Episode 11: "The Placid Shores of the Ipiranga:" O Tico-Tico #1
The History of Comics in 500 Issues
Release Date: 01/20/2025
Episode 18: Wonder Comics #1
The History of Comics in 500 Issues
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 originality is the only (or most important) virtue.
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Episode 17: Dominguin #1 and the Beginning of the Spanish Comic Book Industry
The History of Comics in 500 Issues
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 were clearly quite talented and made some darn attractive-looking comics. I end in the late 1920s, when Spanish comics were beginning to soar but had not yet reached the Golden Age which would be...
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Episode 16: Detective Comics #20
The History of Comics in 500 Issues
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 and isn't a superhero. I discuss why the Crimson Avenger isn't so much a comic book superhero as he is a pulp superhero, putting him in the context of the many other pulp superheroes who...
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Episode 15: Favorite Comic #1
The History of Comics in 500 Issues
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 Greece to supernaturally evil in the Middle Ages to the "rape ape" of the 17th and 18th centuries to the Rousseauvian "Noble Savage" and finally to heroes, which began with Favorite...
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Episode 14: Funny Pages #21
The History of Comics in 500 Issues
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 Arrow--the first non-DC superhero to appear after Superman's debut--is historically important, because he established that independent superheroes--that is, superheroes who weren't published...
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Episode 13: Corriere dei Piccoli #1
The History of Comics in 500 Issues
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 discuss the contents of that issue, the fraught question of word balloons vs bottom captions, the various comic strips which appeared in Il Corriere dei Piccoli over the next several years...
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Episode 12: "Tough is putting mildly the treatment you're gonna get!" Action Comics #1
The History of Comics in 500 Issues
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 state of science fiction in April 1938, and what the appeal of Superman was!
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Episode 11: "The Placid Shores of the Ipiranga:" O Tico-Tico #1
The History of Comics in 500 Issues
In this episode I discusss the origins of the Brazilian comic book industry, beginning with the arrival of an Italian immigrant in São 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 characters to appear in O Tico-Tico, the short-lived competitors to O Tico-Tico, Brazil's southeast versus its northeast and the sertão, the "social bandits" of the sertão, what a...
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Episode 10: "That's why I'm calling on Chang. He's helped me a lot on previous cases that have baffled me." Detective Comics #2.
The History of Comics in 500 Issues
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 and modern books which describe the histories of peoples of color in America and which also include the stories of figures lionized by white Americans. I compare the situation for heroes...
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Episode Nine: Becassine
The History of Comics in 500 Issues
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 Semaine de Suzette (which published the adventures of Becassine, the first ongoing character of the b.d.) and its importance in the history of French comics, I discuss Louis Forton's “Les Pieds...
info_outlineIn this episode I discusss the origins of the Brazilian comic book industry, beginning with the arrival of an Italian immigrant in São 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 characters to appear in O Tico-Tico, the short-lived competitors to O Tico-Tico, Brazil's southeast versus its northeast and the sertão, the "social bandits" of the sertão, what a "social bandit" is, Eric Hobsbawm and his books on social banditry, folhetos (Brazilian proto-comic books), the cangaceiro (the bandits of the sertão), the greatest cangaceiro of them all, the folheto about him, the rise of a challenger to O Tico-Tico, Suplemento Juvenil (the greatest Brazilian comic book of the 1930s) and what strips were inside it.