When people complain about too many ads in comics today, well, they just don't know how good they have it.
Let's look at Camera Comics #9 (1946):
Try and see if you can spot the common thread in all of the stories, won't you?
First up is Jim Lane, Insurance Investigator!! Riveting, I know. And it turns out that 99.99% of all of Lane's cases are solved...
...with a camera!!
Next up, a history of the Bausch Brothers and Henry Lomb, as we find out that their lenses single-handedly defeated the Axis!!
Then come the adventures of Art Fenton, the ace private detective...
...who always uses a camera!!
We follow Fenton with Linda Lens, who...
...ahh, you know by now!
The Grey Comet solves mysteries...
...and they always seem to involve motion pictures!!
And finally, there's Jimmy Olsen Kid Click, who dreams of getting photo scoops for his newspaper.
Wow, that's an astonishing coincidence!! All their features star heroes who use cameras to fight crime!!
There's also a 16-page black & white "feature" section in the middle of the comic. Said features include:
How to shoot great Halloween photos.
Teen Age Movie Makers.
Identifying mystery photographs.
How ballet demonstrates the way in which lenses work.
A kid who won a big prize by taking photos.
The rules of photo composition.
How to take animal photos.
And handy hints for taking photos and film!!
And then you notice that every single advertisement in the book is for cameras, film, or photo lessons:
No huge surprise, then, when you learn that Camera Comics is published by...the U.S. Camera Publishing Company!! Yup, an entire comic--stories, features and ads--dedicated to getting people to buy cameras!!
So when you get perturbed because DC has too many house ads, consider yourself lucky...you could end up reading something published by, oh, I don't know, the U.S. Cell Phone Publishing Company, and the adventures of Johnny Ringtone and Beverly Text.
Then again, perhaps we should consider the possibility that Greg Land is secretly working for the U.S. Camera Publishing Company...or that Ed Benes is secretly working for the U.S. Cosmetic Surgery and Skimpy Lingerie Corporation...
Let's look at Camera Comics #9 (1946):
Try and see if you can spot the common thread in all of the stories, won't you?
First up is Jim Lane, Insurance Investigator!! Riveting, I know. And it turns out that 99.99% of all of Lane's cases are solved...
...with a camera!!Next up, a history of the Bausch Brothers and Henry Lomb, as we find out that their lenses single-handedly defeated the Axis!!
Then come the adventures of Art Fenton, the ace private detective...
...who always uses a camera!!We follow Fenton with Linda Lens, who...
...ahh, you know by now!The Grey Comet solves mysteries...
...and they always seem to involve motion pictures!!And finally, there's
Wow, that's an astonishing coincidence!! All their features star heroes who use cameras to fight crime!!There's also a 16-page black & white "feature" section in the middle of the comic. Said features include:
How to shoot great Halloween photos.
Teen Age Movie Makers.
Identifying mystery photographs.
How ballet demonstrates the way in which lenses work.
A kid who won a big prize by taking photos.
The rules of photo composition.
How to take animal photos.
And handy hints for taking photos and film!!And then you notice that every single advertisement in the book is for cameras, film, or photo lessons:
No huge surprise, then, when you learn that Camera Comics is published by...the U.S. Camera Publishing Company!! Yup, an entire comic--stories, features and ads--dedicated to getting people to buy cameras!!So when you get perturbed because DC has too many house ads, consider yourself lucky...you could end up reading something published by, oh, I don't know, the U.S. Cell Phone Publishing Company, and the adventures of Johnny Ringtone and Beverly Text.
Then again, perhaps we should consider the possibility that Greg Land is secretly working for the U.S. Camera Publishing Company...or that Ed Benes is secretly working for the U.S. Cosmetic Surgery and Skimpy Lingerie Corporation...
And that Robert Kirkman is working for Barak-Obama-Get-Your-Vaccinations-Now Corportation. Ha!
ReplyDeleteWell, it is called "Camera Comics". The clue is in the title!
ReplyDeleteIt's like, I dunno, a comic book called "Superman" is obviously going to full of stories about Superman, isn't it? ;-)