Little did I know he didn’t have the biggest part in it but he exposed me to all these other characters like Obi-Wan, Anakin, all those guys. Off that I went to watch the originals in the technical [right] order and I was sold.

In 1939, American fiction magazine imports were undercutting local production. It prompted artists, writers and publishers to lobby for tariffs to stem the tide, and a thriving new market sprang up to slake the public’s voracious thirst for cheap, short fiction.

The American frontier myth of tough, pragmatic action, heroism, sacrifice and accomplishment is all-pervasive thanks to the myriad global media that emerges from the American self-image, and the net result is our adoption of everything from their work ethic to their trade policies.