Reviews

Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow? by Brian Fies

crabbygirl's review against another edition

4.0

when i read last year that NASA was retiring the space shuttle and that they had no plans for a replacement, i wondered how the space program had fallen on such hard times. armstrong on the moon was a pivotal moment in american history. NASA used to be a flagship for Amercian dominance of the world, and now it seems to be petering away. well, this book did a great job of explaining the build up to the Apollo missions, and the fallout of finding no life on the moon, no life on Mars. this book made me desperately want to visit a world's fair - i wish i'd been born when montreal held it's crowning acheivement: Expo.
the book describes new york's world fair of '39 - the one that inspired disney to build epcot - from a child's perspective; it's magical.

interspersed thoughout the decades of american life, a space-themed comic book evolves. from huge pixels to tightly coloured; from fantastical ideas of monsters in space to actual science. ultimately, our caped crusader has to retire - there's no more romanticism of space. the unknown becomes the known; he cannot endure.

pkadams's review against another edition

5.0

Perhaps the best book to capture the essence and optimism of science, industry, and innovation during the mid-century in America. Written as a graphic novel about a boy and the relationship with his father Brian Fies captures cultural, political, and historical norms and events that contribute to a age that optimistically thought the future was an endless opportunity. Starting with the 1939 World's Fair, Fies introduces his reader to marvels of the times from radios and TVs through nanotechnology and decentralized energy sources. His use of the graphic novel allows a freedom to weave in background and knowledge to the story that provides a richness of information usually only found in dense, dry academic tomes while the pictures tell a story more akin to the pace and vitality of a movie/documentary. It should be required reading in a 20th century history class.

audbuttrue's review against another edition

3.0

As a brief history of technological advances and the U.S. Space program, this was fantastic. I was able to get a feeling for what people living through the times of predicting idyllic worlds of tomorrow felt. I could share in the excitement of the robot maids, cities 1000's of stories high, and space colonies on mars that we have all but stopped dreaming about today. We still speculate about future technologies, but maybe not quite as spectacularly or as optimistically as in the past (or it doesn't seem like it, at least). Besides the history portion of the story, there was meant to be a portion that followed a father-son relationship as time passed; the changing of ideas and distancing that comes with growing older. Unfortunately, this part of the story felt very distant. It was an interesting background to the history, but I think more detail could have made it much more worthwhile. To me, it felt almost useless. As if the author wanted to make a point about father-son relationships over time and the different reactions to technologies, but didn't quite accomplish it. It was kind of like a backdrop to prevent the book from being straight history. One unique addition to the book that I really enjoyed were the mini-comics about Cap Crater that the author wrote and put in different places throughout the book. They are printed on a different type of paper and printed in away to mimic older printing technology. I thought they were a clever and visually impressive way to supplement the history and story. Overall, I think Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow? is well worth reading, especially for anyone interested in the dreams of the past, what never happened, and technologies that actually developed. Fies also makes a point to talk about great things we have accomplished, which I thought was a nice way of making sure the reader remembers what we have done as well as the dreams that got left behind.

jhliu's review against another edition

5.0

I bought this a while back and then for no good reason it sat on my shelf for over a year before I finally read it. It's a fantastic look at how the "world of tomorrow" has shifted over the last few decades, told from the point of view of a father and son. What's interesting is that the father and son age more slowly, allowing them to experience decades of change in what seems to be a matter of years. Just brilliant.

romcm's review against another edition

4.0

I’m not sure what to say about this one. It was a surprisingly layered story. A father and son grow up together. A meta-story about war and technology interrupts them (using old-style comics and different paper, which was a lovely touch). But there seemed to be something almost made explicit, and then... not quite. The hopefulness of the ending felt forced, to me. The cynicism of the son’s teen years was smoothed over. The reflection on how the world of tomorrow became part of the military-industrial complex was the part that rang most true. But in the end, the answer is just to make another child and leave the future up to them. Is that all we’ve got?

yokaiakito's review

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

bradleygirl's review

hopeful informative reflective fast-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No

bluepigeon's review

4.0

The World's Fair in NY in 1939, where leading companies and countries exhibited a future filled with robots and flying cars and fantastic gadgets...space age fueled by the war industry...the end of the space age in the 70s by lack of public enthusiasm and other sociopolitical shifts. Brian Fies covers the futuristic aspirations of whole nations through the lens of a father and son, the different generations having a different take on developments at times, but both enamored with the World of Tomorrow promised by tech giants and presidents. In the end, space and the depths of oceans remain rather out of reach even at the beginning of the 21st century, but Fies insists that imagination and determination can and will take humans beyond our reach eventually. He's probably overly optimistic, because it is usually not our ability that's limited, but our unwillingness/inability to be united. Surely, such projects we multi-national achievements, and that small statement says it all.

The art and the level of detail is fantastic. The real images blend well with the drawings and the old comics are spot on. Recommended for those who like concrete blocks, space walks, and portable radios.

ederwin's review

3.0

Pleasant enough story of a child growing up, seeing the "World of Tomorrow" at the 1939 World's fair, anticipating the great fantastic future that it promised, and then being disappointed that it didn't come to be. We never did get our jet-packs and the American public lost interest in space exploration after we had proved we could beat the soviets to the moon. Yet, ends on a positive note by reminding us how futuristic the world around us now would look to someone in 1939. Not the same as we expected, but wonderful in its own way.

The main story is told on glossy pages, but in 4 sections it switches to rough, yellowing paper to mimic the feel of old comic books. Those comics vary in style as time passes to mimic the styles of artists from different periods.

francomega's review

3.0

A melancholic look back on the promises of the space race and future technologies...and an optimistic appreciation of what we actually have already and will achieve all mirrored in the evolving relationship of a father and son.