Blondie, Meet Herb And Marcy

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Some resistance remains: many newspapers are still reluctant to run more than one black comic strip an issue, even though black artists cover the same gamut of styles and story lines as their white counterparts. "You have to fight a certain amount of response that we already have a black strip," says Sarah Gillespie, director of comic art at United Feature Syndicate, which distributes Jump Start. But the favorable response to the breakthrough artists is having a ripple effect. Earlier this year, Gibson Greetings began marketing a line of cards featuring Armstrong's likable Joe and Marcy. Barbara Brandon is discussing plans with manufacturers to put her characters' faces on coffee mugs and T shirts. "Comic strips are the best visual barometer of the culture," says comics historian Jones. "They reveal the pulse and the heartbeat of what the country is about." Increasingly, the beat has some soul to it.