Caro-Graphics, a single panel cartoon focused on North Carolina history, trivia, and oddities, ran in The Pilot (Southern Pines, N.C.) from 1935-1937. We have assembled a slideshow of a sample of Caro-Graphics from this run, highlighting the variety of reader submissions illustrated for the comic.

 

Primary creator, Murray Jones, Jr. of Durham, worked on Caro-Graphics during his time as a student at Duke University – we have included a photo of him from the 1934 edition of Duke’s yearbook, The Chanticleer. He went on to become a prominent artist and professor of the arts.  He died in 1964; today would have been his 97th birthday.

 

Caro-Graphics have been featured previously on NC Miscellany, through which the strip garnered the attention of comic strip historian Allan Holtz. Soon afterward, Caro-Graphics were featured as the “Obscurity of the Day” in Holtz’s blog on American newspaper comic strips.  Earlier this year, Murray’s career and personal life were described in an “Ink-Slinger Profile” on the blog.  Thanks to Holtz and his colleague Alex Jay for their help in providing more contextual information about Jones and Caro-Graphics.

 

These home-grown comics provide another lens through which to look at North Carolina history, culture – and humor!