The History of Comics in 500 Issues

In this episode, I discuss the notorious Tijuana Bibles, the first pornographic comic books.  Except that you can't really tell the story of the Tijuana Bibles without also covering several other topics, including the history of celebrity, a celebrity condottiero, Murasaki Shikibu, the first over-merchandised celebrity, Lord Byron fanfic, the history of fandom in the US, firefighting "buffs," Lind...

A somewhat scattershot (sorry) chronology of the development of comics and graphic narrative in the colonies and countries of Africa before the beginning of World War Two. In this episode I discuss Paleolithic Algerian rock art, Madagascaran funerary pole sculptures, the King of Cameroon making his own alphabet and the artists who helped him and went on to make proto-comics of their own, caricatur...

One of my longer efforts to date, this one is about Marvel Comics #1, the first issue by what would eventually become the juggernaut of American comic book publishing. In this podcast I discuss: just how many Jewish folk were an integral part of Golden Age comics Martin Goodman and his background, the pulps he worked on, and what got him into comics comics packagers and Funnies, Inc.  all the movi...

In this episode, which is ostensibly about the Spanish comic  Rin-Tin-Tin , I go  allll  over the place. (Sorry). I begin with the early history of theater among the Egyptians and then the Greeks, discuss their use of animals on-stage, proceed to the Romans (who loved having animals on-stage, my goodness!), briefly describe the use of animals on-stage leading up to vaudeville, then vaudeville, the...

In this episode I use the superhero Amazing Man, who debuted in  Amazing-Man Comics  #5 (cover date Sept 1939), to take a look at just what, exactly, constitutes a "typical" superhero of the late 1930s and early 1940s. I conclude that Amazing Man is actually the archetypal 1930s superhero and is both symbolically and semiotically important.  I discuss the history of Centaur Comics, the debut of Am...

ln this episode I use Alain Saint-Ogan's bande dessinée "Zig et Puce" as a springboad for a discussion of colonialism in the French bandes dessinées. I start, of course, with the 1814 Treaty of Paris and the 1814-1814 Congress of Vienna and proceed from there through the two French Colonial Empires, the  mission civilatrice , the possible/likely body count of the French imperial venture, the unpop...

In this episode I discuss the publication of  Superman  #1, the first comic book dedicated to the stories of one character. I talk about why this is significant, what DC Comics was probably thinking about when they published  Superman  #1, the issue's immediate success, why its contents are significant, how  Superman  #1 is the start of a major change in the portrayal of Superman, and alllll about...

To help celebrate Juneteenth, I made an episode in which I discuss Black creators of paraliterature, which (as I'm sure you know) is all of that literature which is not "respectable" or within the margins of "recognized literature." Naturally, there's too much to say to limit myself to only Black comics writers and artists, so I went back to the 17th century and started there. I discuss the Purtia...

In this episode I discuss the beginnings of the Dutch comics industry from 1493, when an imprisoned Dutch nobleman drew a comic strip in one of his letters, to March 15, 1940, when the Netherlands officially surrendered to the invading Germans in the Second World War. Along the way, I talk about Dutch racism--which lordalmighty is prevalent in pre-WW2 Dutch comics--the notable early Dutch comics a...

In this epsiode I discuss Detective Comics #27, the issue in which Batman debuted. I talk about the background behind the creation of Batman, why Batman's original artist was a genuinely bad person, the various artists who contributed to Batman's success in the first decade or two of his existence, the various characters and texts which inspired the creation of Batman, how much of a killer vigilan...

In this episode I discuss the beginning and early years of the Mexican comic book industry, from its precursor among the Nahuatl-writing Mexica of the Aztec Empire to the appearance of Jose Tomas de Cuellar and Jose Maria Villasana's comic book  Rosa y Federico  to the Golden Age of Mexican comics in the 1930s. Along the way, I discuss some scholarly controversies (i.e., historical events that his...

In this episode I discuss Fox Comics'  Wonder Comics  #1, which featured the infamous Superman rip-off "Wonder Man." I talk about Victor S. Fox, the lawsuit that resulted from  Wonder Comics  #1, DC's Golden Age litigiousness, the heroic archetypes of the Golden Age, Shakespeare's sources for  Hamlet , "Shoggoths in Bloom," the screen personae of Leslie Howard and Douglas Fairbanks, and whether or...

