Afro Supa Hero is a snapshot of a childhood and journey to adulthood, shown through a personal collection of pop cultural heroes and heroines of the African diaspora. Jon Daniel’s action figures, comic books and games offer an insight into the experience of a boy of African Caribbean heritage growing up in 1960s and 1970s Britain, in search of his identity. The display opened at the V&A Museum of Childhood on 14 September and runs until 9 February 2014.

“I hope my collection will add another voice to the Museum’s displays by providing an insight into my own childhood. It highlights the fascination with African American culture experienced by many of my generation, who could not find the cultural icons or representations they desired on these shores.” – Jon Daniel

Growing up in East Sheen, southwest London in the 1960s and early 70s as the child of West Indian parents, Jon Daniel felt there was little in British culture that he could relate to. Any positive black role models came from the West Indian culture of his family and from the United States, with its conscious Black Pride, the civil rights movement of the 60s and the funkiness of the 70s. On visits to America he found everything ‘bolder, blacker and better’, and cartoons like The Harlem Globe Trotters, films like Shaft and Car Wash, and particularly p-funk, soul and R’n’B music, all had a profound effect on him.

In his late twenties Jon began to collect, prompted by an article in The Face magazine featuring a Malcolm X action figure, created by Olmec Toys in New York. His collection focuses on action figures as, for Jon, these most strongly embody the era. In the display Meteor Man, Mr T and Lieutenant Uhura stand alongside real-life icons Muhammad Ali, Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela. The highlight for Jon is the 1975 Shindana Super Agent Slade action figure, modelled on Richard Rowntree’s private detective character Shaft and highly sought after by collectors. Also on show are games, and comics including Black Lightning, The Falcon and Lobo, one of a two-issue series featuring the first leading African American character in the genre.

Jon Daniel is a graphic designer who has worked for many of London’s leading advertising agencies, as well as co-founding and working as Executive Creative Director for two creative companies Headland and ebb&flow. He has worked on many black cultural projects and initiatives including campaigns for Operation Black Vote, the 1990 Trust Arm, African Reparations Movement and the brand identity for the Bicentennial of the Abolition of the Slave Trade for the Mayor of London’s Office in 2007 and the BCA (Black Cultural Archives) in 2012. In 2003 he was awarded, with ebb&flow, a CRE RIMA (Race in the Media) Award for his work on an innovative Black History Month project with Camden Council. In 2011 and 2012 he designed and curated the Post-Colonial series of philatelic exhibitions with Stanley Gibbons, showcasing stamps from the African diaspora and 50 Fabulous Jamaican stamps celebrating Jamaica’s historic anniversary of Independence.

Afro Supa Hero is part of Black History Month in October 2013.