LUNACY

While giving a speech at West Point this week, Our President once again floated the idea of adding a "Space Force" as a branch of the U.S. military (on the grounds that "We're getting very big in space...").

Here...

Monster-of-the-Week: ...is another potential enemy for the Space Force...

...a Selenite, a lunar dweller as rendered by the great, pioneering French filmmaker Georges Melies (honored today with a virtual reality Google Doodle) in this conceptual art for his 1902 masterpiece A Trip to the Moon (Le Voyage dans la Lune). Not that they were the most formidable enemies; you may recall that the Selenites in that film would explode in a puff of smoke when whacked over the head with an umbrella.

Even so, it wouldn't be surprising if Our President also promised to build us a space wall, and make the Moon pay for it...

THE FORCE AWAKENS?

This week our President suggested that the U.S. military may soon have a new branch: The "Space Force!" Presumably its duties would include protecting us from threats like...

Monster-of-the-Week: ...this "Menace from Uranus" depicted...

...on the cover of this 1967 Lost in Space comic from Gold Key. The adventure's title may provide a clue to the source from whence the President pulls his ideas.