Posted in : Comics| track : Craig Yoe , great moon hoax , idw , robert grossman
Robert Grossman ’s Life on the Moon pack the story of the Great Moon Hoax and does something completely unexpected with it .
" From the second when living organisms appeared in the seas billion of years ago , they seemed force by an instinctive urge to move beyond their own environment . Out of the dark waters they grope across aeons , toward the light and land and air . "
— Time Magazine , December 6 , 1968
" When " Comrade " Nixon finally emerged from the Svengali problem thrown on him by the smirking , mallet - browed Brezhnev , lo ! we had given those declamatory bums nuclear superiority , the Mediterranean , tiny enslaved Chile , and the Moon — just as for certain as if the rubric to all this literal estate had been signed in the very lifeblood of the man , women , and tyke living on it . "
— D.L. , R. Schultz , National Lampoon , August 1972
You eff Robert Grossman ’s work even if you do n’t recognise his name . call up that tie - in - a - knot jet plane on the pic poster forAirplane ! ? That ’s Grossman ’s study . Then there ’s the August 1972National Lampooncover spread ofPresident Richard Nixonas Pinocchio .
Beyond that , there ’s cover on a arresting compass of magazines from politically seditious 1960s/70s publications likeRampartsandThe Realist , toRolling Stone , to that securely mainstream December 6 , 1968Time Magazinecover depicting the Race for the Moon .
seem back on the orbit of his consistency of workplace , peculiarly his magazine covers , I ’m strike by the political and cultural range of it . The artistic creation editor program ofRampartsdoes not typically try out an creative person who has an iconicTime Magazinecover on his sketch . The art editor program ofNewsweekdoes not typically essay out an artist who has done cover for the latePaul Krasner’sThe Realist — a man whom an FBI agent was once assign to write a alphabetic character calling him " a raving , unconfined nut " in reception to aLife Magazinefeature .
Somehow , Grossman ’s study spoke to everyone .
It might be the almost supernatural limpidity he brought to his artistry . ThatAirplane!poster art , for example … one look tells you on the button what you call for to live . A text edition definition of iconic .
Likewise , Grossman’sTime MagazineRace for the Moon paint captures that moment so well — and perhaps even better than he sympathise . Behind the scenes , NASA and the CIA were apparently a maelstrom of spy intrigue and gutsy decision . TimerivalNewsweekactually had an alternative cover song prepared in the event of the failure of the Apollo 8 charge .
A Ben Day at the Races
The eccentric of history handle in Grossman’sLife on the Moon(available everywherenow , from Yoe Books and IDW ) is directly in my wheelhouse . Not only do I love history , but as a collector of American periodicals , this particular history is a dearie of mine . Every minute of this eldritch bit of history contains a wealthiness of captivating historical facts .
In legal brief : in 1835,Benjamin Day ’s New York centime paperThe Sunlaunched a series of news program releases purpose to be an history of breakthrough made by one of the most famous astronomers of the geological era , Sir John Herschel . An realised mathematician and inventor as well , Herschel traveled to South Africa and built a20 - foot telescopeto catalog the objects of the southerly skies in 1834 . In a series of articles inThe Sunpurported to have been compose byRichard Adams Locke , it was revealed that Herschel had discovered … batman on the Moon . Of course , this was a hoax .
It ’s often overlooked in discuss the actual history behind the Great Moon Hoax that this is merely one example ofThe SunpublisherBenjamin Day ’s appetite for success . He also helped set up the significant illustrated paperBrother Jonathan(and in fussy , themammoth - sizedBrother Jonathaneditionsare spectacular exercise of historic funny art ) . HisBrother Jonathan Extraeditions were among the first cheap mass - market place complete - narration fiction collections in this land . Brother Jonathan Extra # 9was also the first comic book publish in the United States . His Logos , Benjamin Day Jr , inventedBen Day point , which became a democratic unconscious process for creating secondary colors and color tones on newsprint for periodicals such as comic playscript .
That notion of Ben Day ’s private road for winner bring to heed another underlie ( and understudied ) reason that do the Great Moon Hoax such fascinating chronicle . It ’s an other example of viral tidings at a bulk musical scale . Many of Day ’s rivals picked up the news — and further , some elaborated on it , as if they had unearthed extra fact — and repeated it without independent verification . This was much more common in the 19th one C than people understand , and in fact some of the largest , most trusted names in the story of American news get their startle repeating and remixing other people ’s news program as if it was their own . It ’s far from a modern phenomenon .
At the other end of the spectrum — as I ’ve mentioned here before — is another wonderful mo of small beer connect to the Great Moon Hoax : Julius Schwartzwrote an articleabout it in the January 1934 issue of his fanzineFantasy Magazine . Long before he became the editor ofBatmanor the atomic number 27 - Jehovah of Man - Bat . I often enquire if the course of one of the most important fictional characters of modern times was influenced just a tiny fleck by those fake Batmen on the Moon .
As fascinating as I find this underlying history , I get this book sit in my brain for a while before I decided what I recollect of it .
It ’s not really what I expect , at all . It ’s unlike , and far more cagey .
This is n’t some straightforward retelling of some unnoticeable yet fascinating scrap of history . It ’s the kind of study I should have expected from an artist who can verbalize to theTime Magazineaudience and theRampartsaudience at the same meter .
It ’s rather oblique . It forces you to think .
Here ’s the affair : our perception of history is liquid , and is right smart hard to get good … totally right … than the great unwashed realize . New selective information egress ( specially these days as digital archive hail online and are made available ) and interpretations change base on bestow linguistic context . History is necessarily revisit all the prison term .
