Teaching STEM: The GE Comics series

General Electric faced the challenge of getting young people interested in the sciences back in 1953. Its solution? Comic books.

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In 1953, General Electric Co. was faced with the challenge of cultivating young talent. At the time, comic books were the go-to entertainment source for America’s youth. In this photo, a cover of a comic book on jet propulsion.

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Today’s young people face many of the same challenges, with a sagging interest in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields. While today’s answer to this challenge has been to try and cultivate interest through video games, in the 1950s, comic books were the chosen entertainment medium for the young.

General Electric

GE’s comics were printed in both English and Spanish. In this photo a comic book cover on transistors.

General Electric

GE executives debated whether dislike of comics in 1945, during World War II, would spell doom for the outreach effort. The popular critique of comic books was that they led to delinquency. It was decided that the need to cultivate young talent was worth the potential risk In this photo, a cover for the “Adventures in Electricity” is displayed.

General Electric

General Electric comic books featured topics that were directly relevant to the interests and skills needed by aspiring staff members, including electricity, jet propulsion and physics.

General Electric

A comic book cover from General Electric on jet propulsion — one of the pillars of GE’s business model even today.

General Electric

General Electric printed between 500,000 and 3 million copies “on mammoth pressers on newsprint stock,” according to GE’s records.

General Electric

“The eight members of management who saw the colorful boards had so much fun looking, reading, and commenting that they not only gave their final approval to the project, but also suggested many themes for future series,” according to GE’s corporate documentation.

General Electric

Titles of General Electric comic books included, “Adventures in Jet Power,” “Adventures Inside the Atom” and “Land of Plenty: A Story of Freedom and Power.”

General Electric / General Electric

Comics remain a relevant medium. They are being used in Afghanistan to communicate facts about basic hygiene and women’s rights to a largely illiterate population. In the case of GE, it was to reach a younger audience, making otherwise dry subject matter more palatable.

General Electric

Some of the comics provided detailed illustrations showing how popular GE innovations worked. A GE comic illustrates how a jet engine works.

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The comics, while entirely advertising for General Electric, served to pique children’s interest in subject matter that could be applied outside of GE.

General Electric

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