Camera Comics

(Above) Volume 1, Issue 1 of Camera Comics, October 1944.
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(Above) Volume 1, No. 3 of Camera Comics, October 1944.
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(Above) Volume 1, No. 4 of Camera Comics, December 1944, with a story about Eadweard Muybridge.
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(Above) Volume 1, No. 5 of Camera Comics, Summer 1945.
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(Above) Volume 1, No. 6 of Camera Comics, Fall 1945.Click image for larger view.

(Above) From Volume 1, No. 1 - Opening spread of the story of Matthew B. Brady.Click image for larger view.
(Above) Volume 2, No. 7 of Camera Comics, Winter 1946.Click image for larger view.

(Above) Volume 2, No. 8 of Camera Comics, Spring 1946.Click image for larger view.

(Above) Volume 2, No. 9 of Camera Comics, Summer 1946.Click image for larger view.

(Above) Story series about Jim Lane, Insurance Investigator.
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(Above) Story series about Kid Click, boy photographer.
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(Above) Story series about Linda Lens, pro photographer.
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(Above) “Make a Pistol Grip for Your Camera,” a “how-to” article that is very strange.
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HERE’S A STRANGE COMIC BOOK FOR YOU. Thanks to my friend and snapshot collector Robert Jackson, who sent me these comics from his collection, I can now share them with reader’s of Accidental Mysteries.

These comic books were published between July 1944 and 1946 by the U.S. Camera Publishing Company, apparently as a way to build interest in the growing hobby of photography. With on-going cornball series like Jim Lane, Insurance Investigator and Kid Click, the publishers were making sure that they were strategically hitting all areas for the growth of photography. Yep! I want to be an insurance investigator and follow people with my camera! Also, Linda Lens was a female professional photographer—very progressive for the day.

While these comic books were obviously targeted to kids, there was always some more adult articles, like how to build a pin hole camera, or how to make wooden “pistol grip” for your camera—a way to make rapid fire pics. This pistol grip device is especially odd— a low-tech approach to a high tech (for the time) device.

A Story That Lingers

ALL OF US HAVE STORIES TO SHARE. SOME GOOD. SOME BAD. This particularly poignant story from 86-year old WWII veteran Joseph Robertson was animated by the Rausch Brothers. It’s a story about Joe’s experience during The Battle of the Bulge. The animation adds a tremendous experience to the story—a fabulous collaboration.

From StoryCorps: StoryCorps is an independent nonprofit project whose mission is to honor and celebrate one another’s lives through listening.

By recording the stories of our lives with the people we care about, we experience our history, hopes, and humanity. Since 2003, tens of thousands of everyday people have interviewed family and friends through StoryCorps. Each conversation is recorded on a free CD to take home and share, and is archived for generations to come at the Library of Congress. Millions listen to our award-winning broadcasts on public radio and the Internet. StoryCorps is one of the largest oral history projects of its kind, creating a growing portrait of who we really are as Americans.

Chairs for Francois

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GROUP FOUR:  Click image for larger view.


NOT LONG AGO, I SPENT THE NIGHT AT A HOTEL IN SPRINGFIELD, MISSOURI.  I’ll admit, after spending some time with a friend at a local pub, I arrived back to the hotel and spied this set of chairs in the lobby. There were four groups of two chairs, eight in all. All were facing each other in a circular lobby. I stood there, stunned, as each pair of chairs stared back at me with their full, limited or blinded vision.

As I was taking these pictures a guest walking by asked me what I was taking pictures of. He just couldn’t see the interest. I was too tired to try and explain. I just said, “I like the chairs.”

Painting Her Subjects

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ALEXA MEADE IS ON TO AN INTERESTING CONCEPT. By “blurring” the edges between the real world and what has been traditionally a 2-dimensional painting, Alexa Meade has created “virtual paintings,” a sort of reverse trompe l’oeil work of art. Instead of painting her subjects, Meade is actually painting on her subjects. What occurs is part performance art and a work of art that is to be viewed as you see it here—a photograph. What do you think?

See more here.

All images © Alexa Meade.