Friday, August 15, 2025

Jimmy and The Spaceship (1949)

 


To continue my obscure "space fiction" I have Jimmy and the Spaceship to share with you. This was a very small "pocket book" of a comic strip. There were other "Jimmy and the...." books but I really enjoyed reading this one.

It reads like the typical space story but has its own "shock" ending. I hope you like this obscure bit of early fiction about a trip to the moon.

Main, Neville. Jimmy and The Spaceship. London: Brockhampton Press. (30 p.) 1949. 



























Friday, August 1, 2025

Merry Mouse and His Trip to the Moon (1953)

 


My next 4 posts are celebrating children's illustrated fiction about going to the Moon.

Even though I have been collecting these children's book for over 30 years it still is very exciting to find one that you never knew existed. Jack Coggins was an amazing space artist in the 1950s. His two early children's books that were especially memorable were Rockets, Jets, Guided Missiles, and Space Ships (1951) and By Spaceship to the Moon (1952). I have multiple copies of these in English, French and German.

So I was very excited to find a 1960 reprint of his 1953 book Merry Mouse and His Trip to the Moon. It was written by his wife Alma Coggins. This is a fictional book with many of the same style of space painting about a mouse who goes to the Moon to find green cheese. I have chosen to reproduce almost he whole book since your chance of finding a copy are pretty small. I hope you enjoy this lost space art treasure.

Coggins, Alma. Illustrated by Coggins, Jack. Merry Mouse and His Trip to the Moon. (2nd edition) (Jolly Books.) London: L. Miller & Co. (20 p.) 1960. 

(reprint of 1953 1st edition). 

























Above is the cover and below an illustration from Rockets,Jets...1951


Here is the cover to By Space Ship to the Moon 1952