In this episode I discuss the early years of the Spanish comic book industry. I begin in the 1870s, after the downfall of Isabella II (Sexenio Democratico represent!), when loosened press laws led to, among other things, the first Spanish magazine to publish a comic strip. From there it's on to a litany of Spanish comics, some of which actually look really good, and Spanish artists, a lot of whom...

In this episode I discuss the debut, in  Detective Comics  #20 (on-sale date Sept. 7, 1938), of the Crimson Avenger. I place the Crimson Avenger in the chronological context of the comics in which he appeared. I discuss my definition of what a superhero is, describe the seventeen elements which can make up a superhero, and discuss the fuzzy logic and continuum approach I use when discussing who is...

In this episode I discuss the British comic paper  Favorite Comic  #1 and why it's important: because it featured "Victor Brand," a series about the Sherlock Holmes-like detective Victor Brand and his intelligent monkey chauffeur, leg-man, bodyguard, and general assistant Jacko. I discuss the history of the portrayal of apes in Western culture, from ugly and malicious in the time of Classical Gree...

In this episode I describe the circumstances around the publication of  Funny Pages  #21, the people involved in its publication, what's inside it, and the sole important strip in the issue: the one introducing Paul Gustavson's The Arrow. The Arrow is a killer vigilante, so I discuss the cultural context for that. The Arrow is an  angry killer vigilante, and I discuss that. And I argue that the Ar...

In this episode I describe the history of the Italian comics industry up until 1937. I begin with Cesare Lombroso, the famous criminologist, because of course I begin there. Why wouldn't I? I discuss his daughter Paola and her various contributions to society and good works, which happens to include being the person most responsible for the first Italian comic book,  Il Corriere dei Piccoli . I di...

In this episode I discuss  Action Comics  #1 and its contents, including the fabulous new character find of 1938: Superman! I discuss what led up to the publication of  Action Comics  #1, how the mob and Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia were responsible for it, what the other strips besides "Superman" were in this issue and if they're any good (surprise--the Zatara strip is actually pretty good!), the sta...

In this episode I discusss the origins of the Brazilian comic book industry, beginning with the arrival of an Italian immigrant in S ã o Paulo in 1859, his success as the first Brazilian comic artist of note and his first two comic strips, how and why  O Tico-Tico  (Brazil's first comic book) was published, Richard Outcault & Buster Brown & their Brazilian counterparts, some of the original charac...

In this episode I discuss the people of color superheroes and sidekicks of comics' Golden Age, beginning with  Detective Comics  #2 (on-sale March 10, 1937) and ending with the last day of 1949, the end of the Golden Age.  I discuss the long history of white Americans making people of color into heroes, starting with Crispus Attacks during the American Revolution. I provide a reading list of past...

In this episode I sketch the history of the French comics industry from its beginning in the 19th century following Rodolphe Topffer's debut to 1939, when World War Two disrupted everything.    I define "bandes dessinnées" (b.d.), I describe the four most successful artists who were influenced by Topffer and brought out proto-b.d. (Cham, Gustave Dore, Leonce Petit, Christophe), I discuss La Semain...

In this episode I go in-depth on  Detective Comics  #1 (Feb. 10, 1937), DC's first comic book issue.  I also discuss the mob's involvement in comic book publishing, how DC would never have existed without Frank Costello, spicy pulps, why DC's first comic book was a detective comic, anti-Asian racism in comics, the history of detective fiction, how Americans viewed the Chinese in 1937, each of the...

In this episode I describe the British comic  Puck  #1 and its mad scientist/wacky inventor, Professor Radium, who turns out to be more influential than one might suppose. I go in depth on the history of the mad scientist and the wacky inventor, with stops at Faustus of Mileve, Roger Bacon, Dante's  Inferno , Chaucer's  Canterbury Tales , John Webster's  The Duchess of Malfi ,  Gulliver's Travels,...

In this episode I discuss the history of the genre of the Western, beginning early in the 19th century as frontier fiction and proceeding up to the late-1930s, when the first two Western comic books-- Star Ranger  #1 and  Western Picture Stories #1--were published. Among the topics discussed: frontier fiction of England, France, and Spain; James Fenimore Cooper; the Mexican-American War; anti-Mexi...

In this episode I describe the early history of the Chinese comic book industry--specifically the  lianhuanhua industry--from its beginning in 1899 to its first end during the Cultural Revolution. I discuss the history of pictorial communication in pre-modern China; the influence of lithography on Chinese publishing; the  Romance of the Three Kingdoms ; the "Four Famous Female Roles," i.e. the fou...