading black newspapers in the United States. It was acquired in 1965 by ...

''. From 1940–c. 1971, Milai illustrated ''Your History'' (later known as ''Facts About The Negro''), written by

Joel Augustus Rogers Joel Augustus Rogers (September 6, 1880 – March 26, 1966) was a Jamaican-American author, journalist, and amateur historian who focused on the history of Africa; as well as the African diaspora. After settling in the United States in 1906, he ...

. Patterned after the look of ''

Robert Ripley LeRoy Robert Ripley (February 22, 1890 – May 27, 1949) was an American cartoonist, entrepreneur, and amateur anthropologist, who is known for creating the '' Ripley's Believe It or Not!'' newspaper panel series, television show, and radio sho ...

s popular '' Believe It or Not'' cartoons, multiple vignettes in each cartoon episode recounted short items about African Americans from Rogers' research. The feature began in the ''

'' in November 1934, with art by George L. Lee. In 1940, the art chores were handed over to Milai, who stayed with the feature through the rest of its run. Two collections were published, ''Your History'' (1940) and ''Facts About The Negro'' (c. 1960). Milai created ''Don Powers'', an adventure strip distributed from August 19, 1950, to November 1, 1958, by the Smith-Mann Syndicate, about a superlative athlete. In addition, he created the strips ''Bucky'' (under his own name) and ''Society Sue'' (under the name Bobby Thomas). Milai's 1960s political cartoons for the ''Pittsburgh Courier'' are curated at

Ohio State University The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...

Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum is a research library of American cartoons and comic art affiliated with the Ohio State University library system in Columbus, Ohio. Formerly known as the Cartoon Research Library and the Cartoon Libra ...

. Milai was the ''Couriers editorial cartoonist for 33 years.

References

External links

The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum: Sam Milai Collection Guide

* ttps://cartoons.osu.edu/digital_exhibits/sammilai/intro.html/ Sam Milai Exhibit: The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum
Don Powers: The Museum of Uncut Funk
1908 births 1970 deaths American editorial cartoonists African-American editorial cartoonists American comic strip cartoonists American political artists African-American comics writers African-American comics artists 20th-century African-American artists {{US-cartoonist-stub