This story, much like the one by the wasp reviewed yesterday is framing a tale around the words of the Watcher.  This tale, the tale of the Sneepers, Earths greatest and unmet rivals from afar, is a great one to start these tales with.

to summarize the story, the Sneepers are an advanced race of conquers and slavers, whom have a strong empire in the galaxy.  When they first spot earth from afar they see a primitive civilization not worth their time.  But with the passage of years man advances, more and more so until the sneepers fear if left unchecked man will become a threat to their empire.   Having no ships that can reach earth though they begin trying to develop a weapon that can deal with human kind from afar. Only to stop their efforts when Man develops atomic power and seems to use it as weapons threatening each other.

Story – and meaning

I wish I could say, now almost 50 years after this story was published that we headed the warnings of the watcher, or at least learned for ourselves the dangers of our weapon’s,  But I do believe we have come quite a ways from the 1960’s and the Cuban missile crisis.

But this story is clearly written as a warning, a voice of concern, and even fear by the authors about the future of man kind.  Using the watcher as a source of warning.   As a story that is aimed to make a point, it is quite well written. Making the humans at no time the primary character’s; and letting us get a view of ourselves throughout the years by an alien race.

Artwork

The artwork is simple but effective in this story.  and the Sneepers are given a simple but uniform look, while giving their world an alien appearance.  Take a look at the panel i picked to included above, showing off what I would guess to be a sneeper street or city square of some type. I feel it offers a good view of the overall quality of the artwork in the story.