Red and Rover by Brian Basset for February 10, 2021

I haven’t seen a flashcube camera in just about forever! I think that quit making them about 40 years ago.

Ah the days of 24 hour photo huts

Rover looks like he’s been hypnotized. I’m surprised there was no “Red Eye” in the pictures.

Flashcubes! We had several of those in my house in the ’60s.

Showing my age—I had one of those cameras!

When I was a teenager, my younger brother had a Spaniel named Benji. Benji was sweet, and a little stupid. However, whenever he was asked if he wanted his picture taken, he’d jump on the couch and strike a dramatic, almost heroic pose: sitting, head up, one front paw slightly in front of the other, facing stage left. I have 3 or 4 pictures of him in that exact same pose. You can tell that they’re taken at different times because of the length of his fur and the stuff on the couch.

We would terrorize neighborhood kids with the flash cubes. Went through a bunch. That ended as usual, when mom went to take some pictures @ Xmas and the whole box of flash cubes were gone. Also, we would ride our bikes to the Fotomat Hut @ the mall. We would ask the guy/gal where their bathroom was. Then we would ask them if they needed to go. Ha, couldn’t chase us.

The Red and Rover series takes place in the 60’s, so that would explain it.

Take me back!!!

Life was better back then.

Why is Red using such an old camera. And a 24 HR developer ! ?

History lesson – Back in the day, it was pretty expensive. Cost of film wasn’t as bad as the processing. In the ’90’s, it was around $10 for 24 photos. Plus, there was, at least, an overnight wait. Not to mention the initial cost of the camera. Nowadays, pixels are free after the initial “camera” cost.

Without flash you never would have seen such Rover eyes!

Brian hasn’t went down the path of allowing his kid character to have a phone and be focused on the phone instead of the good times with the dog. I like it.

This strip is set at close to 1970. I’m trying to remember when those quick-developing shops first opened.

Actually a pretty accurate representation of any dog willing to eat the stuff.

Red! Not face on. To the side. Lol!

Poifect!

Red-eye prevention settings work on pets, too. Most cameras with flash will have this setting. When you press the shutter it emits a short, weaker flash which gives the pupil time to contract before the main flash fires. It does, however, screw up “slave flash” something fierce. :)