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," Lindmania & Lisztmania, the 8 Most Important Moments in the History of Fanfiction, Judaism as a read/write tradition, the first Real Person Fanfic, the original Mary Sue, the history of Tijuana, why the Puritans were actually pro-sex, the history of pornography, the Marxist interpretation of the popularity of porn during the American Civil War, the actual and true Secret Origins of the Tijuana Bibles, why there were a lot more Tijuana Bibles in circulation than you think, how much Will Eisner could have made if he'd accepted the Mob's invitation, and what the British had instead of Tijuana Bibles.

My longest episode, and my best work yet, I think. Enjoy!

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, caricature and comic art in newspapers in South Africa, the early history of comics in Egypt, the history of comics in Mauritius and the island of Reunion, some surprising developments in Kenya, racist and antisemitic cartoons in South Africa (quelle surprise), the first Cameroonian comic, the Belgian Congo of all places being a relative hotbed of graphic narrative (albeit horribly racist), and Egypt surging ahead of everyone else.

Enjoy!

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 moving parts that came together to produce Marvel Comics #1
• the historical context in which Marvel Comics #1 appeared
• the six stories appearing in Marvel Comics #1, and what each one was about
• what the supposed influences were on Bill Everett when he created the Namor the Sub-Mariner story for Marvel Comics #1, and what were more likely the actual influences on him
• a bunch of stuff about the various comic book and pulp Ka-Zars
• a deep dive into the Namor the Sub-Mariner story in Marvel Comics #1--its plot, what it did that was new, and what set Namor apart from virtually every other character in the popular culture of the time
• and, unfortunately, an element of the Namor stories of the Golden Age that requires a Content Warning to listen to

I think this is a pretty good podcast, but I'm not kidding about the content warning--I discuss some pretty dark and potentially triggering stuff. Caveat emptor.

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 dime novels with heroic animals, the early silent films with heroic animals (there are several I single out and describe their histories), the stars among the movie animals of the 1920s, the debut of Rin Tin Tin--who didn't save Warner Brothers studio all by himself, despite the Hollywood legend--Rin Tin Tin's popularity around the world, Celebrity Pulps, how and why a Spanish comics publisher decided to make a comic about the real-life adventures of Rin Tin Tin, why it was a runaway success, Rex the Wonder Dog (because of course), ideasplosions, the awesomeness of Jesus de Aragon's Los piratas del aire (1929), various Spanish comics that made adroit use of ideasplosions, the ideasplosions of Rin-Tin-Tin, and the influence of Rin-Tin-Tin on not just other comics but on Spanish science fiction.

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 Amazing Man, his success, what happened to him after Centaur went out of business in 1942, who Amazing Man was, what he could do, who his archenemy was, the variety of 1930s elements which Amazing Man embodies, the various phases or periods of superhero comics before America entered WW2, and a lot data-based conclusions, accompanied by long lists of various things. (If you like data you'll love this episode).

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 unpopularity of the French colonial venture with most French in the 1920s and how French thought-makers and opinion-shapers reacted to that unpopularity, the use of popular fiction (including bandes dessinées) as a bullhorn for colonialism and imperialism, the evil of the comic strip "Blanche et Noire," how colonialism and imperialism and racism manifested themselves in "Zig et Puce," the influence of Saint-Ogan and "Zig et Puce" on later creators of bandes dessinées, the colonialism and imperialism in the Tintin bandes dessinées, the colonialism and imperialism of the bandes dessinées after World War Two, the Algerian War and the tremendously appalling actions of the French in it, how the bandes dessinées reacted to Algerian independence, and how slow the French have been to examine the colonialism and imperialism in "Zig et Puce" and other treasured bandes dessinées. Among other things.

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 the Jewishness of Superman, from Siegel & Shuster's immigrant parents to the antisemitic atmosphere in which Superman appeared to where Superman lands on the assimilation-vs-acculturation continuum to the various very Jewish elements of Golden Age Superman to which Jewish denomination Superman belongs to.

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 Purtians, chapbooks, slave narratives and the work of "free Negroes," The Black Vampyre: A Legend of St. Domingo, novelettes of the Mexican-American War, dime novels and the story of the sole Black dime novel author we know about, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, how much we don't know about the authors of the pulps, which science fiction pulps were popular in which Black neighborhoods, and various Black artists of comics' Golden Age, including Adolpe Barreaux, E.C. Stoner, Robert Savon Pious, and Jay Paul Jackson, and then finally Iceberg Slim.

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 artists, the Second Boer War, the first Dutch comic book (which happens to be a really sexist dystopia), the Dutch firing shots at British children's comics, a lot of comics which were intended for children, the breath of fresh air that was "Bulletje en Bonestaak," the Dutch precursor to "Sugar and Spike," and the Dutch comics magazine that Anne Frank read.

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 vigilante Batman was in his first dozen or so appearances, the changes Robin wrought upon Batman and his stories, and about the Gothic and why it applies to these early Batman stories.