The Powernaut
Superhuman World:
Startup Escalation 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 .
Powernaut: 1941 1944 1954 1955 2005 (with Stories) 2009 (with Stories) 2011 (with Stories) .

POWERNAUT 1954!

KIDNAPPED TO VENUS WITH LADY WRESTLERS!

Greeting

Hello, my Power Patrol! I finally have my own web site for all my history! Welcome to my 1954 adventures!

(signed) The Powernaut!

PARENTAL ADVISORY

Wrestling women *isn't* always bad. But this Powernaut is a trained professional in the national defense and well-being. Always consult one before you wrestle one or more women. And always follow safe-conduct rules!

(signed) J. Edgar Hoover

Search the Powernaut Archives!

Strip #1

Bonus Section: Talk Back to the Powernaut!

Have weasels ever ripped your flesh? If so, what did it feel like? Was it more or less painful than vampires ripping your flesh?

(signed) Adrian M.

My ally Adrian,

Not yet! But in an upcoming episode, we'll see if rabid space crocodiles get to rip my flesh!

Welcome to my Power Patrol!

(signed) the Powernaut

Do I get anything really cool, like an atomic decoder ring?

(signed) Adrian M.

My business manager can probably hunt you up an authentic signed certificate declaring you to be the Powernaut's Pal!

(signed) the Powernaut

Dear Mr. Powernaut,

Greatings from the future!

What time is it where you are? 1941? 1954? No matter! I have some advice for you!

Invest in IBM. Now. Then in the early 80s sell your IBM stock and buy Microsoft stock. Then in 2012 make out a check for one million dollars and send it to Martin P. in Taichung, Taiwan. Don't worry: one million dollars will be petty cash for you!

Hope to hear from you soon!

(signed) Martin P.

Ha ha! Hi, Martin! I'm glad to hear you planning for the future! But my brainy friend S.O.S. assures me, here in 1954 the smart money is going into power plants and rocket engines. You'll get to see S.O.S. in my adventures one of these years, when his atomic rocket ship is ready to fly us to Mars! And when you're flying to work in 2012 with your rocket pack fueled with cheap, clean nuclear energy, you can thank him for making it all possible!

(signed) the Powernaut

Where were you on the night of the 17th!?

(signed) Andrew P., c'mon, gimme a straight answer!

Hi, Andrew! I checked my calendar and found, on Thursday night last December 17th I was Santa's helper at Shoppers' World in Framingham, Massachusetts! It's the world's largest suburban shopping mall. Can you believe, it has 44 stores?

Glad to see you in my Power Patrol here in 1954!

(signed) the Powernaut

...gotta say, that's an excellent answer.

(signed) Andrew P., lives near people who dream of a King of Prussia Plaza for Pennsylvania.

Strip #2

Strip #3

Strip #4

Bonus Section: Talk Back to the Powernaut!

My publisher tells me, the phrase "Alien Spankatron from Venus" came up during his dinner tonight. So it has to go into the next episode. My contest for you my Power Patrol, is: What super-science device do you think should go in my adventures?

(signed) the Powernaut

Why, the fantastical Omni-Typewriter! It allows interplanetary communication, writing letters dozens of miles long that can be read from neighboring worlds by high-powered telescopes!

(signed) Andrew P, allotropic iron.

Whoa! That would be awesome! I wouldn't be surprised if they have one on Mars when the first Power Patrol spaceship gets there!

(signed) the Powernaut

Strip #5

Bonus Section: Talk Back to the Powernaut!

What invention do you most hope people will invent by the far-off year of 2012?

I'm hoping for the Restaurant Conveyor Belt! In 2012 I'll be sitting by my television, get hungry, just pick up the phone, dial my favorite restaurant, and they'll send me a fresh hot meal - along a conveyor belt that opens right by my easy chair! I won't even have to answer the door! The cities of tomorrow will be built around the conveyors, with restaurant districts in the middle of each belt. Mm mmm, I'm already hungry!

(signed) the Powernaut

I'm hoping that they hurry up and invent flying cars because, you know, I followed your advice and took all my money out of IBM stocks and invested in a company that sells parts for small airplanes figuring I was going to get rich. Now I want to see the pay off! !

(signed) Martin P.

Sorry, Martin. My smart friend S.O.S. says that motor vehicles will be obsolete in the future. The streets will all be parks. Cargo will go on underground conveyor belts, and people will travel with jet packs! He says I might someday be powerful enough to fly on my own without one. I'd better hurry up and get that power before everyone else is flying and I'm not!

(signed) the Powernaut

Strip #6

Bonus Section: Talk Back to the Powernaut!

What's the best possible name for a super villain?

I fought a guy called Aryan Man once. Amd he stopped a grenade with his face. What if he survived but lost his face, so he had to be called the Aryan Skull?

(signed) the Powernaut

How about, The Porn Censor! He's responsible for all the pixelization in Japanese adult videos. That's just evil!

(signed) Martin P.

You mean, movies? Here in 1954, I enjoy an adult movie on occasion too. Doesn't every man? And ever since Japan helped out with R'n'R for our hard-fighting soldiers in Korea, I hear they've done some good cinema... But what's a pixelization? Some kind of pixie invasion?

(signed) the Powernaut

Strip #7

Strip #8

Strip #9


Author's Notes:

This strip is intentionally raunchy. A market for stuff like this actually existed in 1954. I'll go to the opposite extreme when the Comic Code kicks in for 1955.

Lady wrestlers of the 1950s might have wrestled according to script. But they at least trained to wrestle, not just flop around on a mat and look pretty. This strip will of course assume they fought for real.

The Powernaut looks more and more like Dean Martin to me. In Superhuman World 2011, I begin to think Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis got their big break in 1946 doing the first big-budget Powernaut movie featuring Le Resistant. (accent missing on purpose) I'm still deciding about Dean Martin Powernaut movies of the 1950s, but I'm guessing "Powernaut on Venus in 3-D" nearly wrecked his career. Let's see what it does for mine. Fortunately, I have a day job.

Speaking of 3-D: I know the early 1950s are famous for innovative comics. I therefore figure they might occasionaly go for cartoons across panel borders.

I know newspaper comic strips of the 1940s and 1950s are about twice this big. But bubblegum strips weren't. Anyone remember Bazooka Joe? So I've kept the strip in modern size.

This strip explores Venus. But not in detail. 1950s Venus is of course swampy but habitable. In the 1990s retcon, Venus will have one swampy habitable bio-dome, plus lots of boiling sulphur clouds. I've at least tried to make the Venus backgrounds sulphur-colored. And the water of course is green, because who knows what's growing in it.

At one point, I'd thought the strip was already headed over the top. And that was before I'd considered either the hot oily Venusian atmosphere, or spanking. Paradoxically, spanking reins it in for the modern audience but puts it right over the top for the 1950s. But at least in this comic, the women get a chance to spank the men too.

I could have gone into much more detail about the spankings. But that would not have fit 1954. Though that year did have Dean Martin, Bettie Page, and a certain musical film about kidnapping women, it would have been culture shock to put them all together for more than one strip. I already suspect people think I take 1954 pop culture way too seriously.

I'm still learning to let the art tell the story. As a writer, this is culture shock. But as an artist with limited panel space, I learn quickly.

(signed) Scott Eiler, 19 Feb 2012.


Superhuman World:
Startup Escalation 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 .
Powernaut: 1941 1944 1954 1955 2005 (with Stories) 2009 (with Stories) 2011 (with Stories) .

Correspondent credits go to Adrian J. McClure, Martin Phipps, and Andrew Perron. All characters in this fiction are copyright © 2012 by Eiler Technical Enterprises.