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.