SW10/WWW: Powernaut 1968 #2: You Defile the Real Powernaut!

[Scott Eiler]

Uh oh, the new Powernaut is already meeting the old Powernaut's friends! 
  Oh, $#!+, this could go places really fast.

http://www.eilertech.com/stories/powernaut/1968.htm#2

...

Bonus Section:  2005 Reprint Commentary from Stephen Oliver Samuels 
(S.O.S.)!    Who Was the New Powernaut?

...

When this comic strip publisher came to me to ask me about the 
Powernaut, I started talking about 1944.  But then they started asking 
about 1968.

1968 is embarrassing for me...  The real Powernaut had disappeared. 
Paula Power had become a flower girl.  Stonewater Smith was marching 
with civil rights movements.  Of the former Power Patrol, only I was 
still working for the national defense.  And in 1968, national defense 
became unpopular.

Then came this new guy, calling himself the Powernaut.  We knew exactly 
who he was; he never hid it.  So I actually did meet him.  He was 
obviously a smart guy, which is fine with me.  The embarrassing thing 
is, he wasn't a fraud; he had powers of some sort!  Not like the *real* 
Powernaut, of course, but he didn't need that!  He could go anywhere 
almost instantly.  He dodged the Power Patrol and other authorities that 
way, more than once.

As you can see, I appeared in the Powernaut 1968 comics.  I of course 
was portrayed in an unflattering Beetle Bailey art style, and (I think) 
made to look stupid.  Oh well.  I try not to brag, but I *did* invent 
the Mars rocket the Powernaut used in 1962.  I've also adapted to the 
changing times.  Here in 2005, I'm pleased to say I'm still around and 
the 1968 Powernaut is the ancient artifact.  For instance, no one today 
could get away with openly ingesting a drug like he did.

I have to wonder how Powernaut Comics ever got away with printing some 
of those 1968 comic strips.  I hear they made a conscious decision to 
try to appeal to underground comic readers.  Their "Secret Agent" 
Powernaut comics of 1966 must not have been too successful, even though 
in my opinion those comics show the Powernaut's finest moment.

Still, I have to admit the 1968 Powernaut beat us to solving a *couple* 
of problems the world had.  This series has his account of these 
adventures.


-- 
(signed) Scott Eiler  8{D> -------- http://www.eilertech.com/ ---------

When you *are* the leader... whatever goes wrong... whether you did it
or not... *you* are held responsible. - Barack Obama

I know. - Archie Andrews

- from Archie #617, March 2011, scripted by Alex Simmons.