Steven M. Johnson

Author Steven M. Johnson has been described as a cartoonist who successfully predicted many future products. This book contains more than 1,500 concept drawings, mostly unpublished, on the subject of vehicles. These were drawn over a 45-year period, when he maintained a sideline business as an inventor-cartoonist. His ideas are said to be brilliant, prescient, amusing, or simply ludicrous. He has always had a fondness for automobiles. As a senior in high school in dry, sunny California, he had at one time a collection of five rust-free autos, and often drove his 1929 Model A Ford Roadster to school. In the mid-a1950s a used car in running condition cost no more than $150. The book shows napkin scribbles, index card notes, and carefully illustrated concept drawings of vehicles that he has imagined. Not trained as an industrial designer, he considers himself a wannabe inventor. Here, he shares an enthusiasm for vehicles in a book that will be appreciated by those who like odd, quirky humor as well as by nostalgic dads, young mechanics, and hot rod and classic car collectors.

In December 2017, Steven M. Johnson saw he was getting upset by the daily antics of the U.S. President. He announced a "creativity counterattack" on Facebook. Having a reputation as an inventor-cartoonist, he decided to use the opportunity to experiment with new types of artwork and try out unique comics characters. Small line drawings were created, scanned and colored in Adobe Photoshop within 15 minutes, and shared online. Intentionally, there was no planned content, theme, or pre-sketching involved in the creation of these panels. Examples of the same drawing done with different color combinations were shown. The comics characters emerged and evolved in a similar unplanned fashion. This book shares the surprising results of the first 100 days of this effort. For the book, selected panels are enlarged as full pages in black and white for coloring.

This collection represents Steven M. Johnson's 7th book; some of his books have gone to several editions. With the exception of a drawing done in 1962, most of the work included in this book was published in 1984 and 1991, though many drawings were created in intervening years up to and including 2017. Johnson began to focus on a specialty around 1974 while working as a magazine cartoonist. The specialty was whimsical variations and humorous alternative versions of existing products. Most of the drawings in this large collection of nearly 400 panels were published first in black-and-white. Select drawings have been converted to color for this volume. The style of presentation emulates the appearance of book of comics, yet the drawings are not comics, having no narrative, plot development or recognizable characters. Each panel is a separate invention or product idea with many drawings. The panels have been arranged by theme. Johnson developed a habit of thinking up product ideas while still half asleep in the morning. Notes were made before the ideas vanished from his mind. Thinking of variations intrigues him especially: An example is the fifty-six shirt and tie combinations included in this book. Some readers are sure to think that the inventions have, as an online critic noted, "already been invented." This is because in many cases, his concepts foretold future, actual products. The glasses with video or computer-generated images projected onto the inside glass surface were drawn in 1992, long before Google Glass was a product. A vacuum cleaner that is small enough to fit underneath furniture and that runs around on its own was drawn and published in 1991, long before the Roomba He has been told that he "stole" the automobile periscope from Larry David, who used the concept in his "Curb Your Enthusiasm" series, yet the drawing was first published in the mid-1980s. A reader will discover that the tone of the book varies from silly to serious. The author is comfortable thinking in either mode, and the method he employs for coming up with silly concepts is the same thaty he uses for his pessimistic images.

The stories of the "Unknown Wars of Asia, Africa and The Americas" were cataclysmic and bloody events that took the lives of millions and impact our world to this day. Yet, most of these wars are hardly mentioned in articles or even textbooks. Among some of the wars covered are: - The wars that involved the Great Wall of China over its' 1,865 year history as a defensive barrier. - The longest war in history which was the 1,049 year long Vietnamese War of Independence from China and the lessons that should have kept France and the US out of Indo-China. - The wars of the Khmer Empire (802 - 1431) and Jayavarman VII who emerged as an unlikely hero in a time of crises in 1177 to become the greatest king of the Angkor era. - The Jewish Bar Kokhba Revolt (132 - 136) that caused the Emperor Hadrian to cover up the massacre of two veteran Roman Legions and the truth about how close the revolt came to succeeding. The Jewish War from 66 - 73 AD is also covered in a preceding chapter. - The wars of the Spanish Conquistadors to conquer the American Southeast and Southwest in the sixteenth century and the Native American apocalypse in North America that followed. - The Cherokee Wars that came very close to wiping out the colony of South Carolina. - The wars of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade that took the lives of more than 12 million Africans and the slave revolts of the Caribbean and South America. - The Taiping Rebellion (1851 - 1871) that was caused by a Confucian scholar who misunderstood a poorly translated gospel tract and started a rebellion that led to over 30 million deaths. - The 74 year Mongol conquest of China and disasters in Syria, Japan, Vietnam, and Java that led to the breakup of the Mongol Empire. - Before the Holocaust of World War II, there was a Christian holocaust in Germany and Bohemia during the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) that caused more than 8 million deaths mostly from genocide being committed by both Catholics and Protestants. - England's Pirate Wars - The French Conquest of Indo-China 1857 - 1884 - The future wars that half of the world's population of Jews, Christians, and Muslims are expecting in the near future. About the author: Steven Johnson has been a regular contributing author to Military Heritage and Strategy & Tactics Magazines and has taught History at Limestone College and Riverside High School in South Carolina for more than 20 years. Steven Johnson's style of narrative writing and teaching of History is as a master storyteller of true events that are stranger than fiction. The author's style of writing has been compared to that of the late author Shelby Foote's Civil War writing.

Ever wanted a chair that converts into a rowing machine? Sunglasses that serve as a wallet? A car with a sundeck so you can work on your tan on those long road trips? Well, inventor and illustrator Steven Johnson has designed these marvels and many, many more, spurred on by a truly insatiable imagination. His wacky, wonderful concepts could very well change the world-that is, if someone was ever bold enough to build them. From clothing to dining technology, home furnishings to appliances, and gardening gadgets to survival gear, WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW is a sourcebook of revolutionary designs that prove how far our techno-culture has yet to go. ‚A Includes a three-step plan for inventing useful and useless things.