The Post Behind the Walls

Recently the fine fellows on the Comic Dorks podcast were discussing the recent discovery of an issue of Action Comics #1 inside the wall of a house in Minnesota, and how that book might have gotten there.

This reminded me of some framed newspaper pages from April 15, 1908 hanging on the walls of a rental house in Silverton, Colorado. The pages were serving as makeshift insulation from when the home was built and were discovered intact and in pretty decent shape when a remodel took place some years back. This story was detailed in the guest book for the house.

From the front page, a surprisingly relevant political cartoon showing us that politics hasn't really changed much in 105 years (click for larger):

From the sports section, more cartoons we can file under 'the more things change the more they stay the same'. These strips concern the impending Grizzlies baseball season (click for larger)

And a detail of the left strip (click for larger):

These two images book ended the front page header (click for larger):

The left image seems to indicate that it may, in fact, be opening day for baseball. I am unsure what the right hand image with women breaking some kind of record at a registration office is all about. When did women get the vote in Colorado?  In retrospect I wish I'd photographed more of the stories for subsequent reading, but at the time I was mainly interested in the style and amount of comic illustration in the newspaper.

The sports page illustration on the left is very reminiscent of George Carlson's work, but I can't find any evidence he ever spent any of his life or career in Denver.

The next time I get back to Silverton and this house I will definitely take more photos of individual stories and try to get some better pics of the illustrations as well.

A Couple of Disasters

I recently came across an image of an otter holding a hammer and it amused me immensely, as you can well imagine.  I don't usually go for the cute meme-thing, but I put together a couple of Otter Disaster images with this helpful little fellow in mind anyway. (click for larger)