I’m getting my eyes lasered!
Ok, that’s not the important part (though it’s true and I’m wicked excited because I can’t see six inches in front of my face without corrective lenses.)
But tomorrow is also the release date for a vast and important historical resource— the raw data of the 1940 United States census...
...For the first time in 72 years, the general public will have access to the records collected from every American resident, right in the thick of the Golden Age of Comics and on the brink of World War II. The Census collected data on familial relations, residence, and of course occupation. And 1940 is the earliest Census possible where we might find “comic book artist/writer” in the occupation field (though some likely coded their careers as “commercial artist”, “illustrator”, “cartoonist”, or “writer”).
We’ll potentially be able to fill in more information about such women as Marcia Snyder, a Fiction House and Timely Comics artist who we know lived in Greenwich Village with her girlfriend “Mickey”, and very little else; the prolific Archie, Timely/Marvel, and Fox Comics artist Ramona Patenaude; or even about the mysterious artist I’m most desperate to learn about, Alberta Tewks (though we may have to wait another 10 years for the 1950 Census for her).