The History of Comics in 500 Issues

An episodic history of the medium of comic books, beginning in the 1830s and proceeding up to the present. I'll be covering all the genres, not just superheroes, and comic books (and comic book-like publications) from around the world, not just the United States.

Episode 18: Wonder Comics #1 04/26/2025

Episode 18: Wonder Comics #1 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. /episode/index/show/3c3390d2-67fb-4e8c-8f48-efe1e5fb0b9c/id/36323105

Episode 17: Dominguin #1 and the Beginning of the Spanish Comic Book Industry 04/13/2025

Episode 17: Dominguin #1 and the Beginning of the Spanish Comic Book Industry 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 Spanish comics in the 1930s. /episode/index/show/3c3390d2-67fb-4e8c-8f48-efe1e5fb0b9c/id/36115260

Episode 16: Detective Comics #20 03/30/2025

Episode 16: Detective Comics #20 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 preceded him. I talk about before the Crimson Avenger and after him, his hundred issue career in the Golden Age, and his surprising reappearances afterward, whether as an allusion or, ultimately, as "the first of our kind" and someone deserving of an almost religious worship. /episode/index/show/3c3390d2-67fb-4e8c-8f48-efe1e5fb0b9c/id/35923480

Episode 15: Favorite Comic #1 03/16/2025

Episode 15: Favorite Comic #1 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 Comic #1 and continues on to the present day. I list a number of examples from the Golden Age of comics, and then discuss DC's apes vs Marvel's apes while also dispelling the myth of Julius Schwartz's supposed "four rules" about comics' covers. /episode/index/show/3c3390d2-67fb-4e8c-8f48-efe1e5fb0b9c/id/35712505

Episode 14: Funny Pages #21 03/01/2025

Episode 14: Funny Pages #21 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 by DC--could be successful. As such, the Arrow is the grandfather of every modern independent superhero, from Invincible to Atomic Robo. /episode/index/show/3c3390d2-67fb-4e8c-8f48-efe1e5fb0b9c/id/35495085

Episode 13: Corriere dei Piccoli #1 02/16/2025

Episode 13: Corriere dei Piccoli #1 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 and the creators of the strips, Il Corriere dei PIccoli's competitors in the 1920s and 1930s, including L'Avventuroso, the history of Mickey Mouse in Italy, the Italian version of Vincent Price if Price did a comic strip for fifty years, and how the fascists ruined everything. /episode/index/show/3c3390d2-67fb-4e8c-8f48-efe1e5fb0b9c/id/35300530

Episode 12: "Tough is putting mildly the treatment you're gonna get!" Action Comics #1 02/02/2025

Episode 12: "Tough is putting mildly the treatment you're gonna get!" Action Comics #1 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! /episode/index/show/3c3390d2-67fb-4e8c-8f48-efe1e5fb0b9c/id/35117810

Episode 11: "The Placid Shores of the Ipiranga:" O Tico-Tico #1 01/20/2025

Episode 11: "The Placid Shores of the Ipiranga:" O Tico-Tico #1 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 "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. /episode/index/show/3c3390d2-67fb-4e8c-8f48-efe1e5fb0b9c/id/34931110

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. 01/05/2025

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. 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 and sidekicks of color in comic books with newspaper comic strips. And I break down the situation numerically, with a whole bunch of statistics. /episode/index/show/3c3390d2-67fb-4e8c-8f48-efe1e5fb0b9c/id/34729395

Episode Nine: Becassine 12/15/2024

Episode Nine: Becassine 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 Nickelés" and its importance, I discuss Alain Saint-Ogan and his strip "Zig et Puce" and its importance, and then I conclude with a long look at Hergé and "The Adventures of Tintin." /episode/index/show/3c3390d2-67fb-4e8c-8f48-efe1e5fb0b9c/id/34459805

Episode Eight: “Are y’gonna talk or do I get the pleasure of splashin’ up the walls with your face?”: Detective Comics #1 12/08/2024

Episode Eight: “Are y’gonna talk or do I get the pleasure of splashin’ up the walls with your face?”: Detective Comics #1 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 detectives in Detective Comics #1, the Tong Wars, Chinese immigration to the US, the history of chow mein, spy fiction as of 1937, and DC's particular animus for the Soviets. /episode/index/show/3c3390d2-67fb-4e8c-8f48-efe1e5fb0b9c/id/34339295

