#187: Super City: New York and the History of Comic Books

The Bowery Boys: New York City History

Tom Meyers

Society & Culture, History, Documentary, Places & Travel

4.8 • 3.6K Ratings

🗓️ 24 July 2015

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In the 1890s a newspaper rivalry between William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer helped bring about the birth of the comic strip and, a few decades later, the comic book. Today, comic book superheroes are bigger than ever -- in blockbuster summer movies and television shows -- and most of them still have an inseparable bond with New York City. What's Spider-man without a tall building from which to swing? But not only are the comics often set here; most of them were born here too. Many of the greatest writers and artists actually came from Jewish communities in the Lower East Side, Brooklyn or the Bronx. For many decades, nearly all of America's comic books were produced here. Unfortunately that meant they were in certain danger of being eliminated entirely during a 1950s witch hunt by a crusading psychiatrist from Bellevue Hospital. WITH a special chat with comics historian Peter Sanderson about the unique New York City connections of Marvel Comics' most famous characters. FEATURING: The Yellow Kid, Little Orphan Annie, Batman, Doctor Strange and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! ALSO: What iconic movie maker once co-owned New York's very first comic book store? Check out www.boweryboyshistory.com for images relating to this program. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/boweryboys

Transcript

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0:00.0	The Bowry Boys Episode 187, Super City, New York, and the history of comic books.
0:07.0	Hey, it's the Bowry Boys.
0:11.0	Hey.
0:12.0	Support for the Bowry Boys is provided by our listeners.
0:15.0	Join us for as little as a dollar a month by visiting patreon.com slash Bowry Boys.
0:24.0	Hi there, welcome to the Bowry Boys.
0:27.0	I'm Greg Young.
0:28.0	Tom is a way on another glamorous European vacation, so I am left to my own devices, and I'm tackling a subject that I've been dancing around on the show for years.
0:39.0	New York and the history of comic books.
0:42.0	Now we've done a few industry shows in the past, focusing on New York City's role in the development of film, radio, and television.
0:50.0	But comic books are a true homegrown industry, and for at least 30 to 40 years starting in the 1930s, almost every major publisher operated out of New York.
1:01.0	Many of the most iconic writers, editors, and artists were mostly all born here in immigrant neighborhoods and many from Jewish communities.
1:09.0	In particular, superheroes often have a very specific connection to New York.
1:15.0	Just as a horror story often takes place in a haunted house or a western in a dusty frontier town, a superhero story most often finds itself in an urban environment, and for a lot of its history, that environment was New York City.
1:30.0	The energy and diversity of New York, the romance of the city, is critical to the medium's growth right up to the Hollywood blockbusters of today.
1:39.0	Now just a disclaimer, this is a bird's eye view, a very broad history, a very broad scope of comic books overall.
1:47.0	I apologize in advance for glossing over any of the great accomplishments of many of the most important creators here.
1:54.0	But it's not going to just be me rattling on by myself for this show.
1:58.0	Later, I'll be joined by comic historian Peter Sanderson.
2:03.0	Plus, this show is going to have a grab bag of fun little audio surprises.
2:09.0	But perhaps the first surprise of this story of New York and the history of the comic book begins over 160 years ago to the year 1842.
2:33.0	The story is going to be a very interesting story.
	...

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