Apollo Thirtoons

In honor of the 50th anniversary this past week of the Apollo 13 mission, Star-crossedback Saturday brings you a handful of editorial cartoons about the perilous flight of Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise.

"Berry's World" by Jim Berry for Newspaper Enterprise Assn., by April 13, 1970

Apollo 13 launched on April 11, 1970 and was scheduled to land near the Fra Mauro crater (at the top of the Man in the Moon's mouth) on April 15. Newspaper headlines on April 13 reported that everything was going smoothly; but that night, damaged wiring insulation in Oxygen Tank #2 sparked an explosion. Sensors failed to report that tank #2 was now empty, but did show that tank #1 was leaking rapidly. The three astronauts were forced to retreat into the lunar landing module, which was designed for only two.

"These Moon Trips Are a Big Worry" by Cyrus Hungerford in Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 14, 1070

I've done what I can to clean up the very messy scan of Cy Hungerford's cartoon; the last word of the caption was almost completely blacked out, so "worry" is my best guess. I would also guess that the white object in the upper right corner of the cartoon is supposed to be the moon and it's not supposed to be bursting to smithereens.

"And on the Sea He Suffered in His Heart Many Woes" by John Fischetti in Chicago Daily News, April, 1970

The loss of oxygen from the two tanks meant not only that the astronauts were short on oxygen, but so was the lone undamaged fuel cell, which depended on oxygen to keep running. Landing on the moon was no longer an option, but neither was making an immediate U-turn. The astronauts would have to continue toward the moon and steer a new path around it to head back home.

"I Thought It Had Become a Milk Run" by Bill Mauldin in Chicago Sun-Times, April, 1970

I have to note that even before Apollo 13 had a problem, its launch was banner headline news in every major newspaper in the United States. The three television networks had all planned to offer live coverage of several highlights on the mission itinerary.

Planned itinerary of Apollo 13. Central Press graphic.

Yet the third rocket sending men to land on the moon had nevertheless begun to lose the full attention of the American public. After all, James T. Kirk didn't keep going back to the same planet every week; his mission was to explore strange new worlds, so the Enterprise spent only one hour at each one before moving on to the next. Apollo 11 and 12's discoveries of rocks and dust, on the other hand, had already become — if you'll pardon the expression — mundane.

"Those Things Had to Wait, Son" by Douglas Borgstedt for King Features, by April 16, 1970

The Apollo 13 mission had to compete for media attention with a lot of other big events. The U.S. Senate had just rejected a second consecutive Supreme Court nomination. The war in Vietnam was spilling into Cambodia and Laos, and President Nixon was about to go on television to formally commit U.S. troops to battle in those countries. College students were rioting against the war. Massachusetts lent its support to draft resistance. Governor Claude Kirk of Florida was obstructing court-ordered racial integration of schools in his state. The Black Panthers attacked Oakland, California police with guns and bombs, wounding two. Ambassadors were kidnapped in Brazil and shot at in Guatemala. First class postage was about to rise to 10¢.

But suddenly, all attention was on Lovell, Swigert and Haise.

"Hang Together" by Forney in Pittsburgh Press, April 16, 1970

Well, I don't want to spoil the movie for you, so I'll just concentrate on the cartoons. I haven't turned up any definitive information about Mr. Forney, who was probably a staff artist at the Pittsburgh Press. I came across a caricature by Forney of a local radio personality in another edition of the Press, but nothing with a credit line.

"Blaze of Glory" by Ed Kudlaty for Newspaper Enterprise Association, by April 19, 1970

Ed Kudlaty was fairly widely syndicated; the Racine Journal-Times where I grew up ran his cartoons once in a while, though not regularly. I assume that he drew this cartoon (SPOILER ALERT FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN'T SEEN THE MOVIE!) after the astronauts splashed down safely in the Pacific on April 17. If the Apollo astronauts had hit the Earth's atmosphere too sharply, they would have perished in a blaze of tragedy. If they had hit it too obliquely, they would have glanced off into space.

"The Splash Heard Around the World" by Alfred Buescher for King Features, by April 18, 1970

But they didn't, and cartoonists who had been waiting to find out whether the story had a happy ending or not got to draw smiling globes instead of crying ones.

"Safe at Last" by Gene Basset for Scripps Howard Newspapers, by April 19, 1970