Episode 19: "Don Catarino" and the Early Years of the Mexican Comic Book Industry
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.
The History of Comics in 500 Issues
A leisurely walk through the history of comic books, one issue at a time. In each episode, I'll choose a single issue of a comic book (or comic book-like magazine) and talk about why the issue is important in the history of the medium, or particularly representative of a trend or a particular writer or artist's work, or is of significant aesthetic value. The first episode begins in the 1820s; the last episode, whenever that is, will be about a significant comic from the 2020s (or possibly the 2030s). I don't limit myself to American comics; I am going to discuss comics & comic book-like magazines from around the world.
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