Walt Kelly's Pogo: After the Moonshot

"Today the moon, tomorrow the stars!" After America's first two successful space flights to the moon in 1969, Howland Owl realizes that the next obvious destination is the sun. He tells Churchy LaFemme he's invented a new kind of space suit. But has he?

The comic strip, of course, is Walt Kelly's Pogo and it dates from January 25, 1970, when everything was still rosy some three months before the nearly disastrous voyage of Apollo 13. The original art was sold on eBay in 2013 and your faithful blogger has been sitting on it all this time waiting for the right moment. Maybe this is it. 

Walt Kelly
eBay listing ended October 9, 2013

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Pogo-Sunday-Original-by-Walt-Kelly-Howland-Churchy-1970-/111182042033?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19e2f753b1&nma=true&si=UB68sj2DvLx%252F9kdb54zXrlCgzYs%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Walt Kelly
eBay item description

04737

Punch Cartoonists in Space

In 1955, A Century of Punch Cartoons was published. It seems the venerable British humor magazine was publishing color cartoons about space exploration in the 1950's, well before Sputnik. No one knew precisely what space exploration would look like back then, so cartoonists were free to imagine it.

An eBay seller is selling a single page from the book with two color cartoons. They are by George Sprod and Smilby.

George Sprod recognized that space travel would continue to face daunting technical problems. Fortunately, the English seem especially well-equipped to deal with those.

George Sprod, "Ah well, thank goodness we still have our sense of humour." Punch, 1952.

Is it my imagination, or did Smilby's spaceship land upside-down?

Smilby, "You know, this is going to knock the bottom right out of the science-fiction market." Punch, 1954.

Williams, R. E., Ed. A Century of Punch Cartoons. New York:  Simon and Schuster, 1955.

Page from A Century of Punch Cartoons, eBay Item Listing

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=181099714999&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:1123

Page from A Century of Punch Cartoons, eBay Item Description

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=181099714999&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:1123

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