Jeeze, we never did anything that elaborate in the early '60s when I was a kid...

Ah, the pre-computer times of imagination and free time!

Jesus I'd almost expect the X-1 to actually take off considering
that Burton's uncle is !!!THE!!! Robert Goddard!! O.O

With one exception, all the names in this series are takes on the names of famous rocket scientists.

That's right you did a bunch before! :D

These both kind of remind me of the old Buck Rogers or Flash Gordon type ships!... 🚀🙂

Buck Rogers would’ve been a major influence for “ The Skylark of Yucaipa”, though the name is also a take on E.E. Smith’s classic space opera The Skylark of Space. The “Zoom-Blast Super Flash Rocket Fighter” would’ve been inspired by both Buck Rogers and the popular comic book Planet Comics. The next drawings in the series up to 1963, would’ve been the results of the long running 1950s Atomic Age media Sci-Fi fad, and the last two cartoons, one is based on reality, the other on a do-I-really-need-to-say-the-name? TV show (and a guy I do not like). An aside here- The first interplanetary rocket ship introduced in Buck Rogers was a tall smooth spindle that stood balanced on its base like a small skyscraper. It did not take off or land like an airplane, and It was a tractor-type rocket, its propelling motors in its nose instead of its tail. It was an attempt to design a plausible space ship, though later, up until the late 1930s, Buck Rogers would be famous for imaginative flamboyant impractical rocket ships. By 1938, the rockets in Buck Rogers started to imitate the sleek ones in Flash Gordon, which to some extent looked like streamlined trains that just happened to fly. Back in the late 1980s, when my niece and nephew where little kids, I built a space ship for them out of an old cardboard refrigerator carton. They loved it, but I thought it interesting that they never tried to build anything for themselves. Do kids nowadays build tree houses, space ships, you-name-its anymore?

Looking forward to seeing more of them! Also on The Skylark of Yucaipa did I notice some influences from the Strato-sled, from 'Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars' (1938)? (And surprisingly I've watched most of the old B&W films/serials and series at one point or another.)

Sadly, I think the kids today spend most of their time buried in their phones & tablets - it seems like they're conditioned from a young age to use them at this point, some of them are even addicted to them? (This is also part of the reason the toy companies aren't doing as well today...)

Growing up without a whole lot of money, or internet access, ect. I made a lot of stuff - sometimes from pure imagination, or by memory, or occasionally with old books for reference, ect. - out of cardboard, foam, wood, pipes, sheet-metal, even beer cans! I remember when I was around 7-8 or so, having an old 'Power Wheels' Jeep (which had been salvaged when someone threw it out, it was perfectly functional), and up-armouring it (along the lines of a WWII Armored Jeep - though looked more like something The A-Team would've made honestly) with some corrugated sheet metal, wood, pipe for the frame, ect. I made a hatch for it with a trashcan lid, so I could hunker down in it. It took a literal beating!

The Zoom-Blast Super Flash Rocket Fighter reminds me of Poul Anderson's The Makeshift Rocket. Made out of a space suit and a bunch of beer crates, and powered by the mighty reaction forces of malted brew!

A funny, but very underrated story.