Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Problems of Space Travel

As you can tell from this two page spread from Tales of Horror #1 (1952), the problems of space travel are insurmountable!

(Click to enlarge)



I love the oh-so-subtle way they bring up the fact that taking a crap is a problem in space. "...even the most ordinary body functions are a problem! Without gravity everything will float"!! Gross. I also don't know what the hell they are talking about with the "exploding liquids." What liquid? Water?! Suddenly water will explode in zero gravity? Holy crap!! (I hope this isn't a continuation of the "body function" discussion.)

You know what? This whole thing doesn't make any sense! The only part that is even remotely correct is the last panel about traveling to the nearest star. They are talking about traveling 27% the speed of light, and the nearest star to Earth is Proxima Centauri at 4.2 Light Years away, which makes a one way trip 15.5 years. I attribute this correctness to random luck, given the ludicrousness of the rest of the comic. No wonder the Soviets were the first to put a man in space: they didn't have kids reading this crap.

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