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Query: More in Hope Than Expectation . . .
15 years ago
So 
baroncoon and I spent part of the morning discussing an extremely obscure self-published comic book that ran three issues in the latter half of the 1950s. Titled, if his memory is correct, Sergeant Wolf: United States Army, 1987, it ran counter to the era’s boundless, nay hubristic, optimism, depicting an imperfect world of tense international politics, grappling with difficult new issues.
At the time it must have been a bombshell, seemingly darkly dystopic, full of unbelievable technology from out of left field; it’s no wonder the poor fellow had no success finding a publisher. Looking back from today, or even 1987, however, it is astonishingly prophetic.
The single mention baroncoon saw in a small-press history of independent comics was packed with Cassandra-like predictions. Among them were card-key locks, laptop computers (with docks built into desks), optical disc technology, the Internet, murky is-it-military-or-criminal questions behind network warfare, satellite communications, tiltrotor transport aircraft, F-4 Phantom II-style combat jets, and a land war in Asia lost through political complications. In addition, there were other postulates that didn’t happen in the real world, but might have, such as a major biowarfare accident related to the aforementioned war that made much of the southwest US off-limits, indirectly leading to the US effectively seizing South Africa as a protectorate to assure access to strategic materials.
Dead accurate in outline if not in detail, with an eye for the development of technology unmatched by any other author, it could have had a profound impact had it been able to reach a publisher and an audience. Alas, it was a cry in the wilderness; the creator—whose name baroncoon cannot recall, and which might have been a pen name in any case—was unable to find a publisher or an audience for his vision, and apparently quit in disgust.
Anyone who might have heard of this amazing work is urged to get in touch with baroncoon and give him any available information. Someday, maybe, he’ll be able to find copies of it, and its legacy might be preserved.
baroncoon and I spent part of the morning discussing an extremely obscure self-published comic book that ran three issues in the latter half of the 1950s. Titled, if his memory is correct, Sergeant Wolf: United States Army, 1987, it ran counter to the era’s boundless, nay hubristic, optimism, depicting an imperfect world of tense international politics, grappling with difficult new issues.At the time it must have been a bombshell, seemingly darkly dystopic, full of unbelievable technology from out of left field; it’s no wonder the poor fellow had no success finding a publisher. Looking back from today, or even 1987, however, it is astonishingly prophetic.
The single mention baroncoon saw in a small-press history of independent comics was packed with Cassandra-like predictions. Among them were card-key locks, laptop computers (with docks built into desks), optical disc technology, the Internet, murky is-it-military-or-criminal questions behind network warfare, satellite communications, tiltrotor transport aircraft, F-4 Phantom II-style combat jets, and a land war in Asia lost through political complications. In addition, there were other postulates that didn’t happen in the real world, but might have, such as a major biowarfare accident related to the aforementioned war that made much of the southwest US off-limits, indirectly leading to the US effectively seizing South Africa as a protectorate to assure access to strategic materials.
Dead accurate in outline if not in detail, with an eye for the development of technology unmatched by any other author, it could have had a profound impact had it been able to reach a publisher and an audience. Alas, it was a cry in the wilderness; the creator—whose name baroncoon cannot recall, and which might have been a pen name in any case—was unable to find a publisher or an audience for his vision, and apparently quit in disgust.
Anyone who might have heard of this amazing work is urged to get in touch with baroncoon and give him any available information. Someday, maybe, he’ll be able to find copies of it, and its legacy might be preserved.
http://www.cartoonresearch.com