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 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 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. 

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.

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

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 my Patreon page. 

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 my Patreon page. 

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.