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Sixty years ago, cartoonist Jack Kirby introduced the first superhero of color, The Black Panther, to the Marvel comic book lineup; two years later Charles Schulz created a black character named Franklin to diversify America’s most popular comic strip, Peanuts, much to the dismay of Southern newspaper editors and the executives of King Features Syndicate. In the 1970s underground cartoonists like Trina Robbins and Howard Cruse depicted gay and lesbian romances in graphic detail, and with Love and Rockets in 1980 the Hernandez brothers introduced Mexican American culture to the mostly white readers of alternative and avant-garde comics. The 9th art, as our European colleagues call the comics medium, has played a powerful role in promoting diversity, equity and inclusion within America’s popular visual culture. This session will celebrate the DEI activism of the 9th Art by inviting comics scholars and artists to present papers on the history and current achievements of comics creators who advocate racial, ethnic and gender diversity, and who have expanded our limited view of the world by giving face and voice to the marginalized among us.