POWERNAUT 1955!

Author's Notes:

Oh, snort. I have been waiting since before 1954 for this series.

I wanted to call him Powerboy. But others like that name too, including (oddly) DC Comics. And PowerTeen actually works better. "Teen" was a hot new term around 1955.

One goal of this series is aggressively boring writing about trivial stuff, on the scale of Archie Comics. I can't meet that standard. Nor can I promise continuous action in the Powernaut tradition. But I can probably make the 1955 series as consistently funny as (say) the True Love episode of Powernaut 1954.

The most hilarious part might just be Me 1955 wearing a tie. No, not Wyatt Ferguson 1955. Me 1955. The real Me 1955 was sperm, though it suspected its target by then... Anyway, I've assumed my full self in 1955, as the Powernaut's editor. And Me 1955 is a typical 1955 editor.

Perhaps some contempt toward the readership shines through in this series. Just like misogyny toward womanhood shone through in 1954. As ever: Don't blame the Powernaut, blame 1955.

In case the editor doesn't get a chance to mention this stuff in letter pages: This series almost writes itself. The plot comes from rolling dice. Concepts 2, 13, 36, and 73 from the plot mill of January - February were selected: Loveable Clumsy Grampa; Computing Machine; Weirdness; and Origin. And hey, you kids, why're you worrying about how the Powernaut was old in 1954 and young in 1955? It's just a funny book!

... Enough about the writing. Another goal of the series is, cartoony art like Archie or Peanuts. But the Powernaut series starts out from cartoony in 1941. In 1955 the Powernaut Comics Group is hiring frustrated artists from before the Comics Code crackdown. Meanwhile, in 2012 the artist wants maximum layout too. (Perhaps the 2012 artist is still learning his craft.) So the art may not always look as boring as Archie Comics. It may even look less cartoony than Powernaut 1941. The editor had to intervene to make the PowerTeen origin panel not look so much like Frankenstein or Wolverine.

(signed) Scott Eiler, 10 Mar 2012.