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This is THE ATOMIC REVOLUTION giveaway comic book from 1957 (***I will get to the rest of the package at the end***). Produced by M PHILIP COPP for GENERAL DYNAMICS, this promotional comic was included in a spoken-word record set by EDWARD TELLER - the FATHER OF THE H-BOMB (I Have the whole set if the winner is interested in that as well) 47 years ago just as the COLD WAR was really getting heated up and the NUCLEAR ARMS RACE was beginning with the Russia. The most amazing thing about this book is the ARTWORK which originally was thought to be by either AL WILLIAMSON or ALDON McWILLIAMS but now i am leaning towards JOHN PRENTICE. Just by the incredible line quality, it is not easy to say but WOW - CHECK IT OUT. This has to be some of the finest artwork i have ever seen in a comic book. The book basically tells the HISTORY OF ATOMIC POWER from its discoverer HENRI BECQUEREL to PIERRE and MARIE CURRIE through ALBERT EINSTEIN, John Cockcroft who discovered that destruction of atoms caused radioactivity, the Jewish scientists who escaped Hitler ike Lise Meitner and OTTO FRISCH and finally NELS BOHR who experimented with Uranium Fission. There is a great picture of PEARL HARBOR getting attacked (see pic) leading to a need to find wartime uses for nuclear power. ENRICO FERMI created the FIRST REACTOR a year later in Chicago (the university bldg area he worked in is STILL blocked up to this day due to radioactivity, if i recall). Eventually Uranium gets mined out of the Belgian Congo to be used in THE MANHATTAN PROJECT which expoded the FIRST ATOMIC BOMB on JULY 16th, 1945 - 20 DAYS LATER THE BOMB WAS DROPPED ON HIROSHIMA - see pic. This led to the ATOMIC ENERGY ACT of 1946. At the UN, the US, led by Bernard Baruch said the US would be willing to give up atomic weapons if all nations agreed but RUSSIA SAID NO, the IRON CURTAIN (barbed wire) came up and the COLD WAR STARTED. This led to a BUILDUP OF NUCLEAR ARMS and people spending years looking for rare uranium and some getting rich. The US dropped "baby bombs" to learn battlefield techniques of getting used to the sound and shock. AFter the dicoveryu of FUSION, in 1952 the US exploded its first HYDROGEN BOMB that was 300x as powerful as Hiroshima. The book goes on to show a few pages on various uses of atomic power such as NUCLEAR POWER (it mentions how by 1980 more nuclear power will be produced in the US than ws produced by conventional fuels in 1957???), the SUBMARINE NAUTLUS LAUNCHING in 1954 and in 1953 the first substantial atomic reactor. The book actually goes on to discuss propulsion of submarines with a beautiful 2 page picture (see pics). Next up comes all the various uses for atomic power that we don't really think about such as in medecine such as radiactive iodine to treat thyroid diseases and even actually exposing a patient to the direct radiation of a nuclear reactor for some reason - see pic. In agriculture it is used to change crops, kill bacteria and insects such as radioactivating mosquitoes to kill their young. Large industry uses radioactivity to measure the thickness of walls, to test tires, to create stronger plastics, to study the efficiency of floor waxes and soaps, in the film industry, to make "atomic batteries" to be used in "the newly invented transistors" used to transmit data from baloons..and on the information flows although it seems some might be considered somewhat dangerous by todays standards - yeesh. We see how nuclear reactors have sprung up from Canada, how Britain can build its own nuclear weapons with both uranium and plutonium while both Russia and France also unveiled their own nuclear power plants by the mid 1950s. Then we check out how nuclear power will be used around the globe and in the future. It seems ONE POUND OF URANIUM DOES THE JOB OF 1300 TONS OF COAL and 360,000 GALLONS OF GASOLINE so we are going to be seeing ATOMIC SHIPS, the USE OF THE "NEW METAL - ZIRCONIUM" which resists corrosion by air or chemicals and finally and idealistically, that radioactive power will be exported to poor countries to supply power around the world and make the world a better place to live (HAHAHAHAHAHA, you'll pardon me for laughing but man were they waaaay off on this). The future looks interesting as we check out the potential of building warm, germ-free cities in the Antarctic, giant distillation plants to give free, clean water to everyone in the world and finally to use atomic power FOR SENDING MAN INTO SPACE and travelling INTERPLANETARY DISTANCES - this art looks a lot like Willamson in his early post-EC days. There are 2 pages covering a description of FISSION and FUSION just to make sure we have a clear idea of how the bomb mechanism works - all stuff you can work up in the basement with stuff you get from your local decommissioned reactor. All in all an amazing 36 page comic printed on HIGH GLOSS, HIGH QUALITY PAPER. The BEAUTIFUL ART is all done in Black and White which looks fantastic on the glossy pages. The Book is in VF/NM condition, lies FLAT and TIGHT with NO STAINS OR TEARS...This is a HIGH QUALITY, EDUCATIONAL comic book that is quite SCARCE and so far NOT LISTED IN OVERSTREET or GERBER books and IT SHOULD BE. ***NOW FOR THE RARE RECORD AND CATALOGUE SET that the comic came with. The record is spoken word record by EDWARD TELLER, the FATHER OF THE HYDROGEN BOMB. It is a RARE and SOUGHT AFTER ALBUM and it comes with the EVEN RARER CATALOGUE full of GENERAL DYNAMICS ARTWORK for POSTERS (see last pics) from the period. My understanding is that the poster book can sell for over $100 alone due to ARTWORK by ERIC NITSCHE. This set also comes with the ORIGINAL RECORD ENVELOPE which is a rarer version of the set from what i have seen. It also is in nice shape with just a small tear. I am including a LINK to someone else's website that has lots of info on M. PHILLIP COPP and the promotional comic books he printed - VERY VERY INTERSTING STUFF - check it out. The CATALOGUE IS IN NM- CONDITION and the RECORD IS ALSO IN VF/NM SHAPE WITH NO SCARTCHES AT ALL. http://web.archive.org/web/20030729001544/http://greg.org/Atomic_Revolution.html Winner pays $14 shipping on this whole RARE set. Thanks.
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