Would-be makers of comic-book history might do well to pick another forgotten name out of "Monumental": that of P.B.S. (Pinckney Benton Stewart) Pinchback.
Pinchback became Louisiana's lieutenant governor in 1871, filling the vacancy that was left when Oscar Dunn died. The stately Republican went on to serve as governor — the nation's first black governor, if only for 36 days.
The politics of Pinchback's time would be hard to explain in a few panels. But the rest of his life is ready-made for comics-telling, packed with adventure. He was a Mississippi River cabin boy and ship's steward, gambler and Union officer. Besides, he could dress up and be the mannered gentleman even better than Batman's alter ego, Bruce Wayne.
Pinchback was no friend of Dunn's, though, and the story goes that he threatened to ruin Dunn by exposing some mysterious scandal. If Dunn is the hero, then Pinchback would be — the Riddler?
His fame didn't last, but Pinchback's grandson, Jean Toomer, wrote the classic book of poems and stories, "Cane" (1923). Toomer was part of New York's Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s and '30s, about the same time as when another revolution came along: the first comic books.