“I am The Striding Lion. Great of Strength. Master of Demons.”
Think about how much American art and history gets lost in time, or purposely buried or destroyed. A lot of that art, those stories tend to belong to people of color, especially Black people. I wonder about that a lot. It takes a level of commitment and passion to unlock, unearth, unveil stories that never got a chance to fully blossom.
“The Adventures of Lion Man: Volume One” from Rosarium Publishing is needed for this reason alone. But it’s not the only thing that makes it worth reading. Spotlighting characters from the single issue of “All-Negro Comics” (1947), it focuses on the originally unnamed Lion Man, who predates Marvel’s Black Panther by a couple decades.
The book starts with the original Lion Man story from George J. Evans Jr. and Orrin Cromwell Evans, the journalist who pulled ANC together, and follows up with increasingly impressive modern takes on this tale. There’s also glimpses of the other ANC characters towards the end, like SpaceHawk, The Purple Claw, No-Man, The Green Spirit, and so many others. Along with a mini story (from Damian Duffy and David Brame) on Fannie Thomasina, Mystery Woman of the Jungle a.k.a. Fantomah, a fun time that features capitalist, exploitative vampires.
“Hate is good at pretending to be power.”
One of the best versions of Lion Man’s adventures featured is the last one entitled, “The Tower” by Brame and John Jennings. Both the narrative and artwork gripped me the entire time I read it, so much so that I had to re-read it a couple more times immediately after finishing. Long battles that last years in the dream world, saved children becoming heroes, and Lion Man’s internal healing; this particular tale was poignant and deserves it’s own mini-series.
One story, “A Plague On The Nation,” included a dangerous illness fueled by an inept government and panic written by Bill Campbell and Yvette Lisa Ndlovu and beautifully illustrated by David Brame. The parallels between our reality dealing with COVID-19 and this one can’t be ignored. Brame’s visceral style works really well here, showcasing the worst part of the bleeding virus.
Overall, I really enjoyed the narratives that turned Lion Man’s original mission into a fantastical dreamland adventure with Bubba going from a trickster orphan that sometimes helps to an A.I./android assistive system (Biomorphic Undercover Bionic Battle-ready Automaton). It’s a great modern take on an outdated concept. Not everything made the most sense, but I still had a good time figuring out each story’s self-contained universe.
A “reclamation of a future-past”
In the foreword from St. Cloud State University Associate Professor Michael Dando, he asks, “Whose stories have yet to be told?” and I would say quite a few are still buried. It’s refreshing, invigorating, and especially liberating to see stories like Lion Man and Fantomah’s resurface again. The Public Domains section is not only a highlight of excellent artwork, but also a tease of what could be.
The Adventures of Lion Man is out August 12, 2025.
Rosarium Publishing: In 1947, Orrin C. Evans created one of the world’s first Black superheroes–Lion Man! Appearing in the only issue of All Negro Comics, superhero history was forever changed. And now Lion Man is back!
Readapted and remixed for modern times, the award-winning visionary team of John Jennings and David Brame (After the Rain) create a mind-blowing Afrofuturistic tale of cosmic splendor while Bill Campbell (The Day the Klan Came to Town) and up-and-coming Zimbabwean writer, Yvette Lisa Ndlovu (Drinking from Graveyard Wells) deliver a Bondian African spy thriller full of plot twists, conspiracy thrillers, and political intrigue.
In The Adventures of Lion Man, our hero steps bravely out of the past into a bold new future.