Hello, and welcome to the website for my podcast, The History of Comics in 500 Issues. I'm Jess Nevins, and in the podcast I'll explore the global history of the medium of comic books, beginning in the 1820s in Switzerland with Rodolphe Töpffer's L'Histoire de M. Vieux Bois and proceeding up to the present day. I'll be covering every major genre of comic book (not just superheroes) and every country which had or has a notable comic book industry.
The podcast will come out on Sunday nights every two to three weeks (ideally every two weeks) and is available on all the major podcast services.
The podcast is free; but if you're inclined to chip in a little money to help offset the costs of making the podcast, a subscription to my Patreon would be much appreciated! Subscribers will also get access to special bonus episodes.
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.
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:
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.
New episode of the podcast just uploaded! This one is on 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.
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 historians, critics, and scholars vehemently disagree about), tobacco companies' cigarette cards, the creation of the calaveras, the long slow effort of Mexican cartoonists to escape the shadow of their American counterparts, the Porfiriato, how one Mexican cartoonist went political far in advance of the Americans, the first major Mexican comic strip and what it wrought, the first self-published comic book and how it may have influenced the first American comic book, and the four major comics of the Golden Age of Mexican comics.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
In this episode I discuss the 19th-century origins of the Brazilian comic book industry, the first Brazilian comic book (O Tico-Tico #1, 1905), and the first thirty years of the industry.
I also discuss Richard Outcault, always hustlin'; 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.
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.
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."
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.
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!
In which I discuss the history of the Western, how it evolved, what it became, and the various interesting things to be found in the first two all-Western comics, Star Ranger #1 and Western Picture Stories #1. A lot of literary history in this one--120 years of fiction covered in a little over an hour.
In which I discuss the history of the Chinese comic book industry--specifically the lianhuanhua industry--beginning in 1899 and ending (for a few years) with the start of the Cultural Revolution in 1866. I discuss the four greatest lianhuanhua writer/artists of the Golden Age of the lianhuanhua, the lianhuanhua's position in Chinese culture, and the influence of the film The Burning of the Red Lotus Kingdom on lianhuanhua.
In which I go back to 1935 and 1936 and talk about Funny Pages #6, and why it's important. I also talk about Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, John Mahon, William H. Cook, Everett M. "Busy" Arnold, Joe Paterno, the various "first" superheroes, and the unimportant firsts of genre fiction.
In which I begin in the 13th century with the transmission of woodcutting from China to Europe and I end in 1930 with Milt Gross' He Done Her Wrong, with stops at Edvard Munch, Frans Masereel, Lynd Ward, Philip Roth, Bugs Bunny, Susan Sontag, and the evolution of Jewish humor.
This is a bonus episode, for paying subscribers only. I plan on doing these once a month (or so).
Comic Cuts #1 (May 17, 1890) was the first true comic book published in England and "established the template for most late Victorian and Edwardian comics." In this episode I explore the early history of British comics, Comic Cuts' forerunners, and how and why Comic Cuts #1 is important to the history of British comics.
In this, the first episode of the podcast, I go back a few hundred years to Rodolphe Töppfer's L'Historie de M. Vieux Bois, which by critical consensus usually considered to be the first comic book.
Of course, Töppfer didn't create L'Histoire de M. Vieux Bois out of nothing--he had inspirations to draw upon. I discuss them as well.
