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 Tige) 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)

Science Fiction and Readers Guide (The Children's Hour, vol 16) 1954

 

As I work through odds and ends to scan I have an anthology of children's science fiction. It is actually the 141 page section of Volume 16 of the 16 volume anthology called The Children's Hour. It is rare to see anthology like this. I chose to select some illustration to share. I will tell you the title of the story and the artist (if available).

Science Fiction & Readers Guide. (Volume 16, The Children's Hour) Edited by Marjorie Barrows. Chicago: The Spencer Press, Inc. (376 p. ) 1954.

What Time Is It? By Richard Elam. Illustrated by Hardie Gramatky

Mars and Miss Pickerell. By Ellen MacGregor. Illustrated by Paul Galdone

Lancelot Biggs On The Saturn. By Nelson Bond. Illustrated by John McKee

The Black Pits of Luna. By Robert A. Heinlein. Illustrated by Brinton Turkle.

An interesting Glossary of Science Fiction words found in the stories.

A Trip Through Space with Elsie the Cow (1957)

 

This was a promotional comic from Borden's dairy staring their mascot Elsie the Cow. It contains 16 pages of "Space-Fun, Games, Puzzles, Cut-Outs." Their is not much story but it was illustrated well. I choose to included the whole comic for your pleasure.

A Trip Through Space with Elsie the Cow. (Borden promotional comic) The Borden Co. 16 pg. 1957.

Mournful Mouse and the Space Trip (1963)

 

I am not really scraping the bottom of the barrel as much as taking the time to post the most obscure stuff in my space book collection. I collected almost any pre 1980 children's book about spaceflight. I preferred the non-fiction but picked up some strange fiction and comics along the way. (Giant carrots from the Moon anyone?)

So Mournful Mouse and The Space Trip is part of a series of books. This was the only one about rockets or space. It was the author's self-published effort. The two sizes of type on each page are odd. It seems (to our modern eyes) THAT THE OTHER VOICE IS YELLING.

A simple story: a mouse boy finds a sky rocket, accidently gets launched to the Moon, and makes it home for the picnic (with a stomach-ache.)

I do not understand the Mournful Mouse character either.

Schmock, Helen H. Illustrated by Schmock, Helen H. Mournful and The Space Trip. (The Adventures of Mournful Mouse, Book 3.) Ludington, MI: J & H Publishing. (16 p.) 1963.