Wednesday, June 06, 2007

This is the Space Age!

Explorer! Vanguard! Sputnik! What are they -- and WHY have they been rocketed into space? This is their story . . .

The future from 1958 was oh so bright and shiny and fun. Walt Disney was certainly one of the biggest proponents of the U.S. space program during the Eisenhower years, as reflected by his many space-themed television shows and also by Tomorrowland in Disneyland. These endeavors spilled over into other entertainment formats, and kids of the era were even able to get a pretty strong dose of scientific idealism at their local newsstand.

The comic book Walt Disney's Man in Space: Satellites is a wonderful example of 1950s pop culture futurism. Here are a couple of fun panels from that 1958 four color excursion into outer space.



0 comments: