Read the Oregon History Comics series
In 2010, I started on what I thought would be a quick, fun educational project: Creating 10 small comic books about Oregon’s history. I thought comics would be a perfect way to help Oregonians old and new alike build more understanding of the place we live. Comics help bring history to the people in a relevant, accessible medium. The project grew bigger than I ever thought it would! Local arts and culture nonprofit the Know Your City published the series of 10 comics.
In 2023, librarian Cathy Camper, writing in the School Library Journal, described the series as “a stellar example” of a zine project: “Most were kid-accessible histories where no others existed. I sent these to schools so often; library copies went missing. These works inspired kids to rediscover lost cultural histories and shared the fun and importance of doing original research.”
The comics also inspired several other graphic education projects. Based on the success and demand for the Oregon History Comics series, Know Your City published a series of illustrated biographies of Oregon activists called Comics for Change, an illustrated poster about foreclosures in Portland, and a graphic guide to renters rights. The group also published a stand-alone history comic about Tom McCall and the Oregon Vortex.
You can find Oregon History Comics at the Multnomah County Library. The Oregon History Comics are now available for free download as PDFs to be used for non-commercial purposes.
Oregon History Comics PDFS
Lone Fir Cemetery (Artist: Sarah Mirk)
The Life and Death of the X-Ray Cafe (Artist: John Isaacson)
Portland’s Dead Freeways (Artist: Don Barkhouse III)
The Streets of Chinatown (Artist: Harry Lau)
Voices of Celilo Falls (Artist: T. Edward Bak)
Portland’s Black Panthers (Artist: Khris Soden)
The Vanport Flood (Artist: Nicole Georges)
Votes for Women (Artist: Suzette Smith)
Oregon Bikes (Artist: Shawn Granton)
Rights and usage of these comics: The Oregon History Comics comics are free to use for non-commercial purposes, so people are welcome to use these comics in classes or to print out for educational purposes, but you are not allowed to use the art for advertising or any kind of commercial project or to resell the comics. Credit the artist and writer whenever you use these PDFs. Do not alter the images in any way when you share them. The original publisher of the comics is Know Your City (2012).