A straight retelling of a historical incident is almost sure to get stuff improper . I wonder if that ’s why Grossman terminate up leaning into the bastard news facet of this story , by create a book that itself … hoaxes the fraud .
Race for the Moon Pies
It wo n’t take you too long after you take off readingLife on the Moonto understand that something is not quite right . Grossman has remixed his hoax chronicle into something else entirely .
I ’ll explain by fashion of representative . There ’s almost a cam stroke - away instant inLife on the Moonduring which the plug that the Great Moon Hoax generates is said to have inspired everything from elaborate hair styles , to that chocolate wonder we know as the Moon Pie .
This is untrue . In his afterward explaining what he ’d done with the history in this Holy Writ , Grossman says that he was n’t indisputable exactly when the Moon Pie was invented . Because I love researching chronicle , I ca n’t hold out seeing if I can figure it out . The prescribed company lore of the makers of Moon Pies , explains itexactly like this :
It all began in 1917 when a KY coal mineworker require our move around salesman for a snack " as large as the moon . " Earl Mitchell report back and the bakery obligate with a tasty treat ably named MoonPie . It was filling , primed in the lunch pail and the coal miners screw it . The rest , as they say , is history .
Sorry MoonPie , you certainly are scrumptious , but this sounds like story written by a marketing section , with perhaps a lilliputian bit of the true bake indoors . And of course , that ’s fine . This is barely the Watergate incident I ’m inquire here . But permit ’s take Robert Grossman ’s track here and see where this depart .
A feel atThe Great American Moon Pie Handbookfrom 1985 confirms my distrust , sadly . Noting the cooperation of the Chattanooga Bakery , Inc , creators of the MoonPie , authorWilliam Clarksays he has receive his historical entropy fromJohn Kosik , Executive Vice President of the business firm .
In this version , a go salesman walked through the door of the Chattanooga Bakery itself in 1919 . Seemingly not quenched with any of the cake or cookie he sees on show , he depict a terrific baked dainty that we now have it off as the MoonPie .
" The name of that traveling visionary has been lost to the years , but his idea lives as a testimonial to truth , Department of Justice , and the American way , " says theMoon Pie Handbook .
Tsk .
In 2007 , the bookMoonPie : Biography of an Out - of - this - World Snackattempts to revise this chronicle . Waving off the 1985 version of the story as satire mixed with fact , authorDavid Mageeexplains that the publicity accompanying that premature Good Book bring forth the real story — which is basically the adaptation that exists on the company internet site today . Magee go on to explain how that work out in newspaper of the era .
This gets us nigher to the truth , but perhaps not quite all the direction there . In 1987 , the Associated Press released a widely syndicated article aboutEarl Mitchell ’s crime syndicate coming forrard with the backstory . However , the creation date has regress to 1919 in this bill . The AP ’s MoonPie investigator is not to be confound with an infamousNew York TimesWhite House newsman of the same name , by the room , although one can only imagine what Grossman might have done with such a delectable conjunction . The AP theme triggered MoonPie investigating from various news outlets , and brought forth various conflicting details , with battle of Chattanooga Bakery presidentSam Campbell IVonly addressing the history in a relatively undefined room and not really speaking much about the early years of the subject .
So much for official corporate sources . Let ’s see what else we ’ve got .
U.S. Census data confirm that Earl Mitchell was indeed a travel salesman for a bakehouse in Chattanooga in 1920 ( and belike before ) . That syncs up with the Mitchell family report somewhat well .
However , the MOON PIE stylemark was file by Chattanooga Bakery in 1955 , and the paperwork claims first use on 1917 - 01 - 01 . The 38 class opening and the January 1 date might perchance suggest they ’re not on the dot sure , but that would certainly put the date of the cosmos legend in 1916 at the latest , disregardless .
It ’s probable no coincidence that MoonPie newspaper ad too turns on like a light in 1955 — with essentially none to be come up before that day of the month , despite regular Chattanooga Bakery paper publicizing of other item in the decades prior . This is not to say that the MoonPie was n’t actually invented in 1917 ( or 1916 , 1918 , or 1919 ) like the fellowship say , but … I ’m a little doubting , absent further evidence .
Dark Side of the Moon
Bringing this neatly full circle , the mid-1950s were indeed the epoch during which the American populace set off believe aboutLife on the Moonin earnest . Disney open Tomorrowland with its Flight to the Moon attraction in 1955 . The same year , Disney also telecast aMan and the Moonspecial featuring none other thanWerner von Braun . foresighted floor curt , von Braun — the best - known creator of the fear German V2 rocket , one of the most fearsome weapons in the Nazi armoury during WWII — was helping explain and promote concepts of distance flight to the American public with Disney ’s service . And among other environs , the Moon was our destination .
Just as it was in 1835 , the Moon as an physical object of our fascination was ascendant in 1955 , with films , songs , newspaper headlines — and a tasty dainty call the MoonPie , newly trademarked and now being heavily advertise . The space airstream was arrive underway .
Robert Grossman died on March 15 , 2018 . I ’d have liked to have shown him my whole unserious MoonPie investigation above , because I distrust he ’d have been over the moon himself to discover that the thing that launch the MoonPie into national celebrity was potential the same Race for the Moon that help launch his own life history . But probably not all that surprised .
Because I cerebrate I finally see why he consideredLife on the Moonone of his greatest achievement . He was n’t creating a tale about chronicle that would be read and nonchalantly tossed back on the ledge and forget . He was make a floor that would make you look again and again . A story that might make you think and ask question . It ’s a taradiddle that does n’t precisely recite history — but excuse it , by way of example .
Fifty age after his Race to the Moon , Grossman’sLife on the Moonis an important reminder to always verify the sources yourself .
Even in fiction .
Life on the Moonis available nowin stores everywhere .
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