14 January 1959 Afterburner 1

Here is the first batch of graphics for your viewing pleasure, all from the 14 January 1959 Afterburner, Yokota Air Base's official newspaper. This issue had a lot of great stuff in it. Some pieces were produced locally at Yokota, while others, you'll notice, were from the US military agency AFPS which I believe stood for Armed Forces Print Service. That Department of Defense organization still seems to be in business, now called the American Forces Print Service.

Page 2 banner for the Base Exchange news -- simple and nice. Probably locally drawn.

I love this one from page 3, which was likely produced in the US and distributed to military papers around the globe. The military still has things like this today, though not quite so visually striking as this piece.

Here's an AFPS piece. Cartoony and simple for a serious topic. Is the artist's name Agen?

Also page 3, and also AFPS. This is a cartoon of its time in terms of art and humor. From the perspective of 2012 it's not clear if this is supposed to be funny, or if it's a warning of the dangers of gambling.

Another AFPS cartoon on page 3. Since the characters are sailors we can assume that this was designed for a general military audience. It's signed as SEBE, but it's unclear if that's a name. Future research required.

A banner on page 7 for the weekly announcement of new books available at the base library. Probably of local origin.

Here's another cartoon from an outside source, so I guess the paper had a lot of space to fill. This one's really funny with terrific Cold War-style art and absurdly over-the-top violence. We know the source was the base paper at NAS Whidbey Island, but it's hard to decipher the artist's name. Dave Hess?

This nice graphic was on the sports page. Obviously local, but no signature.

This amazing piece on page 9 was locally produced by A2C John Boyle, the Afterburner's sports editor. Click to see full size. This kind of biographical cartoon was pretty common at this time.