NASA removes two digital comics featuring diverse astronauts from its website

The comics were meant to inspire “the next generation of explorers” when they were posted just a few years ago.

Two digital comics that once lived prominently on the NASA website have now been scrubbed from it in the wake of executive orders to remove all traces of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, or DEI, from government websites.

The two titles were First Woman: NASA’s Promise for Humanity and First Woman: Expanding Our Universe, which were posted to the site in 2021 and 2023, respectively. The first features the fictional story of female astronaut Callie Rodriguez as the first woman to walk on the moon. The second showed a diverse crew of astronauts exploring the moon. The comics were written by Brad Gann and Steven List, with artwork by Brent Donoho and Kaitlin Reid.

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Sunday Comics | NASA’s STEM comic lifts off with a second issue

Today we look at webcomics by PJ Holden, Grant Snider, Melanine Gillman and more.

Here’s a round up of some of the best and most interesting comics we’ve seen online recently. If we missed something, let us know in the comments below.

NASA launched a digital comic back in 2021 about a fictional astronaut named Callie Rodriguez, the first woman to walk on the moon. Now the second issue has made landing on their website, where it can be read or downloaded.

The story is meant to inspire “the next generation of explorers,” which NASA has dubbed the Artemis Generation, as they work on a real-life project to land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon.

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Comics Lowdown | Texas school district bans ‘The Breakaways’

Plus: Scout Comics launches Latinx imprint, Marvel’s legal battles, New York Comic Con and more!

Cathy G. Johnson’s The Breakaways joins the list of banned graphic novels making headlines over the past few weeks after Spring Branch Independent School District in Texas banned it from school libraries.

Spring Branch Independent School District, which serves part of Houston, told the Houston Chronicle that the graphic novel was removed from schools because it was “not age appropriate nor was it appropriate for its intended educational use.” A committee decided to ban it after receiving a letter from a parent.

The graphic novel is about a diverse 8th-grade soccer team that includes a trans character.

“The book includes kids of all sorts of identities to reflect the world that is around us,” creator Cathy G. Johnson told the Chronicle. “There is a transgender student who comes out in the book. He is just one of many characters who make up my book, as well as one of the identities that make up the world.”

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