Buster Brown Goes to Mars (1958)

 

This comic is a promotional comic from Buster Brown shoes. If you went into a shoe store and tried on Buster Brown shoes you would get a comic book with the name of the store stamped/printed on it. Buster Brown  (and his dog Tag) were a feature of 1950s and 1960s shoe store. In this case Buster goes to Mars and tames a space dog. But of course the adult at home doesn't believe him even though the Martians gave him a medal.

Buster Brown Goes to Mars. (Promotional comic from Buster Brown Shoe Company.) NY: Western Publishing. (16 p.) 1958. 

Buster gets to see the Dark Side of the Moon (years before Pink Floyd)

Captain Ray-O-Vac’s Adventure and Game Book (1952)

 

Sorry for the sporadic postings, I should have some lined up for the next couple of months.  Mostly there will be comic book premiums and punch out books.

To start how about "Flashlights in Space...!" This was a comic premium from Ray-O-Vac batteries company. There was not much story except how their flashlight help defeat the bad guy and get them safely back to Earth. I do enjoy the flashlight shaped rocket ship.

Captain Ray-O-Vac’s Adventure and Game Book. (Promotional comic from Ray-O-Vac Company Flashlights and Batteries.) NY: Western Publishing. (14 p.) 1952. 

Senior Weekly Reader 1968, Sept 11

 

In the Fall of 1968 the launch of Apollo 7 was imminent. High School students were given a breakdown of what was to come after the launch was delayed because of the Apollo 1 disaster.

What do you think about spending money for space work?

Secrets of Space Exploration (1958)

 

Celebrating 2,883,898 views of my Dreams of Space site today. I started this Blog in Feb of 2009 so now it is over 17 years old. (Drinking party next year!)

My first "space" book in Arabic. I am pretty sure that it was more for adults and from the illustrations may be a translation of a Russian book. It still fascinates me that spaceflight is so knew that people published space books for the layperson to explain the basics of space flight. Finding these book in many languages convinces me that the "space race" was global as people tried to understand what had changed with Sputnik launches.

So it is a bit of an oddity and can't be very common or well known. 

Sharaf, Dr. Abdulaziz Tareeh. Secrets of Space Exploration. ( كتاب أسرار غزو الفضاء الأقمار الصناعية Arabic) (101 p.) 1958. 

Illustration of Sputnik satellite

A Russian space station?

A more traditional Russian space station

Maintain gravity on a longer trip using centripetal force.

My favorite illustration in the book. A Moon lander with return ship.

Getting to Mars

Getting to Mercury and Venus

My Weekly Reader (Current Events) 1963, Sept 30

 

Here is an issue of Current Events. I think this was a weekly newspaper for high school students (an advanced version of My Weekly Reader.) In this issue they discuss "Why should we go to the Moon?" and how much it might cost.

I lived through this time (although I was about 4 years old) but I never heard about Kennedy suggesting we cooperate with the Russians to get to the Moon. (I guess I need to read more space history)