¡Wepa! Puerto Ricans in the World of Comics to Open October 4, 2025 at The New York Public Library

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First-of-its-kind, bilingual exhibition will showcase Puerto Rican life and culture through comic books, encompassing the Island’s complex past, its relationship to New York City, and futuristic visions of fantasy worlds

¡Wepa! Puerto Ricans in the World of Comics will open at The New York Public Library on October 4, 2025, during Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month and ahead of both New York Comic Con (Oct. 9–12) and Puerto Rican Heritage Month (Nov.). The exhibition, which will be presented in English and Spanish and remain open through March 8, 2026, will explore Puerto Rican life and culture along the axes of space and time. 

¡Wepa! will be the first exhibition worldwide to showcase an overview of Puerto Rican comics. It will also mark NYPL’s first full-scale exhibition at the Library to focus on comics.

“Puerto Rican creators have had a tremendous influence on the comics industry, but for too long, their collective contributions have been overlooked. As the first exhibition to showcase an overview of Puerto Rican comics,¡Wepa! emphasizes some of the many ways in which Puerto Rican comics creators have shaped the medium in the mainland U.S. and in the island. For instance, many of the comics on display go beyond conventional mainstream characters to make us reflect on the meaning of representation, belonging and identity. To emphasize this, we decided to organize the comics along two main thematic axes: geographical and chronological,” said Paloma Celis Carbajal, co-curator of ¡Wepa! and Curator, Latin American, Iberian and Latino Studies at The New York Public Library.

In terms of the axis of space, ¡Wepa! will feature representations of “la isla” or “the island”—as a site of cultural exchange and rich history, and a vast and unique natural environment—and Puerto Ricans’ relationship with New York City, where waves of historic migration led to the birth of a new term: Nuyorican.

For the axis of time, the exhibition will probe Puerto Rico’s complex past—from Taíno culture and Spanish rule, to the first century of its status as an unincorporated territory of the United States—in addition to visions of the future—from speculative fiction, science fiction and fantasy, to dystopian tales.

¡Wepa! will draw primarily from the Library’s Manuel Martínez Nazario Collection of Puerto Ricans in the World of Comics, one of the largest collections of its kind. Decades ago, Martínez Nazario, a San Juan librarian, noticed that despite the existence of many important Puerto Rican comic creators, their works were not recognized in the industry. He set himself on a mission to collect as many comics by Puerto Ricans as possible to eventually place them in a library or archive for the use of researchers. He single-handedly curated the impressive collection over nearly three decades, since the 1990s, and donated it to The New York Public Library in 2022.

The creators whose work will be on display in ¡Wepa! range from established and award-winning artists to independent and emerging ones, the majority of whom are living. Their perspectives and voices run throughout the exhibition. 

“In ¡Wepa!, we highlight the lasting impact of late, great Puerto Rican legends of comics history such as Alex Schomburg and George Pérez, but the real energy of the exhibition comes from the vibrant, wide-ranging work of the many living creators featured. We were fortunate to interview most of these artists, and it felt essential to weave their perspectives and personal stories into the show. One way we do this is through short films, where artists talk about their comics and how being Puerto Rican shapes their work. I’m proud of how the exhibition draws attention to the Library’s commitment to supporting independent artists with powerful voices and preserving their work for future generations,” said Charles Cuykendall Carter, co-curator of ¡Wepa! and Assistant Curator of the Library’s Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle.

Highlights from ¡Wepa! include Ivan Velez Jr.’s groundbreaking Tales of the Closet, one of the first interventions for LGBTQ+ published youth published at the height of the AIDS crisis; Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #19, which features the first appearance of “White Tiger,” Marvel’s first Latino and Puerto Rican super hero; and several pieces of original comic artwork, including a page from one of Puerto Rico’s best-known comics, Turey el Taíno by Ricardo Álvarez-Rivón and Magali J. Álvarez-Rivón.

Additional highlights are included below. Note: years in parentheses indicate publication dates of the items on display; for periodicals, these may represent single issues from multi-year runs.

• Guailí: El pequeño taíno by A. V. Falto Ayala (2018);
• Gautier Benítez by Ismael Rodríguez Báez (1961);
• 1898 by Editorial El Antillano (2004);
• Isleño by Efraín “Franchy” Morales (2015);
• Original artwork for a political cartoon by Jesús Ortíz Torres (2021);
• La Borinqueña by Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez (2016);
• Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse original movie poster feat. Miles Morales (2018);
• An original promotional poster for The Medusa Chain by Ernie Colón (1984);
• Cosmic Fish by Eliana Falcón Dvorsky (2015);
• NønPack by Rangely García (2021);
• Goodbye, For Now by Carla Rodríguez and Rosa Colón Guerra (2016);
• The Puerto Rican War by John Vasquez Mejías (2020); and
• All Winners poster by Alex Schomburg (1984).

“The Puerto Ricans in the World of Comics collection is exhaustive, covering over 70 years of history and a range of diversity in terms of themes and artistic styles. As a destination for researchers in the city that is the birthplace of American comics, The New York Public Library is the ideal place to both house this collection and display ¡Wepa!,” said Manuel Martínez Nazario.

The Library has historically welcomed all New Yorkers through its doors and spoken directly with them through the languages predominantly spoken in the city, including Spanish—the second most commonly spoken language in New York City after English. ¡Wepa! builds on this tradition through its fully bilingual presentation.

¡Wepa! will be on display in the Wachenheim Gallery at The New York Public Library’s Stephen A. Schwarzman Building from October 4, 2025 until March 8, 2026.

About The New York Public Library

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