1968 Kids Meal Comic Depicts Children Enjoying ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’

Ask any filmmaker, aspiring or otherwise, and they’ll tell you that Stanley Kubrick and his 2001: A Space Odyssey are major influences. Of course. His 1968 science-fiction classic launched a lot of careers and inspired millions, even after its plodding and ethereal themes were replaced by the rapid-fire space fantasy of Star Wars nearly a decade later. After 45 years, it’s honestly hard for me to envision kids hopping for joy at seeing such a mature film, much less a comic starring kids who won’t “tell the ending”.

Of course, I was born 16 years after the movie came out, but I was 13 when I saw the movie for my first and only time end-to-end. That movie ain’t for kids. There’s something magical about the Pan Am stewardess who flips upside down or when the flight glides into the space station, matching velocities and all like real ships do in the vacuum of space. Then the movie gets scary, then existential. I would’ve been terrified, then fallen asleep if I were a kid seeing the film in theaters. You can see the entire Howard Johnsons-created comic at the source below. It’s something else.

Source: Dreams of Space via The Verge