“What’s great here is to see people who can give a legitimate voice of what [Black] culture is like,” said Davis, who owns a comic book store in Harvard Square.

More than 200 people attended this year’s festival, which featured several dozen Black artists who set up booths, spoke on panels, and advocated for an art form that has not always incorporated diversity into its milleu.

“The whole goal and premise of Comics in Color is to provide a space for people of color … to tell their own stories in their own voice, so that their identities, their stories, and their experiences are represented,” said Marisa Luse, an organizer of the event.

According to Luse, Black representation in comic books and superhero tropes experienced a surge when Marvel released the first “Black Panther” movie in 2018, leading many people of color to embrace the art form for the first time.

“There’s definitely been people of color trying to get their stories out … but it’s no longer a secret, right?” she said. “It’s not underground.”

Omari Malik, a 29-year-old artist from Brooklyn, N.Y., who owns a comic book publishing company, said he originally couldn’t envision a career for himself in the industry.

“A lot of Black people naturally gravitate to entertainment or even sports, because it’s a place where we can see ourselves easily,” he said. “I was seeking, wanting to find people like myself.”

Eventually, Malik discovered artists like David F. Walker, who helped create the DC Comic character Naomi McDuffie, a Black teenage superhero who becomes friends with Superman.

Malik said he could see “myself in those guys,” adding that it was “inspirational and let me know it was really possible.”

The original version of Black Panther, the superhero hailing from the mythical African nation of Wakanda, debuted in 1966 and was created by Marvel creative leader Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, according to the Smithsonian Institution.

Though it was groundbreaking at the time to have a Black superhero enter a pantheon typically reserved for white, transatlantic-sounding characters, Davis said the creators, who are both white, ultimately failed to accurately portray the hero as authentically Black.

“[They were] trying to have somebody write Black vernacular who had never spoken Black vernacular and didn’t know it,” said Davis.

Since then, major superhero companies like Marvel and DC have made strides in hiring Black artists to create Black characters.

In 1993, for example, DC signed a partnership with Milestone Media, a group of four Black artists who created new Black superheroes with progressive storylines.

For Davis, who grew up in Los Angeles, the first representative comic book he read was called “Love and Rockets,” a fictional series about punk rockers from Southern California.

“It was the first time you really saw a reflection of the non-white Los Angeles in a comic book,” Davis said. “I felt like I could know some of the people in this, or I’ve listened to some of the music that’s in the background of these stories.”

For younger artists, such as 24-year-old Zac Scandura, a Boston University student, diversity has always been par-for-the-course in comic book writing.

“Comics have always been about community,” he said. “There’s plenty of events like this everywhere in Boston.”

Scandura is part of a BU visual narrative program where students workshop their comic strips with professors and industry professionals.

The program is run by Joel Christian Gill, a leading Black artist in comics who in 2014 published “Strange Fruit,” a comic book about untold stories of African-American history.

In a description of his 2023 BU College of Fine Arts exhibition, Gill wrote: “Comics have never been just for kids. Comics have never been only about superheroes.”

“Comics are a vessel for expression,” he continued.

In Roxbury on Saturday, Luce, the event organizer, said her 12-year-old son Coleman started making comics during the pandemic and has since finished six books.

“He’s got his latest book out there now, and so I just see the power in it and how enthusiastic people are,” she said. “That, to me, is inspiring.”

Truman Dickerson can be reached at truman.dickerson@globe.com.