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.

In this epsiode I discuss 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.