5...4...3...2...1...
Normally I like to give an introduction to these things, but I’ll be saving it for an afterthought. Â All I’ll say today is that my friend Jason Laudadio helped out with this one and deserves a round of applause. Â And if you click on it, it gets a little bigger, and easier to read and see Jason’s wonderful linework.
Here ya go.
Okay, here’s my afterword:
Holmes Inc. launched last night to rousing success, and I hear the launch of Captain America into theaters was equally successful (I promise I’ll be going this week and bring back a review!). Â But there’s one kind of launch we won’t be seeing any more, and that’s the launch of American space craft.
I spent a good chunk of my life watching NASA put things into space.  I’ve been in the room with three actual moon rocks, Buzz Aldrin, and Jim Lovell’s space suit at the Planetarium in Toronto many years ago, and still regard it as one of the great memories of my youth.  I can tell you exactly where I was when Neil Armstrong screwed up his great line about “One small step for [a] man, and one giant leap for mankind ” (watching it on a black and white TV in school).  I remember sitting by the radio waiting for updates when Apollo 13 was still up there in trouble.  I remember the Challenger explosion like it was yesterday, and it still puts a lump in my throat.  I remember meeting Marc Garneau after a lecture he gave at Ontario Place, and I remember being told that Roberta Bondar wore one of my “Prisoners of Gravity” t-shirts when she served aboard Discovery.  I might not have gotten into orbit, but one of my drawings did.
The character in the drawing is my dear friend "Commander" Rick Green, Host of "P.O.G" and one of the funniest people still trapped on Earth.
I hope you guys were okay with this commemoration of that magnificent era when American (and some Canadian) know-how literally reached for the stars.  Normally these Toons are a silly, funny bit of fluff, but today, with artist-extraordinaire Jason Laudadio, I got indulge  my nostalgic side.
Ty the Guy OUT!
Here now, your bonus Nasa Space Craft Comic Book Moment:
Did anybody notice this is issue #121? Â Damn, that’s a lot of Space Shuttle comics!
—————————————————————————————
For last week's Dog Poop based Bun Toon, click on the hearts.
For every Bun Toon ever, click on the rabbit's fluffy tail!
–
Ty Templeton's ART LAND!! 
Excellent work, both of you.
I think you summed up my sentiments exactly – Challenger will always be my generation’s JFK moment (well, that was until 9/11), and I am so happy that I was able to watch the last few shuttle missions with my little boy on my lap, absorbing it all, and telling me that one day he will go to Mars.
Powerful and well-done. Who needs silly when emotion can be so much more memorable.
It is such a sad statement to think that the U.S. is now the first and only nation in history to have lost the ability to ferry people into space.
Cheers!
Steven Willis
XOWComics.com
It’s not that we’ve lost the ability; we’ve lost the will to send people into space. I think that’s much more depressing.
Salute.
And Prometheus Smiles — that is one hell of a story. Really, really wish I’d written that. I’m glad somebody did, no matter what.
Dirk, that’s always my favorite kind of compliment. “I wish I’d done that”. Every time I hear a great song, or read a great story, that pops into my mind, and I often say it out loud to whomever is near. So thanks, I genuinely appreciate it.
You know, hearing Newt Gingrich actually say that NASA needed to get out of the way of space exploration told me volumes about how screwed up an entire segment of our society views the world. Throughout the decades, each of the orbits and moon landings were something we accomplished and could take pride in as a society. The scientific research has yielded benefits in ways not even realized by the average person who is ignorant of the connection between what they enjoy today and the space program.
But in the “get government out of our lives” world, anything that might happen in the future will be the strictly controlled property of a privatized corporation to be spread around on billboards and TV commercials in a vulgar ad campaign and make shareholders happy. Yeah, that’s the kind of thing a society can hang its hat on. 😡
For the last few decades, it was a common figure of speech to say, “We can put a man on the moon, why can’t we do blah blah blah?” whenever something wasn’t functioning correctly. What made that great is that phrase was never “They put a man on the moon…” but WE put a man on the moon. It really did solidify the United States as a nation. If it had been the Sony Corporation, or Ford Motorcars, or a private company, the moon wouldn’t have meant as much to the United States. Kennedy (who had started that path along) was completely right in demanding that his country do it, not because it was easy, but because it was hard.
We have taken for granted that sense of collective achievement for so long we don’t even see that we’re doing it. It breaks my heart that we have abandoned reaching for the stars in favor of privatizing luxury travel for the uber-rich.
I read the story as a wonderful (and realistic) metaphor for life. Thanks for writing it Ty!
Thanks for finally talking about >End of an Era
Bun Toons. Not so “yay” … | Ty Templeton’s ART LAND!! <Liked it!