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Mutant Human Species Imminent
Or so warns this December, 1953 Mechanix Illustrated article ” How Nuclear Radiation Can Change Our Race” with nice opening spread illustrated by the late comic artist Kurt Schaffenberger.
An atomic war could produce an entirely new species of man. Would he be friend - or foe?
“Now hear this Earth! I am Mutant Man, Homo Superior! I have been created by radiation forces out of the loins of you, the human race, after your great terrible Atom War. Yes, I am a step up and beyond you, and I am now your master for better or worse. You created me in your blind, savage, senseless war of atomic radiation. You have only yourselves to blame if I turn out to be your — Frankenstein Monster!”
Will this voice someday thunder ominously over the World from a Mutant Man, not a human being, but as far beyond us as we are beyond the ape man? Will a new race, spawned out of the hellish radiation of a World-Wide Atomic War, go on to challenge Man’s supremacy on Earth?
Schaffenberger was an artist for Marvel and DC comics, most notably doing Lois Lane, Superman’s Girlfriend. The lower left inset panel shows how the Mutant “Friend” scenario might play out, with the Mutants helping to better humanity by teaching chemistry. Is that Lois and Clark in the audience?
The majority of the drawing however is given over to the more dramatic and likely to unfold “Mutant Foe” situation.
This guy bears a bit of a resemblance to Dick Cheney getting ready for a quail hunt.
Comics make artistic, emotional, and political statements through their strong visuals and dramatic storylines. Learn more about drawing and you’ll be able to create comics too.
Is “O. O.” Otto Binder, perhaps?
Good call, Phill.
Marvel was shut down in 1953, so these guys probably had some transitional time on their hands, and started doing this Mechanix Illustrated stuff ( also a Fawcett publication ).
Now I know too much. I’m going to have to read that Schaffenberger book that came out a few years ago.
steve
I like the bikershorts and playtex glove look that they are sporting…
Yes, it really shows off their buff homo-superior physiques. I am sure a superior sense of fashion comes along with their superior mutation. No doubt they put that guy to death for his poor choice of checked socks matched with a hair shirt…
i don’t think the alien looks like cheney, but the resemblance of the lumberjack guy with ahmadinejad is apparent.
“…radiation forces out of the loins…”
That and the Cheney similarity have managed to disturb me.
I, for one, welcome our new mutant overlords.
Check out the excerpt to the Kurt Schaffenberg book listed on Amazon at the beginning of this article: http://tinyurl.com/k6fpq
Lois Lane has a mutant head just like in this article! Way cool! :-)
Oooh. NIce catch Jeff.
How Radiation can change our Race
1953 paranioa led to Mechanix Illustrated releasing this article. The imagery is awesome!
I had a strange first impression of the illustration - even before I read the final comment about the one mutant, “This guy bears a bit of a resemblance to Dick Cheney getting ready for a quail hunt.”
These mutants are the two characters of Americans, the Jekyll and Hyde faces of our foriegn policy. In the larger illustration, we see a US officer ordering his company to pacify the civilians. This could be Lt. Calley in Vietnam “destroying the village to save it,” or perhaps a scene from Fallujah in the present War Against Iraq.
Yet, in the inset, we see a sincere effort by American representatives to bring the benefits of modernization to a “backwards” people! This could be a Peace Corp volunteer showing these technologicallly ignorant folks how to purify their drinking water.
Could these mutants be an unintentional self portrait, an illustration of how thoughtful Americans secretly saw themselves back in 1954? Or perhaps it was an intentional satirical jab on the part of the artist?
-dwvr