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Reading List More from Dreams of Space - Books and Ephemera
September 11, 1961 So I came across another "stash" of old Weekly Readers that I am going to share for the next few weeks. I have written before how these tiny newspaper appeared in our classrooms every week during the school year (and the summer too). I really love how our progress in the space race was filtered down to school aged children.
Today I have found some "space crafting" : ) projects for you. Make Your Own Space Station is a series of cards that show you how to built some cute little space toys. It seems to have been part of of series of crafting cards of projects you could make from household objects. Probably a little strange but also a lot of fun to try. Make Your Own Space Station. (Spears Games Project Cards.) New York: Ace Publishing. (10 cards.) 1970.
The second promotional comic I wanted to share is Journey to the Sun. It is also from Boys’ and Girls’ March of Comics and the only other one I've found that is about space flight. It was handed to customers of stores that sold Little Yankee Shoes. Journey to the Sun is a story about a mission to get close enough to the sun with some instruments to make some important measurements. They use ion propulsion to get there and actually use a solar sail for braking as they approach the sun. Of course things go wrong and the astronauts are subjected to high heat (and drama.) In the end they use the known melting points of several metals to measure their distance from the sun so they can complete their mission. A much more scientific story than I expected. Journey to The Sun. (Promotional comic.) Boys’ and Girls’ March of Comics, #219. Poughkeepsie, NY: Western Printing and Lithographing Co. (18 p.) 1961.
A promotional comic from 1960 called Space Explorer. It was part of the comic series Boys’ and Girls’ March of Comics, #202. These promotional comics were distributer to retailers who would brand them with their name and give them away to customers to attract them to shop at that store (like stores that sell Jumping-Jacks shoes.) Space Explorer is the story of a brave astronaut who survives trials and tribulations to make it to Phobos (of Mars) to discover via telescope new information about Martian canals. Spoiler alert: Mars has primitive plants but no intelligent life made the canals. Space Explorer. (Promotional comic.) Boys’ and Girls’ March of Comics, #202. Poughkeepsie, NY: Western Printing and Lithographing Co. (18 p.) 1960.
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