Episode Seven: "They called me mad in school, you know": Puck #1 11/25/2024

Episode Seven: "They called me mad in school, you know": Puck #1 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, the Marquis de Sade, Frankenstein, penny dreadfuls, the Romantics, the furor poeticus, the Victorian burlesque, Heath Robinson, the radium girls, Vannevar Bush, and much, much more! /episode/index/show/3c3390d2-67fb-4e8c-8f48-efe1e5fb0b9c/id/34129886

Episode Six: "Treachery on the Trail!" Star Ranger #1 & Western Picture Stories #1 11/10/2024

Episode Six: "Treachery on the Trail!" Star Ranger #1 & Western Picture Stories #1 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-Mexican racism and pro-Mexican racism; the novelettes; the dime novels; Deadwood Dick, Frank and Jesse James, and the progressive (verging on revolutionary) politics of the dime novel Western; the first Western novel; Owen Wister's The Virginian; how a club of elite Easterners not only created the Western as we now know it, but shaped the discourse of the Western, with effects that are still felt today; the Western pulps; the Western comic strips; and the eleven interesting things in Star Ranger #1 and Western Picture Stories #1. /episode/index/show/3c3390d2-67fb-4e8c-8f48-efe1e5fb0b9c/id/33870742

Episode Five: "The Empire, Long Divided, Must Unite": The Story of the Three Kingdoms 10/27/2024

Episode Five: "The Empire, Long Divided, Must Unite": The Story of the Three Kingdoms 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 four major lianhuanhua writer/artists of the 1930s; The Burning of the Red Lotus Temple; Lu Xun; and Mao's opinion on lianhuanhua. /episode/index/show/3c3390d2-67fb-4e8c-8f48-efe1e5fb0b9c/id/33632557

Episode Four: "The Clock!" "That is right, gentlemen--and striking just in time!" Funny Pages #6 10/13/2024

Episode Four: "The Clock!" "That is right, gentlemen--and striking just in time!" Funny Pages #6 In this episode I go back to 1935 and 1936 and discuss how business was actually done in the early comics industry the rise of Comics Magazine Company Everett M. "Busy" Arnold's career in comics the unsavory intersection of "Busy" Arnold, Joe Paterno, and the realities of big-time college football in the 1930s Funny Pages #6, and why it's an important issue in the history of American comics /episode/index/show/3c3390d2-67fb-4e8c-8f48-efe1e5fb0b9c/id/33440177

Episode Three: In England's Green and Pleasant Land: Comic Cuts #1 09/30/2024

Episode Three: In England's Green and Pleasant Land: Comic Cuts #1 In which I take a look at British comics during the 19th century, talk about some of the notable and important people who were a part of it, and describe what led up to Comic Cuts #1, the most important British comic of the 19th century and the comic that set the standard for British comics for the next forty years. The transcript, complete with illustrations, can be found at . /episode/index/show/3c3390d2-67fb-4e8c-8f48-efe1e5fb0b9c/id/33254757

Episode Two: "A new cargo of mystery and thrills!" New Fun #1 09/16/2024

Episode Two: "A new cargo of mystery and thrills!" New Fun #1 In which I briefly sketch the history of comics between Rodolphe Topffer and the 1930s, discuss the first comic books, and then describe New Fun #1, the first comic book that featured all new material rather than reprinted newspaper comic strips. I also discuss Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, the failson behind New Fun #1, and what makes New Fun #1 notable besides the presence of entirely new content. The transcript, complete with illustrations, can be found at . /episode/index/show/3c3390d2-67fb-4e8c-8f48-efe1e5fb0b9c/id/33063077

Episode One: To Begin With: L'Histoire de M. Vieux Bois 09/02/2024

Episode One: To Begin With: L'Histoire de M. Vieux Bois In which I begin the series by taking us back to Switzerland in the 1820s and 1830s and describe how Rodolphe Topffer, a Swiss teacher and caricaturist, invented the modern comic book. It's a bit more complicated than that, of course. /episode/index/show/3c3390d2-67fb-4e8c-8f48-efe1e5fb0b9c/id/32865322

The History of Comics in 500 Issues

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