Cartoon Study: A Thrilling Tour Through The History of Wild Takes in Animation

This post is slightly OT, as I am discussing print cartoons, not animated cartoons. I received several old issues of Cracked Magazine over the holidays and I couldn’t help noticing how one humor piece, predicting life in the 21st Century, was surprisingly accurate.

“Today’s Swinger is Tomorrow’s Square”, illustrated by John Severin, appeared in the 1974 annual Super Cracked (It was most likely a reprint from a 1970 issue). In it, the writer predicts that young people will embrace the “skinhead” look, home computers (“Electronic Home Teacher”) and even the ipod: as “electronic brain stimulators” and a “musical computers” that young people are hooked on.

It’s not a stretch to think Bill Gates read Cracked, though I’d like to think Steve Jobs was a Mad man. I couldn’t find a Cracked index online – is there a Cracked historian out there who knows what issue this piece originally appeared in? Click the thumbnails below to read the article at full size.

Jerry Beck

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