Wepa! Puerto Ricans in the World of Comics at The New York Public Library

A first-of-its-kind, bilingual exhibition at the NYPL will showcase Puerto Rican life and culture through comic books, its complex past, relationship to New York City, and futuristic visions of fantasy worlds.

¡Wepa! Puerto Ricans in the World of Comics will open on October 4, 2025 during Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month. The exhibition, which will be presented in English and Spanish and remain open through March 8, 2026, will be the first exhibition worldwide to showcase an overview of Puerto Rican comics, and also marks NYPL’s first full-scale exhibition to focus on the genre.

"Puerto Rican creators have had a tremendous influence on the comics industry, but for too long, their collective contributions have been overlooked," said Paloma Celis Carbajal, exhibition co-curator and Curator, Latin American, Iberian and Latino Studies at The New York Public Library.

"¡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."

The exhibition 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. 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 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.



“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," said Charles Cuykendall Carter, exhibition co-curator and Assistant Curator of the Library’s Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle. 


Highlights include:

• Ivan Velez Jr.'s Tales of the Closet, one of the first interventions for LGBTQ+ 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
• 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