Pop Culture Classroom’s Colorful History Celebrates Black History Month — Gamer Style

If you’ve ever enjoyed a home gaming console — especially if you’re of the seminal generation that grew up on the Atari 2600 in all its eight-bit glory — you owe a gesture of gratitude to inventor Jerry Lawson. What a lot of gamers don’t know is that Jerry Lawson was a Black man, one of the few working as an engineer in the tech industry in the 1970s. The latest issue of Pop Culture Classroom’s Colorful History comic book series, “Jerry Lawson and the Channel F,” tells his important story, which indelibly impacted both gaming and Black history.

Now in its 66th issue, Colorful History has gone through as many permutations as Pop Culture Classroom itself. It began as a state-specific history comic some years back. “It was originally a two-page comic focused on people and places in Colorado, everything from Japanese internment camps to the construction of Red Rocks to the stories of various historical figures,” says Matt Slayter, PCC’s education program manager and the writer behind the latest issue. Colorful History remained that way for about forty issues until the decision was made to cover all American history.

“History-based comics have a much larger appeal than just Colorado,” says Slayter. “Our teaching guides for graphic novels are accessible for educators all over the nation; so are our curricular units. We decided that Colorful History should have the same reach. At the same time we expanded our focus, we also grew to four pages.”

So what brought about the feature on Jerry Lawson? “As much of a gamer as I am,” says Slayter, “I’d never heard of Jerry Lawson until a Netflix documentary called High Score came out in 2020. It did a great job highlighting a lot of lesser-known voices in video game history, Jerry being one of them. It seemed like a natural thing for us to cover for Black History Month.”

Self-taught computer and electronics expert Jerry Lawson invented the cartridge-based video game system, which not only revolutionized the blossoming home video game industry, but also paved the way for today’s sophisticated games and an enduring community of fans. Despite Lawson’s historic impact on technology and culture, the accomplishments of this Black computer engineer were largely unrecognized until recent years.
Slayter’s script is joined by fantastic art from Marcus Kwame Anderson (The Black Panther Party), with art management and lettering by Denver’s own comics creator and Regis professor R. Alan Brooks (Burning Metronome, Anguish Garden, Grieving Mall).

Jerry Lawson and the Channel F, like all issues of Colorful History, includes a teaching guide that includes alignment to grade-specific standards, project ideas and discussion questions so that educators who take advantage of the free download don’t have to do the heavy lifting to incorporate the material to their ongoing lesson plans. “Lots of teachers are hungry for this stuff,” Slayter says. “They want to be able to use comics and games in their classrooms as constructive educational tools, and we want to provide that.”

Diversity is as much a part of that mission as is the educational content. March’s issue will be about César Chávez, recognizing his holiday, while the July issue will explain how one becomes an American citizen. For Pride month, Slayter is “hoping to talk about two-spirited people, and how that integrates the LGBTQ+ community and indigenous issues.” PCC does its best to stay relevant and timely, Slayter says, while still adhering closely to academic standards. “When someone looks at our entire catalogue,” he adds, “they should see stories from diverse communities and diverse people, told by diverse writers and artists.”

One last note: Colorful History, like all of PCC’s educational resources, are made available for free. It’s one
of the mission statements of the organization that teachers shouldn’t have to pay out of pocket for teaching tools. But Slayter is quick to add that each issue costs about $1,500 to produce. So PCC is always accepting donations to help it produce this kind of work in addition to its year-round, Denver-based outreach. If you’re a devoted gamer, a comic book lover or a pop-culture fan, donating is a great way to give back.

For more information on Colorful History, see the Pop Culture Classroom website.